can't decide on interior wall colour

[Bluebird15]

So 2 of our daughters received The Willow dollhouse kit from Santa for Christmas. I'm having so much fun so far "building" it! No actual building yet. I've sanded and started priming. So I had a conversation today with DD3 (we're making her house first) about the finishes she wants inside. She doesn't want to do wallpaper. She just wants to paint the walls. But question is.... what colour to paint? I'm wondering if I should just paint all the interior walls the same colour, something neutral, like a pale yellow or grey, or something I don't know.... Or white? I've been looking around, but everyone seems to paper! Any suggestions?

[Guest]

I was intending to paint the walls in my dollhouse white, but I read somewhere on here that sometimes the finish doesn't look that good and you want to avoid brush strokes because they are out of scale and ruin the look. I think it was myAngela that said she prefers to use plain coloured paper as  substitute for paint as the finish is more professional looking. This makes sense If you are going to do lighting too as you will be able to hide the wiring/tape behind it. I'm pretty sure you will need to seal it though for cleaning purposes. If you do go with paint (as I may still do) I would suggest a satin/semi gloss finish for the same reason.

Another thing to consider if painting only... how will you cover gaps in the joins? Spackle is the obvious choice but it's more messy work to do... lol

[stickyfingers]

I struggle with wall color, in real life, as well as mini life- paralyzed by all of the choices and consequences. 

How old is your daughter? Does she have a favorite color? I would say that yellow is difficult to pair with a lot of things, and gray might be too sophisticated for a kid. Or not. Maybe a warm greige? I wouldn't do a bright, stark white, as I think it looks kind of harsh in mini scale, but there are lots of shades of white with a bit of undertone. What are you doing for the floors?  

[Sable]

I always say, paint to match the decor of the room it will be featured in.  Someone just finished a house with the back walls papered and the side walls painted. I thought that was very appropriate for a child's house.

[KathieB]

Stop by the paint section at any big box DIY store and pick up some of the sample booklets that show coordinating colors. Let your daughter choose the palette she likes best, and then go from there. 

Don't be put off by the possible messiness of Spackle; using it to smooth the roughness of the wood (even with sanding) makes all the difference for painted walls.

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, KathieB said:

Stop by the paint section at any big box DIY store and pick up some of the sample booklets that show coordinating colors. Let your daughter choose the palette she likes best, and then go from there. 

Don't be put off by the possible messiness of Spackle; using it to smooth the roughness of the wood (even with sanding) makes all the difference for painted walls.

Good tip Kathie... I'm going to try this too.. I really do still want painted walls in some rooms..  

Edited January 2, 2017 by Samusa

[Bluebird15]

Wow, thank you for all the replies! I'll try to answer all your questions here...

1. For the gaps in the joints, I think the instructions say to use wood filler? So that's what I was planning on using. I've never done anything like this before, so I was just planning on going to Home Depot and saying, I need wood filler please! LOL

2. My daughter is 11 years old. The house will be furnished with Playmobil actually. Not your typical miniature dollhouse furniture. :-) But she already has all the furniture, just not a big enough house to put it in. :-) Hopefully no one here finds that offensive! LOL

3.  For the floors, we were going to use peel and stick tile which we have extra of already from real house renos, cut to size for the kitchen and bathroom. It's plain whitish/greyish, no big pattern or anything that will look weird. I think it'll be ok. She wants carpet in the bedrooms so we were going to see if we could find something like a remnant with a very short nap to do the trick. And for the living room, we were thinking of trying to make a "hardwood" floor with popsicle sticks, stained. We are trying to do this so it's beautiful looking, but without spending a small fortune. :-)

[L Swearengin]

I have used something called shaggy chic from hobby lobby.  It's used for making stuffed animals ..I use it for carpet and rugs.  Also the thin craft foam sheets work for floors..  I paint the walls on a lot of my houses.  Some are half paint and paper depending on my mood.  

[KathieB]

13 minutes ago, Bluebird15 said:

Wow, thank you for all the replies! I'll try to answer all your questions here...

1. For the gaps in the joints, I think the instructions say to use wood filler? So that's what I was planning on using. I've never done anything like this before, so I was just planning on going to Home Depot and saying, I need wood filler please! LOL

Personally, I have a hard time with wood filler. It tends to be thick and crumbles. I like Spackle or wallboard mud/joint compound. It is more forgiving and can be lightly sanded when dry for a nice, silky finish. Ask for the pink kind that turns white when it dries. Easy peasy.

2. My daughter is 11 years old. The house will be furnished with Playmobil actually. Not your typical miniature dollhouse furniture. :-) But she already has all the furniture, just not a big enough house to put it in. :-) Hopefully no one here finds that offensive! LOL

No offense taken! What a great way to use the furniture on hand. And, like a real house, furniture can be replaced/upgraded over time.

3.  For the floors, we were going to use peel and stick tile which we have extra of already from real house renos, cut to size for the kitchen and bathroom. It's plain whitish/greyish, no big pattern or anything that will look weird. I think it'll be ok.

It will be fine. I've used leftover linoleum from my real kitchen in a quilt shop and others here have also used real life tile in various ways. See it here.

She wants carpet in the bedrooms so we were going to see if we could find something like a remnant with a very short nap to do the trick.

