Keeping it together

Which glue should I use?

I have had a lot of people ask me about which glue to use for various aspects of your dollhouse renovation.

And the easy answer is that there is one glue which I use for everything!

I recently brought a hot glue gun thinking I should invest in a serious tool for the amount of crafting I do and I was extremely disappointed.  Its messy, and it does not hold very well at all.  So if you were thinking of spending money on a hot glue gun, forget it!

Head to your local hardware store (Bunnings) or craft shop (Spotlight or Lincraft).

The best glue to use is a premium craft glue.  These craft glues bond pretty much everything and anything, fabric, balsa wood, poster board, scrap pad paper....

Hanging Wallpaper

The best way to give your dollhouse some character is by hanging some wallpaper.  My best tips for wallpapering your dollhouse are to use scrapbooking paper, again you can buy a whole book of scrap paper from your local craft shop (Spotlight, Lincraft and even Big W and Kmart sell a great range as well).  If you are after a wall tile print don't forget to check out my etsy shop.  If you decide to use normal xerox paper for wall paper this is also fine as long as you don't try and use childrens paper glue.  If you try and use cheap paper glue it may make the toner ink run and it will not stay stuck for long!

You really only need to dap a few decent sized dots of glue in each corner and a few through the middle.  If you are using a good quality craft glue this will be more than enough to hold it on the walls and also will not cause too much damage if you change your mind and want to remove it.

My two favourite options:

450 quick dry glue (I have purchased from Spotlight)












Boyle Craft Glue from Bunnings.  Both retail under $10 and will be more than enough to get you through a basic dollhouse reno.

Malibu Beach Dollhouse Kit

After several attempts at trying to build my own modern dollhouse (and failing!), I decided to splurge on the Malibu Beach Dollhouse Kit from The Dollhouse Emporium in the UK.  The reason for choosing this house, pretty simple, it was on sale and they would actually ship it to Australia.  There are several other houses which I found and really loved the design of, but actually being able to buy one and have it delivered was another story.  My dream home would still be the Brinca Dada Emerson Dollhouse, but unfortunately I could not find one anywhere.

The Malibu arrived from the UK within one week of ordering it, which was super impressive given the size and weight of the box.  After opening it, I was a little overwhelmed, I'm not going to lie, there were many, many pieces and a 20 something page instruction manual!

Take note, when the manual tells you to do a dry run first, as excited as you might be to put together your dream home, do the dry run first!!

My top tips for constructing this house:

1.  MOST IMPORTANT do the dry run first, leave all the sliding windows pinned to the frames as they don't all match.  Mark which windows fit which frames use any method that makes sense to you, but this is important to achieve a good end result.

2.  When you have the house sitting together (not glued) decide on a colour scheme for the facade.  I would have like to have kept some more of my facade with the natural wood showing (i.e.; the window frames).

3.  Note pieces that do not need to be painted, i.e. top and bottom edges that meet the floor or ceiling this will cut down the 3 or more coats of paint you are going to need.  

4.  I would recommend not painting the sliding window tracks or the windows themselves first off.  Once my house had its 3 coats of paint the sliding panels where not so 'slidey'!!!!

Next step.... paint, and sand, and paint and sand.... and continue painting and sanding until you are happy the walls are well finished.  You will be able to touch the walls up once it is constructed, but the majority of it will be easier to do while is is still in pieces.

As for paint, I had a lengthy discussion with the sales person at the paint desk at the local hardware store.  I was advised to use a semi-gloss, however it still has that chalky feeling and I am considering doing a final coat in a gloss finish.  Obviously if you plan to wallpaper every room the paint job will not matter as much, but I am after the crisp white wall effect.

Partial dry run of the build, windows and frames left unpainted- be sure to mark which window fits to which frame!

Progress shot with part of the facade taken removed.

Picture of how the exterior of the house currently looks.  I am still undecided as to how to finish the outside.  In trying to achieve a modern look, I wanted to paint the very inside of the window frames black.  I will add more photos of the house as the renovations continue.