To conserve wallpaper, I do the bays first and then the rest of the walls. If your not careful and plan everything out, you can easily use up all three sheets of your wallpaper without completing the job. I special ordered this wallpaper, so the last thing I want to happen is to run out of it in the middle of the job. I wallpapered the bays and then I wallpapered the other walls, making sure I left a little on the sides to wrap around the bay corners or they won't look right. After that was done, I wallpapered the kitchen bay, using the same method. Cut all of your wallpaper sections first before you begin pasting it on the walls, so you can make sure you have enough.
While the wallpaper dried, I began punching out all of the pieces for the bay windows. I sanded them and began painting them, on all sides. I painted the sills first because that is what has to go up before anything else. These sills are difficult to install. It took such a long time to sand and paint everything that by the time I was done, the wallpaper was dry.
I began putting in the bottom sills. Start with the inside ones first because it seems to be easier that way. You might have to trim them a little to make them fit inside of the bays, flush to the walls. Once all the layers are put together, use clamps to push the interior and exterior sills together. Use binder clips to press the sill layers together at the same time. I did the bottom portion of both bays first.
While the bottom sills were drying, I began building the casings for the windows and painting the exterior trims. While those painted pieces dried, I began assembling the top sills in the same way I did the bottoms. I used the same clamping methods. As those dried, I began staining the interior trims. This time I will be using the bottom sill trim on the interior of the dollhouse. There is no place to put it on the exterior of the bay window and I will be needing to trim out under these sills on the inside.
Now it's time to begin installing casings into the window openings and it won't be easy. These casings do not fit as easily as the other windows did. This is why you will want your casings to be completely dry before you start installing them or they will peel apart with pressure. They are kind of tight and you might have to use the hammer to tap them in straight. Also sand them down some to aid in the installation. Don't tap them in too hard. If you become overzealous in your tapping, you might break the bay walls, which are kind of weak right now since there are no windows to hold them tightly. That’s why it's best for the sills to not be completely dry when you start installing casings because then you can move them slightly up or down to get a good fit on the casings.
Once the casings are in, put the exterior trims over it. Dry fit them before gluing because you never know if you have to trim one to make it fit. I only had to trim a little off the legs of the middle front window. All the others fit without a problem.
Now comes the spackling. You have to spackle underneath the sills and above them. You might have a problem doing the top because it’s a narrow space between the sills and the bay roof trim. Your finger might not fit in there completely. This is where I used the tip of a paint brush. Not the brush part, the other end. I dipped that in the spackle and spread it in that area, pushing the spackle into the gaps. Then I was able to smooth it out with my little finger and the help of the brush part of the brush.
After all of the spackling was done, I was ready to touch up paint. I used a very small brush to get in everywhere and touch up the spackled parts and make the lines more defined. I did one bay at a time so it didn’t seem to overwhelming.
While that dried, I installed the interior trims. Again I had to trim off the legs of the middle front bay. The others fit in fine. If you have a slightly damaged interior trim, put it on the left bay because it's less noticeable.
I added skewers to the gaps between the windows. I just like the color variation that they give. I decided to only put them between the windows and not anywhere else. I spackled the other gaps. I plan on spackling some more tomorrow, after it's dry, to make the other gaps smooth. I still have trim I have to add to the bottom of the bays. I added more vertical trim as well during this process.