Check out the craft felt that comes in sheets. For a shag carpet look, try a baby's terrycloth washcloth. 

And for the living room, we were thinking of trying to make a "hardwood" floor with popsicle sticks, stained. We are trying to do this so it's beautiful looking, but without spending a small fortune. :-)

Many of us scribe planks into the wooden floor of the kit, then stain, sand and seal. Draw the lines with pencil, then use the back edge of a utility knife blade to score the lines for some depth. Depending on the look, you might use a micro tip marking pen in black or dark brown to define the lines. You can see how it looks here. If you don't like the end result, you can always put a new floor over it.  

 

[Sable]

I dislike wood putty with a passion. It's just to fill small holes not entire walls or joints. Drywall compound is my choice for walls and joints.  Get a good Fine sanding sponge at HD. Spackle comes in two forms. The light fluffy stuff is like plastic and can be hard to sand.  The grey creamy spackle is just like drywall compound and easy to use with a medium spackle  blade.

[Guest]

56 minutes ago, Bluebird15 said:

3.  For the floors, we were going to use peel and stick tile which we have extra of already from real house renos, cut to size for the kitchen and bathroom. It's plain whitish/greyish, no big pattern or anything that will look weird. I think it'll be ok. She wants carpet in the bedrooms so we were going to see if we could find something like a remnant with a very short nap to do the trick. And for the living room, we were thinking of trying to make a "hardwood" floor with popsicle sticks, stained. We are trying to do this so it's beautiful looking, but without spending a small fortune. :-)

Velvet material might work for carpet too... go for remnants if there are any at your local fabric shop or try op shops for old velvet clothing that could be repurposed... oops sorry Australian specific store type... I cant remember what you call them in America... are they charity shops, goodwill, second hand stores..??

[KathieB]

6 hours ago, Samusa said:

Velvet material might work for carpet too... go for remnants if there are any at your local fabric shop or try op shops for old velvet clothing that could be repurposed... oops sorry Australian specific store type... I cant remember what you call them in America... are they charity shops, goodwill, second hand stores..??

All of the above, also resale shops  

[havanaholly]

8 hours ago, Bluebird15 said:

Wow, thank you for all the replies! I'll try to answer all your questions here...

1. For the gaps in the joints, I think the instructions say to use wood filler? So that's what I was planning on using. I've never done anything like this before, so I was just planning on going to Home Depot and saying, I need wood filler please! LOL

2. My daughter is 11 years old. The house will be furnished with Playmobil actually. Not your typical miniature dollhouse furniture. :-) But she already has all the furniture, just not a big enough house to put it in. :-) Hopefully no one here finds that offensive! LOL

3.  For the floors, we were going to use peel and stick tile which we have extra of already from real house renos, cut to size for the kitchen and bathroom. It's plain whitish/greyish, no big pattern or anything that will look weird. I think it'll be ok. She wants carpet in the bedrooms so we were going to see if we could find something like a remnant with a very short nap to do the trick. And for the living room, we were thinking of trying to make a "hardwood" floor with popsicle sticks, stained. We are trying to do this so it's beautiful looking, but without spending a small fortune. :-)

1.  I tried wood filler.  I make my own for mini furniture filler, because I can make it sandable; but for filling gaps and where I want to paint (not stain) spackle is my material of choice and no matter which kind I use it all sands lovely and smooth when dry.  Dry wall mud works jut as well.

2.  Why is this a problem?  I make most of the furniture, accessories and people I put into my houses.

3.  Greenleaf sells the peel & stick floor tiles:  http://shop.greenleafdollhouses.com/Miniature-Scale-Vinyl-Floor-Tiles-Gray.html, which I have used in several builds:

I have also used regular cheap vinyl tile and also paper (the "terra cotta" sample) for floor tiles.  I have scored the floors as Kathie suggests:

And I really like to use the iron-on wood veneer strips, which I split and cut into "boards" first:

I also paint floors to look like linoleum:

Once you have the house in dry fit, let it talk to you and your daughter.

[Bluebird15]

I really really love the idea of scoring the floor and then staining it to look like floor boards. If my other daughter is interested in that look, I think we'll try it for her house, which we're building after we're done the first one. But in the meantime, I already primed the first floor so it's too late this time. I think I'll try the popsicle stick idea for this time. :-)

My husband has been renovating our house for years now. We always have drywall compound on hand. :-) So that would be a handy choice for me! Are there advantages of using spackle over drywall compound? 

And I am in total awe of everyone's photos! You all do such beautiful work!!!!! :-)

[havanaholly]

2 hours ago, Bluebird15 said:

...Are there advantages of using spackle over drywall compound?...

Not that I can think of especially if drywall compound is what you have :D

[Elsbeth]

I'm a new convert to papering (solid colors included) because I finally discovered/used Yes paste and it was so easy and never a wrinkle!  Also, I always worry about warping if the walls need a lot of paint. But I am no expert. I definitely love papering - solid or prints. As a kid, I was given a dollhouse with neutral colors and I was always painting it or papering it - changing my mind often. It held up fine.

[havanaholly]

There at a lot of scrapbook papers out there with patterns & prints small enough to work for wallpaper.  I use regular premixed wallpaper paste from the hardware  store, it works fine.