Dying painted surfaces: I have used the plastic textured ceiling panels that go over florescent light fixtures in ceiling panels. The ones that have a fine pointy texture. I have one large whole panel for working with a lot of pieces. I also have one small corner broken off or cut off with a scroll saw that I leave on the corner of my work table for a small quantity of pieces that I have painted or stained to dry. You put an item that has been stained, painted, glued, varnished or sprayed on both sides to dry. It does not seem to harm the finish underneath. (This doesn't work for teeny tiny pieces.)

Mary Ann F.

Edwardian: The Edwardian period runs from 1901 - 1910 and in both the US and the UK the style of the time was Art Nouveau which continued up to 1920.

I live in an Edwardian House in London. It was built in 1906 and has almost all of the original features. The ceilings and fireplaces are similar in style to the Victorian period with black marble and tiled surrounds although the one in our "back" room is very large and plain and made of Oak. There are smaller fireplaces in the bedrooms and in the master bedroom is an original Art Nouveau gas fire with the typical swirling floral design of the time. It also has a burner attached to divert the gas and boil a kettle on. Underneath the bedroom carpets is what we think is original linoleum floor covering in pale green (cracking up now at the edges). The rooms are very large and quite square with square windows, high ceilings with fancy plaster ceiling roses, coving and a picture rail but not a dado.

Karon

Free Flooring: The lumber yard gets some of their shipments in crates made with thin Luan ply. I was looking for something like that when my dog shredded a bathroom door, and the guys said they usually toss it and gave me a large, slightly damaged sheet. I was able to repair the door, and saved the shredded veneer. I cut strips on the band saw, staggered the planks, used wood filler with some lamp black in it, sanded it, and coated it with Minwax. It looks just like aged flooring and was not really too much work.

Jacqui Marlin

Lightweight Bricks: I think I read the part about using balsa wood for bricks and stone in the tips section of NN or might have been in one of my books. The person used balsa wood (very light) and cut out the shapes, then glued them on. If you base coat the area with a grout colour, that is one step taken care of. I used to think I couldn't do these paint effects either but this is what I would suggest. Mix acrylic paint in several related stone colours. Take a small piece of sponge, maybe a quarter or less the size of the 'stones,' and give each stone one dab of colour, maybe two, depending on size. Then using the same sponge, do the same thing with all of your colours. I did this with cardboard to make 'stone' for the church in the Greenleaf village and it looked very good. If you go out and look at rock, you will see that what seems from a distance to be all one colour is, close up, many colours. If you're working with acrylic paint you know it dries pretty fast so you have to move quickly, no time to worry about mistakes or not getting it right. If you have some that you aren't satisfied with, just dab on some more paint. Using a light hand with a very tiny bit of black or white metallic gives that mica or quartz look. You can also dent the balsa to gave more of a stone texture, especially the sides so that they won't look as if they were cut out of balsa.

Lightweight Bricks: several years ago at a class a person used bass wood cut into brick sizes and then stuck them to masking tape and hung the strips from a hanger, sprayed with paint (could use several colours I guess). When they dried they were removed and glued to a base painted a suitable grout colour and they were very impressive.

June Simpson

Lightweight Bricks: I've often looked at thin sheets of Styrofoam (they often come as part of packaging) and thought that texture looked very much like bricks. I'm not sure how to make it work: Possibly cut out little rectangles, paint each one, and "lay" them as one would lay bricks. Or.... Score a whole sheet of Styrofoam straight across the sheet... then vertically stagger your score lines to represent bricks. Now paint each one, leaving the scored section white to represent mortar.

By the way, I've found that "cutting" Styrofoam with a piece of thread seems to work much better than using a knife. Just hold the thread (one end in each hand) and stretch it across the area to be cut. Then "saw" through the Styrofoam with the thread.

Viola

Warped roof: I have done some restoration work in the past, this method worked for me. Provided the warp isn't to extreme. Try nailing the roof down to a truly flat surface, so that it is once again "square". If you have a steam iron with a heavy steam output you can apply the steam to the roof. You will want to make sure you really saturate the wood of the roof (you will have to remove any paint or shingles first) with the steam. Leave it nailed down for at least a week or more. You could reapply the steam during that time to help reshape the roof. If you don't have an iron with a good output you could try renting a wallpaper steamer. I had good results using one.

Lloyd Cooper

Exquisite hats, Parasols, Gloves, Shoes, etc. from Margaret Pitts:

http://www.cpitts.legend.yorks.com.

AnaMae

Ghostly Girl: Just a quick note about the ghostly girl. Idea: Put her in a very dark corner. Take a slide transparency of an appropriate little girl. These can be done at a photo shop, or made at a copy shop with a color copier, although the color on these wouldn't be as dark or rich. (Maybe that would be a plus?) Blacken the entire area around the girl with India ink and brush, or black paint. Now you've got a picture that light will go through, and there's nothing but black around her. Put her in a dark corner with a dim light behind her...not just the bare bulb, but with a bit of tape, paper, or something else to diffuse the light a bit. You can add a little curl to the picture, (vertically, not horizontally) by either making a bent "frame" out of black cardboard, or by simply putting clear tape on top and bottom, from one side to the other, but only holding at the end. (Imagine the tape is a bow string, and the slide is the bow...) That would give it a little more roundness to the viewer.

Dave Pierce

Wiring: I use the tape throughout the whole box and I use the punch that they sell at Earth & Tree to join the connections. It is a machinist self-starting punch with two special tips and springs. You place the copper rivet on the tip and simply press it into place. The spring action drives the rivet home. If you use foam core etc. it may not function as well.

