Should I Disassemble?

[Brooke1021]

I was gifted an old and battered Arthur. It’s got some interesting choices of color and wallpaper lol. My question is, with it in this state, what are the best steps to refreshing those house? Especially with missing pieces of trim, porch fencing, repainting, and shingling the roof. Am I better off buying a new one for myself, or should I bring this one back to life?? Thank you in advance! (I’m new so sorry for my ignorance)

 

 

[Khadi]

Some thoughts- You could remove all of the old railing and replace it with different railing.  You can find railing in most online dollhouse stores.  You could remove the top trim altogether, or replace it with other purchased trim.  You could also post a specific request on the site for what you need.  There might be someone who did not use these parts and may have them available.  Many of us do not use all of our pieces, such as trim, but save them for possible future uses.  The trick to removing pieces is to use a hair dryer on the glue.  Most glue melts fairly easily when heated.  Others may be more particular, but for me I would pull off as much of the wallpaper as possible so that you have a smooth surface, and then wallpaper over them with another wallpaper.  You can attempt to heat the wallpaper to loosen the glue or wet the paper to attempt to get more off, but I find that just makes more of a mess than just leaving it on.  Once again, you can purchase a variety of wallpapers off of dollhouse sites.  Some people choose to print their own on cardstock from designs you can find online.  When I was a kid, we also used heavy duty wrapping paper.  As for the shingles, they can also be purchased in a variety of styles and materials.

[fov]

Sometimes rehabbing a house that's already put together can be more trouble than it's worth, but the Arthur is a pretty simple house and this one looks like it's in okay shape. Is the basic structure holding together okay? If yes, here's what I would do:

• Remove all the trim, railings, windows and window trim, and stairs
• Remove the wallpaper (as much as you can)
• Paint the exterior
• Paint the ceilings white. Painting the upstairs ceilings will be easier than wallpapering without a template, but wallpapering them is doable too!
• Stain/polyeurthane the floors - might not work if there's dried glue on them. Alternatively you can use flooring paper/carpet.
• Re-wallpaper. You can use heavy-ish scrapbook paper to cover up any unevenness from the wallpaper you removed. Use plain printer paper to make templates for the tricky shapes (hold the paper against the wall and crease it as needed to get the right shape) and then trace these shapes onto your wallpaper.
• Paint the window trim, if you were able to salvage it. You might need to make new trim out of wood or card stock if any was damaged when you pulled it off.
• Replace the windows (you can buy clear plastic sheets from a dollhouse or hobby store/website) and window trim.
• Add store bought stairs
• Replace the railings with store bought
• Shingle the house
• Add any other trim you want (store bought, not the broken stuff you pulled off)

 

 

[Brooke1021]

Thank you for all the suggestions! The structure itself is holding together really well minus the trim. So I think I’ll remove that! There’s a lot of good info on this forum I’ve found, but any little tips are appreciated! Thank you  I’ll post updates as I get the project rolling. I’m a sentimental type and I played with this dollhouse every Christmas at my aunts when I was little.

[havanaholly]

Brooke, if the house was originally built with hot glue a hair dryer will melt the glue enough to remove with an old table knife.  If that's the case and it were me, I'd take it apart and use a white vinegar and water solution to wet the wallpaper and scrape it all off;; when the wall is dry you can sand off the residue and apply a skim coat of spackle or joint compound and let it dry and sand it smooth for a lovely flat surface to prime and either paint or repaper.  Then I'd rebuild it with a good wood glue.  If it has been built with wood glue then I'd just remove the paper and proceed as suggested.  I disassemble dollhouses that were built with hot glue because sooner or later they will start to fall apart and wood glue holds them much better.

[Island-Shack]

Luckily they never did the shingles, those are a pain to remove.. and you have a nice fresh roof to start with. Looks like its in good shape, built correctly, and the windows are all still there (are they?) It looks to me like it's worth putting in the time and you'd have a great house. The Arthur doesn't take up much room either, it's a great house.

I did not use any of the trim on my Arthur, only the porch railing. I was steering away from the Gingerbread, it would have been too busy with the multi colored shingles I made, I wanted cleaner lines. I always save my wood sheets in the original boxes for spare wood. But it just so happens that a few weeks ago I mailed it off to a member of a group I'm in that kit bashed 2 Arthur's together as Santas workshop, and needed some extra trim :-(  Otherwise I would have sent it to you if you wanted it. Here's mine without the trim:

 

[Brooke1021]

Island Shack, I loveeeee those shingles! The windows have no screen/glass/protector, they are all open  I’m removing trim today!