My first project - house for my daughter

[welshgirl21]

I have been gifted this dollhouse and I plan to renovate it for my daughters 3rd birthday in December. It also comes with 2 bags of wooden furniture.

I'd love and appreciate any tips on painting it, whether to varnish or woodstain it after painting, what paint to use, whether to prime it etc.

Looking forward to seeing all your lovely photos and learning new things along the way.

Sarah x

[chapchap73]

What a great gift!

[welshgirl21]

I know. My mums friend had it for her grandchildren who no longer play with it so she said I could have it plus two bags of furniture for nothing. I feel very lucky.

[Anna]

That house has lovley potential for being very loved by your daughter.

i would start with a good scrub  down to get rid of some of that crayon (?) marks. Then depending on what you want to do, Pride the walls prior to wallpaper them. One can easily use scrapbooking paper for walls, ceiling and floors. If you want to you could make templates for the walls and wallpaper those and stick them to the walls with double sticking tape. Doing so makes it a bit easier in the future to er-do the walls as your daughter gross up a d perhaps change her favoriter colours etc. 

Priming and Paint  exterior? 

There are sites where you can print out brick patterns if you like that for an example. 

Have fun in the process and allow it to evolve as it goes.

good luck

[welshgirl21]

19 minutes ago, Anna said:

That house has lovley potential for being very loved by your daughter.

i would start with a good scrub  down to get rid of some of that crayon (?) marks. Then depending on what you want to do, Pride the walls prior to wallpaper them. One can easily use scrapbooking paper for walls, ceiling and floors. If you want to you could make templates for the walls and wallpaper those and stick them to the walls with double sticking tape. Doing so makes it a bit easier in the future to er-do the walls as your daughter gross up a d perhaps change her favoriter colours etc. 

Priming and Paint  exterior? 

There are sites where you can print out brick patterns if you like that for an example. 

Have fun in the process and allow it to evolve as it goes.

good luck

Thank you.

I like the idea of scrapbook paper, I've also found a site I can print dollhouse wallpaper from which I'll look at.

I'm thinking of doing the outside cream with pink features as in the window frames, sills and door surround then a darker pink for the door itself. The roof will also be the same dark pink as the door.

Gloss or satin paint better? Heard it's better than matt as can be wiped down.

[KathieB]

What a lovely gift! I agree with Anna, the scribbles need to go. If they're crayon, you'll need to remove the wax residue in order to paint. I'd sand the whole house to prepare for its facelift. Then put a few drops of mineral spirits (a little goes a long way) onto a clean soft cloth and gently rub over the residual crayon marks to remove them. After removing the crayon, go back over that area with another clean white cloth and buff the wood to remove any remaining mineral spirits, and you're done.

It appears that the house is already painted, which essentially makes it already primed. i'd use a satin finish house paint on it inside and out. Sample colors from Walmart or other paint stores are relatively inexpensive and will clean up fairly easily when your little artist adds her own decorative touches. I would not use wallpaper at this point, just paint. A 3-to-5-year-old won't care whether there are patterns on the walls. You can add wallpaper as she gets older. 

I don't think woodstain is an option at this point, since it must be applied to raw wood. 

[Sable]

A good cleaning with a Magic Eraser should work. I would still prime it and apply Satin paint. Maybe wallpaper just the rear facing inner wall of each room. I've seen that done for children's houses. It gives it some room definition. Just go with the scrapbook paper, they have great choices for children. My printer never gets the colors right and my ink is expensive. 

[havanaholly]

8 hours ago, welshgirl21 said:

I have been gifted this dollhouse and I plan to renovate it for my daughters 3rd birthday in December. It also comes with 2 bags of wooden furniture.

I'd love and appreciate any tips on painting it, whether to varnish or woodstain it after painting, what paint to use, whether to prime it etc.

Looking forward to seeing all your lovely photos and learning new things along the way.

Sarah x

Satin also cleans up; gloss shows all sorts of imperfections, besides being out of scale (although at 3 your daughter probably won't care).  Why would you put wood stain over paint?  It doesn't work; s Kathie mentioned, it has to o on raw wood to color it.

[welshgirl21]

On 3/29/2017, 8:52:25, havanaholly said:

Satin also cleans up; gloss shows all sorts of imperfections, besides being out of scale (although at 3 your daughter probably won't care).  Why would you put wood stain over paint?  It doesn't work; s Kathie mentioned, it has to o on raw wood to color it.

I asked a friend who restores furniture etc and she mentioned woodstain instead of varnish as varnish can chip but maybe she didn't realise I planned on painting the house.

[welshgirl21]

I'm definitely only going to paper the one wall in each room and will go and look for some scrapbook papers I think