When I connect wires to the tape, I wrap them around a rivet and drive it home or use a brass nail. I generally try to make this connection behind a hearth, bookshelf or other structure so I can access it if I ever need to do a repair. On the dollhouse that hangs on the wall, I made most of my connections on the outside back wall. I have plenty of room and access and it is never seen when the house is hanging on the wall.

To hang a sconce in a hallway I will paper the hallway, drill my hole, run the wires through the wall and attach them to the tape on the other side -- then paper that wall. Of course if you want a sconce on each side of the wall it is not so easy ;-)

Wiring a home already built is like a major remodel. I tend to go with freestanding lamps etc. then. It may mean removing molding to hide the wire runs. For connection I make a slot through the house where I think the best entry point is. I try to make this in a place where the main feed (tape) can be hidden. This could be in a trunk or under a bed for instance.

Bill

Overstuffed Furniture: The Small Scale Cabinetmaker series has a booklet on overstuffed furniture. It is absolutely awesome. There were several references to this series a while back for a person looking for cabinet patterns. I don't have the link right offhand, but I am sure that someone will provide the web address for you. Helen Ruthberg has several books that also have patterns in them for upholstered furniture.

Debby

Arched Doorways: I purchased an Art Ply house once and all the doors were arched. I left the arches from the center hallway into the living room and dining room, but cut all the others to accept Housework's doors. Even had the foresight to do it before I put the house together! The kit did not include frames for any of these doors, so I had to make my own. I traced the top of punched out bit onto a sheet of balsa wood, and used flat strips for the sides; I made the balsa arch the same width as the strips, obviously. I used balsa because I could cut it with a scalpel; I don't have very much luck using a power saw for that sort of thing. I painted all the pieces before I glued them in place. After the glue was dry, I measured the depth of frames and wall, and cut a long strip of white poster board to glue inside the arch to finish it up neatly.Some folks call it tag board, but it's heavier than paper, but lighter than cardboard. A quick touch up with paint to clean up any smudges and fingerprints, and it looks fairly respectable. If you want 'carving' you could glue crochet-type lace or even paper doily bits around the frame; it would help to hide the seam where the arched piece and the strips join.

Dani

Staircases: As for the stairs, my dollhouse is an old one which is really just a series of wooden boxes with dividers in them, stacked one on top of the other. It does not have stairs, which always bothered me as a kid. Recently I built a false wall at the back of each room, with a door cut out so that it looks like it leads into a hallway, and I pretend there is a staircase back there.

Celeste

Greenhouse Structures: I just wanted to share an idea that I'm planning on doing someday with the Vertical IKEA Greenhouse. Actually, it requires buying another one. The greenhouse has a front-opening door, and I'm planning to get another one, reverse the hinges on that one, then attach the two greenhouses together in the middle. That would give me a front-opening house. The only problem is, unless I want the house to be completely "see-through", I'll need to cover the outside with brick sheets of something. Once again, no problem! But I'm thinking for the price it's not a bad idea. Also, it's wall hanging, and closed in.

Cheryl

SW Corner Fireplace: A terrific corner fireplace for Southwestern can be made using a plastic funnel and a tube from paper towels, gift wrap or a mailing tube! Just cut them appropriately, and use Celluclay (a commercial form of paper mache found in craft stores) to fill in the cracks and smooth out the shelves!

Alice Zinn , Pt. St. Lucie, FL

Heat Gun: I use mine to dry paint (low setting and careful) and to remove old paint (dries it and loosens it from the wood - again, very careful!).  I can't really visualize it for bending Plexiglas - a better way is to make a hot wire on a board (protect the wood) with two thin pieces of wood on each side.  This gives you a straight line of heat and the plexi is heated and bent along this 'path'.

Jacqui in Hilo, HI

Gessoed Door: You may want to try a product called "Goof-Off" to loosen your door. You should be able to find it at hardware and home improvement stores. Just dribble some down behind the door where it is adhered and let it soak for a while. Then gently pry at it to see how loose it is. You may have to repeat the application until it comes loose. It shouldn't hurt your MDF; however it will remove paint, which is easier to repair than damaged siding.

Lloyd Cooper

Slanted wall revisited: Don't know why I never thought to share this "odd" solution to the slanted wall I used on the very first dollhouse I ever worked on. Hubby had built our daughter a double sided dollhouse with an attic when she was five. After she "fledged" off into the world, I decided to "gussie it up" a bit as a surprise. I had no idea that there was a miniature world out there to help me. The attic with its non-existent wall in had me stumped for a while... until I decided to build triangular boxes of heavy mat board that fit down under the eaves. The tall flat side makes a wall that I "papered" to become the back wall of the room. The box that slides under the eaves hold the flotsam and jetsam of "stuff" that will be used "someday". Those boxes solved two problems, storage and a wall.

Sammy (I'm a girl) Smith

Books: Here's a little tip for people who want to stock a library with current titles. I work in an elementary school library. The librarian gets at least a couple catalogs a day of books to order; when she is done with them, she gives them to me and I sort out which ones I might be able to use. What I look for are photo quality, size, paper type, etc. I am working on a four-room school (modern)and have stocked the library with over 100 books that are replicas of the books we have at school. I wrap plain white sticker paper around thin rectangles of wood, with a tiny bit sticking past the edges, then glue the cover of the book (catalog picture) to that. If you happen to have duplicate pictures of the same book, you can trim the title from the second one and glue it to the spine of the book so you can read it on the shelf. For books that I know are very thin, I skip the piece of wood and just fold the sticker paper together. I have books of many various sizes. You could also try using different colors of self-adhesive paper instead of the sticker paper. Check your childrens' school librarians, public libraries or book stores for these catalogs; the real trick is finding small enough pictures to stay in scale.

Chris