I separated all of the parts for this dollhouse and prepared them by sanding and punching out the trim.
Since this dollhouse will be open backed, the back wall of the dollhouse is not needed, so I can discarded it. This means that some trim will not be needed either but I’m not going to discard it because they can be used for the interior of the dollhouse. Since this dollhouse will have an open back, it needs to be trimmed in the interior as well as the exterior.
Now I need a floor template because I plan on putting in a second floor on the dollhouse in order to recreate The Arthur Dollhouse floor plan. I used the existing floor as a guide to make the second one. You can use 1/8th" thick foam core to make your extra floor but I decided to use cardboard from the kit box itself. You can also use a piece of balsa wood, if you wish to stain the dollhouses original floors.
Now I’m going to put the dollhouse together. After it dried, I inserted the cardboard second floor. You have to make sure that it's even on all sides and level. Clamp it enough to just hold it together but don’t squeeze too tightly because keep in mind it's cardboard, not wood.
After the assembly was dry, I put in the first floor wall partition. The best way I found to measure it out was with a piece of paper. Once I had the paper in the right size by dry fitting it in place, I cut it out on cardboard and glued it to the area I wanted it in. You can do anything with your partition, including cutting out a door but I didn’t because I want a lot of usable space for the furniture that will go inside. I can't put in the second floor partition until I know how the roof will fit.
I’m not worried about the exposed back edges of the cardboard because I will trim them with skinny sticks at the end. You can also spackle them smooth. After it was dry, I primed all of the dollhouse interior.
