Wallpapering your dollhouse
or roombox can be intimidating until you try it. Here are quick
tips to make it easier. And a small piece of advice: Always buy
one extra sheet of wallpaper even if you think you might need it.
It's Murphy's Law that you will make a mistake when you have a limited
amount of paper.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: Varies based on number
of rooms
Here's How:
Lightly sand or prime the walls of your dollhouse
so that they are smooth.
Cut wallpaper to size using an x-acto knife with
#11 blade and a metal cork-backed ruler. When using a wallpaper
with a distinct pattern, be sure to match the pattern.
Apply wallpaper paste or YES! paste to paper using
a soft foam brush. Make sure you get all parts of the paper -
use straight even strokes.
Wipe your hands with a slightly damp cloth and
then apply the paper to the wall. Start with the top left hand
corner and smooth the paper into place with your hand or a soft
rounded piece of plastic like an old credit card. Press gently
at first to get the paper into position and then harder to smooth
it onto the wall. Work in one direction to get any air bubbles
out.
Trim any door or window openings with a sharp
x-acto knife.
Tips:
The biggest mistake people make is not getting
even coverage of glue. Dry spots of paper make bubbles on the
wall. Look at the paper at an angle and look for dull spots -
those are the dry areas.
Some miniaturists apply the paste to the
wall of the dollhouse but I prefer to apply to the paper to avoid
dry spots.
If your wallpaper is not vinyl coated, then
spray it first with a matte sealer. Look in your art supply store
for the matte sealer artists use to seal pastels or chalks.
Always use a SHARP x-acto blade. It is better
to go through x-acto blades than to ruin a nice piece of wallpaper.
If you are covering electrical or are nervouse
about cutting the wallpaper wrong, cut posterboard to size first.
Then wallpaper to the posterboard and glue the posterboard to
the wall using Tacky glue.