Paint/Wallpaper/Carpet before of after shell?

[Ashlen]

Sorry If I'm clogging up the forum, but it seems like a lot of people say I should paint the house after I assemble it, but the instructions seem to say I should paint/ wallpaper/ carpet before I start building the shell. Which should I do paint then build or build then paint?

[rbytsdy]

Depends on the room. For the Lily, you should do wall, ceiling, and flooring treatment in the foyer before assembly because you won't be able to reach in there after the walls are assembled to the floor. In Deb's Lily that she put on the site blog (which I cannot seem to find right now), she wallpapered every wall before assembly; that's the tactic I took when building the Lily and many houses afterward-- the rest of the rooms besides the foyer could be wallpapered after assembly however. Try both and see what you like; templates are a great way to make sure you have a good fit before you cut into your wallpaper/ceiling/flooring.

These days, I prime my walls/ceilings/floors before assembly because I like to sand them down afterward for a smooth finish and sanding is alot easier before the structure is assembled. In my latest build (Tennyson), I wallpapered each wall before assembling the main structure http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/index.php?app=blog&module=display&section=blog&blogid=82&showentry=2485, but in the painted room, I waited until all the walls were assembled to the floor before I applied the final paint color to the whole room.

[havanaholly]

If you haven't already done so, do invest in a roll or two of masking tape or painter's tape and use that to assemble most of your shell. We call this the dry fit and it's a good way to see how the instructions work for you (or not) and where there will be problem areas to get to for decorating after the build. Stairwells and hallways are good examples. I also find that the kit will get really chatty during the dry fit, if not before, and tell me all about how it wants to look. You want to stain any areas and NOT paint them first; you can always prime and paint over stain if you change your mind. You also want to leave bare wood where you're going to glue other wood parts. Also, most kit instructions say to use hot glue for assembly. To see why NOT to do this go look at my "Laurel rehab" album's first two "before" pictures; hot glue isn't what it once may have been and if you do choose to build with hot glue I will gladly take the kit off your hands in a couple of years to rehab it.

Generally I dry fit, then stain floors and prime ceilings, then assemble the first floor and prime walls and begin decorating. I install windows and hang doors LAST, after decorating both inside and outside. I do a lot of tracing around trim and masking. I have a self-healing cutting mat and lots of lovely new sharp blades for my utility knife, and a cork-backed steel straight edge.

I also recommend doing practice pieces/ samples of a technique to see if it works for me or not, before I try it on the kit and ruin something. Of course, if I do ruin something, I bash the heck out of it so it still looks OK.

[Ashlen]

I guess what I really want to know is can I paint, etc. before I build it? I do better with flat surfaces.

[Dalesq]

Yes. Just be sure to mask off parts that will be glued. Paint and wallpaper add thickness, so you will want to be careful to avoid the 1/4 inch or so edge and/or tabs that gets glued to an adjacent piece. If you do get paint on an area that is to be glued you can always carefully scrape or sand it down to wood, but you will be much happier if you plan ahead and mask those areas first. Also be careful to avoid getting paint into tab slots.

Hope this helps.

[havanaholly]

Also you will want to allow some excess overlap of your paper in the corners (trust me, I've had some horrible corners until I figured that one out) and allow yourself enough paper to match patterns.

[DocGreen]

You can absolutely do it all before assembly. Do all of mine that way and can't imagine trying to do it afterward though a lot of people do. Big hands, small spaces!

[morgansmith]

Me too. Flat surfaces and everything possible before assembly. Then, when you finally get to assemble, you go from pieces everywhere to a fun structure in hours. Then, you start the trims and detail work.

[havanaholly]

I guess I really do it both ways, depending on what I can access.

[Chris P.]

Are you ready to assemble already? Ack! I'm so far behind. Still punching out and labeling pieces.

I paint/paper the interior of a house, and all of the exterior trim, doors, etc. before construction. I paint the exterior walls after construction. I plan to do that with my Lily when I get that far.

[havanaholly]

My Lily has already told me she wants to become a Tuscan villa with tiled roof and plaster crumbling off of brick and stone. We won't even go into the doors and windows she wants... I thought Mildred was a diva!

[More Minis Dollhouses]

Flooring and wallpaper should be done after the shell is assembled, unless impossible to do like with a hidden stairwell or a stairway wall. Applying finishes to the shell before assembly will most likely ruin them with all of the glue and forcing of the dollhouse into position. You can also alter the fit of the parts because of the extra thickness added by the finishes. Not to mention the possible covering of tabs and slots. Always follow the instructions but not in this case. Leave your fi wishes for after your dollhouse shell is done. Paint your dollhouse as you go because assembled dollhouse parts are very difficult to paint considering how small they are.