I’m going to glue the doorknobs on both of them while they’re still off of the dollhouse. Unless your using jewelry beads, you will most likely need to hammer your knobs into place. You won't be able to do that if the door is on the dollhouse so make sure you have your knobs in before inserting your door in place.
The best way to apply these types of knobs is to first mark where you want them to go on the door. Then open up a hole on that mark with a nail. This hole will make it easier for the knob to be tapped in place. You will need a hammer for this, a rubber mallet won't work. After you have the nail holes done on both sides, take a knob and position it on the hole and hammer it in using a rubber mallet or you can also put a piece of cardboard between your hammer and the knob so you don’t break the crystal or damage the knob.
After you have one side done your going to wonder how in the world you will be able to hammer another knob on the other side without breaking the first one. Well, just place your door on top of a masking tape roll. That way the first knob is not touching any surface while you work on the other side.
Keep in mind that you will have to slightly off set your second knob because the door is too thin to accommodate both knobs on the same spot, back to back. The best way to off set your knob is to the side of the other one, not to the bottom or top because then you will be able to see the off set when you look at the inserted door through the sides.
I went ahead and primed all the walls. It's easier to do if you turn your dollhouse on its side or upside down but be very careful if you do. You can easily confuse a floor for a ceiling and get paint where you don’t want it. Be careful as you prime. Remember you can use any light colored paint.
I then painted the ceilings and stained the floors.
After everything is dry, it's time to wallpaper. This dollhouse was easy to build but its very difficult to wallpaper. The rooms are not clearly defined and there’s a lot of twists and turns. The bays on any dollhouse will be the hardest to wallpaper.
I suggest you always use a heavily patterned print for difficult rooms. Stay away from solids, lines, murals or stripes. You want a pattern that’s scattered because you will need to match and patch with all these nooks and crannies. You will also have to turn wallpaper over edges.
It's also best to begin with the bay when wallpapering a room with a bay. Then you can work outwards from there towards the other walls. This is especially useful when you can not wallpaper the bay before assembly, as is true for this model dollhouse.
I used stripes in the hallway and in a way it would have been better if I hadn’t but it was the only pattern I had. Thankfully I patched it up where the door goes. There’s also going to be a staircase in the front and the break in the floors will help divert eyes from that area.
Take your time, use a good quality glue and plan it out carefully. Remember that there are two partition walls that haven’t been put in yet. This means that you will have to have extra wallpaper for them to match the rooms they fall on. Luckily these rooms are not large and one side of each room has half a wall instead of a full one. Three sheets of each pattern worked fine for me.
