I added the curtains around the dollhouse. I found some Victorian style buttons and used them to accent the curtains. The curtains are simply lace trim. I bought a double layered lace this time. I put them under the silk screening so it can still be visible and not hidden by the curtains. I used a dot of hot glue to glue them on. Hot glue is good because when you use just a small dot, it peels right up and leaves no marks if you want to remove your curtains later on for remodeling. Glue the curtains to the wood trims, not the wallpaper.
The tower needed a lot of work because of the fact that I had left it lift off. The ability to lift it off, makes every gap and every little flaw visible. First, I trimmed out the window on the inside using sandpaper. I cut the sandpaper into the shape of the interior trim. One arch shape and one strip for the bottom trim. I took a template of the window by creasing regular printer paper over it so I can see the shape and then I cut around the crease. I dry fitted the printer paper template over the window several times and made adjustments as needed. When it was perfect, I cut out the template in sandpaper. Now at least when you look into the tower from the third floor of the dollhouse, it's nice and finished all around with no gaps.
From there I had to figure out the daunting task of trimming out the actual tower opening that’s on the dollhouse itself. This has to be trimmed because you can see the rough edges from the third floor when you sit the tower in its place and you can also see it from the actual top when the tower is lifted off.
I began trimming the inside of that hole, along the top of the “ceiling”, with popsicle sticks. After the popsicle stick trim was dry, I spackled the areas where they met to smooth it all out. But when I looked up from the third floor again, I wasn’t satisfied. They didn’t look as perfectly finished as I wanted them to and then there was the gap on the top edge of the tower opening where the popsicle sticks met the outside horizontal trim.
I got my hot glue gun and a roll of lace trim. I applied the lace trim all around the top of the tower hole. I kept it away from the outer edge and more towards the middle. I stretched out the lace so it laid flat. You don’t want your tower to sit on bumps and lumps. Remember this is mini scale. You're working with a margin of error set in millimeters, not inches. As I reached a corner, I cut off the lace and began the next side with a new lace piece. I didn’t try to bring the lace around without cutting it because it can cause a lump and the tower will be lifted on the corners. I didn’t overlap any part of the lace.
After it was done, I placed the tower on top and it finally looks perfect. I looked in from the third floor and it looks wonderful. The lace has hid all the gaps and it's caused a nice frilly surround under the tower that looks lovely. It also keeps the tower from making a sound when you place it back after removing it.
I applied the same lace around the popsicle sticks base and it hides everything as well there. You can see the lace gives everything a very showy and delicate look.
I glued the rest of the roof trim around the mansard roof of the dollhouse and tower top. I had extra roof trim left so I used it around the back of the dollhouse as well.
I decided to add more details to the dollhouse by adding more screen silk designs to the windows. It is very hard to see this with a photo because they are so tiny but basically I added little white flowers inside of the diamonds of each window pane. I achieved this by buying white transparent fingernail art stickers. These designs are applied to the tips of acrylic nails or your own nails. They are very small and have excellent adhesive. You can find them in the fingernail care section of any pharmacy. If you want more designs, you can go to a beauty supply store and they should have many designs to chose from.
When you are going to apply these very tiny designs, you have to use tweezers to gently lift the sticker and apply it to where you want it. Plan ahead first to make sure that you have enough stickers to get the effect you want. Count out how many you need to use for each particular window and do not begin applying them until you are sure you have for all of the windows and that the designs are consistent. The adhesive on these designs are very strong. You won't get a second chance to shift its position once it's on the window.
I printed out floor medallions for some of the floors of the dollhouse and used Mod Podge to apply them on the floors. Then I gloss varnished them and they truly look like wood inlays.
