Wallpapering Preparation: The necessary preparation for wallpapering depends on the substrate. If you have a porous plywood, (like luan - Greenleaf, Real Good Toys, Walmer, etc) you should seal the wall in some way before wallpapering. I find that shellac diluted 5 to 1 with alcohol does a great job of sealing, and dries very fast (5 minutes or so). For wallpaper paste, do not use anything containing a fungicide (mildewcide). Some of these will react with the copper in the wiring and create cupric oxide (a black corrosion) which doesn't have any great effect on the wire, but the black will show through many papers. Life is also easier, if you use a paste that will NOT cause the paper to stretch (cause then it shrinks when it dries). For these reasons, we use YES paste. Some people advise mixing water with the YES paste so it spreads more easily. DON'T DO IT. You have just defeated the nonstretch of the paste. The paste can be very easily and evenly spread using an old credit card. You want only enough paste left on the paper to make it look shiny.

If your house is built of a fine grained, reasonably dense plywood (such as birch), I have found no necessity of sealing the walls before papering (this is 25 years of experience).

I have never papered over MDF, but I expect it would be good to seal it first.

Some more tips? Assemble the house and then paper. Paper before you install, windows, door, baseboard, etc. Paper the ceilings first. If you aren't going to install crown moulding, paint the top of the walls and the edge of the ceiling the same color as the ceiling paper. Cut the paper to 1/8" shorter than the height of the wall. Always cut the bottom edge of the paper, because any unevenness will be hidden by the baseboard. Paper the front wall of the room first, bring the wallpaper around the corners onto both side walls. Then paper the side walls. This way, any shadow line from the overlap is not visible from the back. Butt the factory cut edge of the paper against the ceiling. A credit card (or one of those thingies - tech term - from the auto parts store that is used to spread body putty) works well to smooth the paper on the wall. After glue has dried, cut out window and door holes using craft knife - be careful to NOT cut any wiring.

Tom Berkner

Pre-pasted Wallpaper works GREAT! Better than the real stuff. It's easier to fit too and slides better. I think gluing pre-pasted is a wasted step. I have used it in several rooms on pre-painted walls, and had no problem with it.

SA Burr

I am building a Colonial Williamsburg (VA) type house. I used the wood punched out from the windows to make raised panels on the lower part of the dining room walls. I tapered the edges with a Dremel using the sanding bands, then glued them to the wall evenly spaced. Painted it all the same color, along with a chair rail. Then I put a scenic wallpaper above the chair rail.

For the floors, I scored the floors in the kit and used a small awl to create nail holes in the end of the planks. Went over the floor with several coats of paste shoe polish, which I buffed slightly. Floors should not be shiny!

Martha Simpson Nock

Wallpapering: To prepare wood for wallpapering - you have two choices I know of. You can use regular sizing like you would in your "real" house - and that is the cheapest way - you mix what you need and can save any leftovers in the refrigerator for quite a while. The other choice is to paint the wall with household latex paint. Both will act as a sealer which is what is needed.

Jeanette

Do all your painting (ceilings, outside, etc.) before you wallpaper.

Jonesy

Painting Clapboards: I painted the siding before putting it on the house, using a latex spray paint from the hardware store. Sprayed about 4-5 thin layers, sanding in between each layer until I had the desired coverage that I wanted... looked great when done. That was 3 years ago and it still looks great. Be sure not to overlap your spraying on each side or you'll have double coverage on each end and only half as much paint in the middle.

Sharron

Plaster Stones On House: You would be much happier using Paper Clay instead of plaster. It is MUCH lighter and you don't have to carve it. Just apply to surface (wood) after rolling it out with a wooden dowel or rolling pin. Put some white glue on the wood to be on the safe side, even though it says it will adhere.... Then you will have plenty of time to press the grout lines in with the end of a popsicle stick or some other such tool. When it air dries, it will look just like stone! Then paint. You will love it and it is so lightweight!

Kay Baughman

Wallpaper: I like to wet the walls slightly with a foam brush first. It allows the paper to be positioned and moved and allows better adhesion. Also, should you have a problem, I use wallpaper premixed SEAM ADHESIVE instead of wallpaper glue and reinforce seams of prepasted wallpaper.

Sue Thwaite

Sealing: I plastered right on to the bare wood doors of my front-opening dollhouse and then carved the plaster to resemble bricks. This was over five years ago and it's still just fine, even with the constant opening and shutting of the doors (not always gently).

