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Paint before or after assembly????


ADBough

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I just got my first dollhouse, the Garfield! I know it's a lot for beginners but my daughter is not even a year old yet so I'm planning on taking my time (like, several years!)

I'm wondering should I paint the pieces before or after I glue? It seems like it will be really difficult to paint after, but I've also read that it might not fit together properly if I paint first (because the paint would build up)

Thanks!!!

And any other tips would be highly appreciated :)

I haven't actually gotten the house yet (it's in the mail) but I'll post pics of my progress once I start. So excited!!!

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Folks have lots of different ways to do it. Some is a personal decision and some is because of not being able to reach areas after assembly. I have a Garfield and I did all my priming first. I will do any wallpaper as well. Exterior finish painting I plan to do afterwards when I decide on my siding issues.

As to not fitting, just take care not to get it on the tabs and in the slots. That's the big problem area. But if you do, you can always use a nail file to sand it back out again and your fine.

Good luck and welcome to the family. You'll love it here.

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Ashley, whether to paint before or after assembly is a matter of personal preference, yes; but painted surfaces don't adhere all that well, and wood to paint isn't much better. It's tedious, but mini of us heartiily recommend investing in masking tape (or painter's tape) and doing a dry fit first (where you assemble the shell of the house without glue and tape it together, instead). Especially with larger houses I think you will appreciate the extra steps involved (and yes, it adds time to your build), as dry fitting not only gives you the opportunity to fine-tune the fits of your tabs & slots by shaving or sanding them to fit more precisely, but also to see what it looks like coming together (intimidating) and which areas will have to get decorated before gluing (like stairwells). I also find that this is the point that the house will really begin to tell me what it wants, if it hasn't already done so (don't worry, you aren't going crazy; it's part of the building process for some of us). When I do the dry fit it's with a SHARPENED #2 pencil, because I trace along the inside corners of the walls and everywhere else wood will be glued to wood; either in dry fit or after I disassemble it for building I also lay all the door and window trims over their respective openings and trace around them.

When I'm ready to prime I split lengths of painter's (or masking) tape into 1/4" widths and mask off all those traced places and pull them off when the primer is dry (unless I'm going to paint over the primer). I use paper and tape to mask off larger areas, like the floors I'm going to scribe "boards" onto and then stain.

In case your instructions tell you to assemble using hot glue, PLEASE don't do this! Please use a good carpenter's wood glue or tacky glue, instead. The glue sticks most commonly available melt at much lower temps than when the instructions were first written and even so, I watched a large Greenleaf dollhouse slowly fall apart in a S GA store window because it had been built with hot glue. I also reinforce joins with heavy-duty steel staples, since I tend to manipulate the shell a lot during both the build and decorating processes.

Finally, take your time and enjoy the ride, and ask all the questions you want to.

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I have done it both ways depending on the house. I agree with Holly on "dry fitting" before you glue!!! I often paint and wallpaper before I assemble. I try to avoid the tabs that you insert to hold the pieces together with but if I make a mistake and have to glue a painted surface I just take a piece of sand paper and rough up the surface a bit before gluing. I haven't had any problems with glue holding either way. I use Tacky glue for most everything and lots of blue painters tape to hold everything tightly. Have fun!

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My Garfield is my 1st dollhouse too and I am not only doing a dry fit as the experienced builders recommend but I am also painting and will do wallpaper as I go along before I glue it all back together. It takes a lot of planning but in the end will make things much easier although the Garfield can be rather daunting. Have fun with this and as others have said, the dollhouse will begin talking to you about what it wants done! I didn't believe it at first but it's so true.

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Thanks for the help everyone!! I will definitely do the dry fitting and love the idea of penciling in the area for painting Holly, I will try that. I'm still waiting for it to arrive, but I got my wiring and one lamp today, so fun!

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  • 3 months later...

Ashley,

I too am putting together the Garfield. It is my second house and I am doing her with tape wiring. Since I'm in the primer stage of putting her together, I have already done the first 'dry run' to see how she will go together. I will do a second dry run to see where I need to 'rough up' as Holly pointed out, the places where I accidentally got primer on her walls/tabs/etc. I didn't think about masking off. I'm using hinged doors on my Garfield as she specifically requested hinged doors. This means I get the tedious task of gluing in all the little nails to hold the hinges in place. This should prove to be interesting. My dollhouse won't be played with by a child though. Mine will be strictly for my personal enjoyment. When I'm gone, it'll be handed down to one of my nieces, when they're older, and able to appreciate the idea of the dollhouse. I would like to warn you, the instructions that come with the Garfield are not really easy to follow, so please know you can come here and ask no matter how small or silly you think the question might be.. It might be one that one of us has asked too. Also, when she starts talking to you about what color schemes she wants, for her bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, living room, dining room, and other rooms, listen to her. She knows what she wants. Mine has driven me crazy. She's asking for things I never could have imagined. I've an upcoming business trip and will be gone for two weeks, and it will give me a chance to look for a specific item she has asked for, for her bathroom of all places. Ah well. :) I just hope I can find it. Anyway, I wish you much success with this journey and know that this group of people is a great group to come to if you need any help with putting her together!!!

~morningstar~

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  • 4 months later...

My Garfield is my 1st dollhouse too and I am not only doing a dry fit as the experienced builders recommend but I am also painting and will do wallpaper as I go along before I glue it all back together. It takes a lot of planning but in the end will make things much easier although the Garfield can be rather daunting. Have fun with this and as others have said, the dollhouse will begin talking to you about what it wants done! I didn't believe it at first but it's so true.

