The floor must be continuous at the bathroom door and the bathroom closet door. These two doors will be operable. You also need to leave a little leeway at the back of the bathroom closet so that the staircase back wall can be installed properly.
Make sure you match the floor planks from the bathroom side to the bathroom closet side. This gives the flooring more realism. The flooring hides any gaps underneath the second floor staircases' first step.
You will need a hand held mirror to install the baseboards in the bathroom closet.
Finishing The Second Floor Staircase Stairwell
Let's return to the troublesome second floor staircase. Now that the staircase has been installed into the dollhouse and the flooring is done, you have to install the back wall and the attic railing.
It is not an easy task to make this area look nice. There are a lot of nooks and crannies, gaps and misalignments. You have to work hard, add extra trim and use your imagination to make it look finished.
Second Floor Staircase Back Wall
First, the back staircase wall. This staircase looks terrible from the back and thankfully, because of that, it has a nice back wall to cover it. Because I am hinging the bathroom door and the bathroom closet door, there is a possibility that when the doors are open, you will be able to see a portion of this back wall through the front window so I have to wallpaper it.
It is best to think ahead and get this resolved now because after this back wall is installed, you will not be able to fix anything, as it will be totally inaccessible. So don't let details like this slip you by. It's best to be safe than sorry. You don't want to view raw wood from the front of the dollhouse. Admirers of your dollhouse, will be peeking through every window and at every angle.
I first primed the back wall and added the same pattern of wallpaper as I did for the bathroom. It does not have to reach the top. The only area that will be viewable is the bottom and middle.
Give your staircase, closet floor and wallpaper a second look to make sure it doesn't need extra touch ups. When everything is perfect, glue your back wall in place and clamp until dry.
Attic Railing
The attic should be finished in its entirety before the ceiling is installed. It will be make it much easier.
I primed the attics walls and flooring first. Then I finished and installed the railing.
All parts of this railing have to be finished before installation and the same is true for all of the parts of the second floor staircase upper section. You have to do a lot of touch ups with a fine tipped brush on these areas. A hand held mirror will help you see angles that can not be seen from the back or the top of the dollhouse.
I added wood caps to the corners of the hand rail.
I also had to add trim all along the inside of the railing, where the second floor ceiling meets the railing. This part is VERY important. You do not want to look down your staircase and see the top of your cut wallpaper, tabs and other very ugly areas along the walls of the stairwell. This tight area is difficult to make nice so trimming it is the correct way to finish it.
You will have to reach in through the front window, in order to touch up paint on the other side of this stairwell. Be very careful with the wallpapered walls.
Every time you have a stairwell where two different floors meet, like a first and second floor, you must apply trim to hide the seam caused by the wallpapers. I also had to do it for the first floor staircase stairwell. The trim had to be cut at an angle to fit on either side of the staircase window, since the window is sitting right at the joint where the two floors meet.
Now that this area is finished and covered, the staircase finally looks straight.