Linda Roebke

Sealing: A question was raised re: the sealing of a dollhouse prior to putting on the cement/spackling/mortar etc. to press stones into. Gotta seal it. If you don't, the water from the compound you're using will warp the wood and I think you'd end up having a mess. If you do one side at a time..... or a portion at a time and let it dry between putting other areas on...... you shouldn't have any problems using a sealer. Even priming it with paint will help.

Connie

Plastering / Sealing: I seal the wood first with dilute pva glue, let it dry, then plaster on top.

Helen Cottrell

Floor Tiles:

ECI
26162 Powell Rd.
Brooksville, FL 34602
email: ryoung@ecimin.com

They are very easy to work with and come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors.

David

Plastering: I plastered my really cheap tab assembled dollhouse with real acrylic latex texture paint...you know like they use on your walls in the "big" house :0) It worked great, covered those unsightly tabs, AND gave the house more strength...with no primer preparation!! On the outside, it looks just like stucco!! 10 years later, no cracks. Unfortunately, I chose to paint it a pepto-bismol pink which needs to be redone now :0)

Nada

Spackle (plaster): When I use spackle I don't put anything on the wood first, it needs something to adhere to, for it to hold. Just think of how is it is used in "real life." Plasterers put it over blue board or dry wall, this has a paper covering and they don't put anything over it to seal it first, except what they call a thin coat - which is a thin coat of plaster.

I've been doing it this way for over twenty years and so far no one has complained. When I have used it with MDF board, which is shiny and has a finish, it sometimes will pop off, individual stones and then I just use white glue to put it back on with.

April Gill

Ceramic Tiles: Handley House handles those small tiles in many colors. Ask any mini store as they can get them for you.

Dottie

Log Cabin 'grout' (chinks) between logs: First, after all the 'logs' were installed and the glue was completely set, I stained them and let them dry completely.

I bought a small tub of spackling paste (drywall gook to fill in holes, etc). I thinned it with a little water so that it would flow thru the fine pointed tip of a plastic glue/fabric paint bottle. It needs to be thin enough to flow, but still 'goopy' enough to stay in place on the walls.

I took my bottle, and ran a bead of my 'chink' between each log, wiping the excess off with a soft, damp rag. After I was all done, I let it dry completely, went back and filled in any little air bubble holes that appeared, and let dry again. Then, I sealed the entire thing with Min-Wax brand, clear, satin finish varnish. I used Min-Wax stains on this entire house; different colors for logs, windows, door and shingles.

When you are ready to furnish your cabin, Lucy Iducovitch makes wonderful Hudson Bay blankets (4 pointers, no less!) - a must for a log cabin, I think!

Laura in OKC

Chinking Logs: To Chink the walls... this is the "mud" or what ever between the logs to keep out the cold.... I used the dry spackle added to paint and applied it with a glue syringe. Kind of a mess but it worked. Perhaps using the already prepared stuff and just applying it with a finger might be easier.

Dorothy

Chinking: I am working on the RGT Adirondack Log Cabin now. The outside is all finished. I stained all the logs before gluing to the shell and chinked them with caulk. I just filled a monoject with the caulk and it was very easy to fill in the little lines this way. It wasn't nearly as messy a job as I thought it would be. I think that using the monoject helped to keep the lines in scale. I also made a corner stone fireplace by building the fireplace with 1/4" wood, then gluing the rocks on and filling in the spaces with caulk. I put little stone shelves on it, too. I added a stone foundation to the Adirondack using this same method. I really like the way it turned out and have gotten many compliments on it. If you would like pictures or have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Carole Pierce

Formica Counter: For a Marble top for my Ice Cream parlor I used Foam Core. (You can use wood.) Painted it black using a cloth - just dabbing the paint on . Then I put Green where any white showed and then royal blue. Then I took a string and dragged it through Ivory paint for the veins. Very realistic after a good coat of gloss spray.

Gail Spector

Formica: For the "Formica" top on the bar, I found a wallpaper pattern on a web site and printed it off, sprayed it with a matte sealer, then just glued it to a thin piece of wood and put a couple of coats of satin varnish over it. It reminds me of a table top we used to have a long time ago. The Adirondack, "Hunter's Fishing Retreat" (named for my grandson) is an old cabin with most of the modern conveniences. LOL I tend to stick with modern, but still like the old time sinks and bathrooms at times. I think a mix of furnishings is fun.

Carole Pierce