I haven't even been able to purchase my first house yet, but as to inanimate objects telling you what to do... my hubby doesn't get how a book can talk to you. (I'm a writer- don't get too excited, I've never been published; and yes, the characters actually will sit there and argue with you until you do it THEIR way! :p) Oh well. To each his own.

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Oh, yes ... houses can be incredibly demanding!

Bex, before you decide on a house, think about honing your skills on room boxes that can be made of anything handy. Foam core boards with long pins and glue to hold them together make nice little rooms on which to practice wallpapering (with paper printed by your own computer or scrapbook paper) and faux finishes, like textured plaster made from wallboard mud / joint compound or Spackle. Use them to hold the miniature furnishings you'll buy or make until the right house comes along.

This hobby can be quite expensive if everything is bought ready-made, but it can also be fairly inexpensive if you make the components. As you've found, there are lots of tutorials on line. And the challenge and eventual success of reproducing a real life item in mini is pretty invigorating. :D

As someone said in another post, feel free to ask questions. As someone else points out with some regularity, there are no dumb questions. Keep in mind that if something is challenging you, you're likely not alone, so others will benefit from the answers.

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Rebecca. I love Kathie's suggestion about the roombox, far preferable way to wet your mini feet, rather than building a small kit, to see how it goes, when it's one of the the big kits that keeps catching your eye and calling your name! And as someone who has come to make everything that goes into the houses, don't be afraid to make samples and you will learn not to fear mistakes.

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holly, how/when/where did you learn how to put your doll pieces together? was it just tutorials online, here and/or on youtube? I've been considering getting really serious about dolls. Although I've only ever built one, unfinished doll house with my belated grandpa, I've seen Christmas minis and drooled over minis for years. It just never dawned on me that that's where I could find my niche. I want to open an Etsy shop any way. How do I become a seller? Just with a little experience?

As to the doll house itself- I'm so blessed! I have a husband who's just about to open his own (private) carpentry shop. In the real world, he's in building construction, so working with him would be absolutely PERFECT. No high costs and he knows exactly what he's doing. Muahaha! I could, and probably will, also try my hand at Cardboard Haven. If I do selling for dolls, I'm thinking of selling to both groups of doll house lovers- little kids and big kids. I'll need a "house" for Barbie and Ken and American Girl too and probably couldn't afford to make a whole bunch of houses, at least not at first. The more I learn, the more excited I become! I hope I'm able to find my niche in the doll world and maybe even make a comfortable living (therefore only feeding the flames of my obsesspassion) out of it. :) Maybe I'll even be able to get hubby more tools, so I can do more too! LOL.

Sorry for thread stealing, ADB. It was honestly not my intent. I hope you're not kidding yourself, though. You know that doll house is for you and not just, maybe not even necessarily, your daughter, right? Just saying! Happy crafting.

*mumbles* As for me... I have to go house hunting. Why do I suddenly feel like I need a real estate agent?

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Bex, I've been bitten by the "go into business" bug, too. More than once. Here's what I've learned

  1. be sure you LIKE what you're doing. You haven't made any dolls yet, right?
  2. make several prototypes. No matter how skilled you are, the first ones are not going to be ready for prime time.
  3. don't ever sell (or give away) something that isn't the absolute best that it can be. One of my art professors warned us not to let the dogs get out into the world, 'cause they'll come back to bite you. Years later somebody will see that slightly off item that you gave to Aunt Bertha (because she'll be bragging on her dear talented niece) and figure that your work isn't up to professional standards. This advice has stood me in good stead for more than 50 years.

I don't mean to throw a wet blanket on your enthusiasm. That's what keeps inspiration growing. There's a lot of competition in the doll world. If you offer it for sale, your work will be compared to others who have been at this for years. Before you get all excited about researching how & where to sell, make sure that you have a world class product.

My suggestion is to make some dolls for your own houses. See where it goes from there. :)

There are some talented doll makers here who can offer brilliant advice.

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holly, how/when/where did you learn how to put your doll pieces together?....

Sue Heaser's book which is currently out of print. Jodi Creager is a member here and she has some video tutorials on sculpting dolls. Gina (Wolfie) makes lovely dolls, and so does Julie Campbell.

...My suggestion is to make some dolls for your own houses...

That's how I got started. I had requests to buy some of my little people, and even did a couple of commissions; but I never intended them to be commercial and the osteoarthritis in my hands makes it impractical now.

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  • 9 years later...

Got my first dollhouse kit from realgoodtoys.com

and not really sure what and where to start 

instructions say to paint first before assembling but couple questions before I start

how do I know what rooms I’m painting do I paint them all same color so it wouldn’t matter if kitchen living room bedroom etc ..

and planning on installing electric (read to use electric tape,  easiest) but tape would show and how do I know where I’d need electric as in lamps etc.. and do I have to wallpaper every room to cover electric tape? 
thank you for any advice and help Kim 

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Invest in blue painters' tape or beige masking tape and dry fit your house first, taping it together before you glue or nail anything, and spend time looking at it (and conversing with it, to find out what it wants to become).  I usually prime the parts I will want to paint or paper later and stain what I want to stain.  Since I tend to build from the ground up, I decorate the interior of the first floor before progressing to the second floor.  I don't electrify my houses, since I build them for myself to play with, but having the house in dry fit will h elp you decide h ow you'll want to run your wiring as you and the house decide how it wants to be lighted.

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