This dollhouse brings trim for all of the exterior corners but I made my own because I need to add special, additional trim in order to eventually use an acrylic back cover on the dollhouse.
I installed L shaped, strip wood to the back of the dollhouse in order to create channels for the acrylic to slide on.
Now this dollhouse is a little tricky because of the slanted attic roof. For this reason, the acrylic back cover has to be done in two separate segments. One for the main body of the dollhouse and another for the slanted attic roof. This means that I have to do two separate railing systems.
The first one is for the main body of the dollhouse. I added a rail on one side, the bottom and the top. The top is actually right under the attic floor. I circled this on the photo below.
This causes for the acrylic sheet to slide sideways for removal.
Now typically, you want to always have the bottom railing, resting on the base the dollhouse is sitting on, so that the dollhouse does not carry the added weight of an acrylic sheet. This is true for tab and slot dollhouses, which are made of 1/8" plywood and not meant to carry heavy weight. This dollhouse is a cabinet grade dollhouse and can certainly carry the weight of an acrylic sheet. So, I placed the bottom rail, right on the dollhouses foundation where the walls end.
To do this, you have to use a thick, square dowel piece. Make sure it is basswood and not balsa. Balsa wood is too soft for use in this railing system. The thick, square dowel is where the acrylic sheet will rest on. You can then add trim to the outside of it, in order to convert it to an L shape. This will hide the edge of the acrylic sheet and also not allow it to slip off of the dowel piece, creating a rail.
The top attic space is a little more complicated and you can do it one of two ways. You either have the acrylic sheet slide sideways, like the main sheet does or it can slide upwards, like how I'm going to do it.
I applied a side rail to each side of the attic side roof panels. I also added a bottom rail. The bottom rail can not be a full rail. It will only be on the bottoms of the side roofs. The bottom rail has to also be a thick, square dowel, just like the bottom rail of the main dollhouse body. Remember that the acrylic sheet is going to be resting on this bottom rail, so it has to be thick and sturdy. Strip wood alone will not be strong enough. I circled this railing system on the photo below.
If you plan on having this attic sheet slide sideways, you would have to do the bottom rail the same way but add only one side rail and a long top rail.
In order to have this railing system for an acrylic back cover, you will have to sacrifice shingling the back roofs. This railing system can not go over shingles. For me, the back cover is completely worth scrapping the shingles. I can no longer imagine having a dollhouse without a back cover. They are just worth all of the measuring and planning.
Because I decided to have my back attic cover slide upwards, instead of sideways, I had to sacrifice the top roof gingerbread as well. It would be in the way of the sheet if added. That's fine with me as well. The back cover is completely worth the modifications.
Staircase Railing And Handrail
The staircase riser was not tall enough to add a handrail to, like I thought I could.
I decided to spruce up my staircase by adding handrails to the landing pieces and to the wall instead. I did this with simple strip wood.
