Anyone 'refurbished' aDolls house

[lavendersun]

My daughter has had this dolls house for nearly five years:

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She has lost interest in it and I was thinking of painting it on the outside (fine with that) and perhaps painting and wallpapering the inside. She can then save her pocket money to buy 'proper' looking things for the inside (which she is keen to do) instead of the chunky Plan things that have served her so well since 3 and a half.

Paint is fine, I can use some leftover cream satinwood and have some tiny pots mixed for different colours.

Can I use decent wrapping paper for wallpaper or does it have to be proper paper with miniature patterns for dollhouses which costs an arm and a leg.

I have bought some indian patterned wrapping paper recently which is very very thick and would probably do - or not, I have no idea, also, how would I attach it? PVA?

Thanks.

[EmNetta]

I've plans to do just this, and discovered what looks like a super web-site, everything printable for dolls houses, even arranged in correct periods, and seems to be entirely free!
Do have a look at jennifersprintables.com before deciding.

Yes, I'd use PVA in various dilutions, and usually Copydex for fabrics, but I'm only an amateur crafter.

[lavendersun]

Thank you, that site looks amazing. I nearly fell over when I saw that one A4 sheet of printed paper was £3.99 if bought from a dolls house shop!

A good winter project. I will buy some heavy printer paper and try a few samples.

[RockinHippy]

I'm away from home at the moment, so can't access our main computer where I have a brilliant site bookmarked & can't remember the name right now, but if you can wait until next week, I will add it here, though you might find it if you google

They have a full range of free, printable dolls house wallpapers, covering all arrears, they have flooring, & tiles too & it's set out in eras, much better than wallpaper, print onto A4 paper & glue to walls with PVA craft glue, though flooring & tiles are best printed onto a gloss card.

They also have links to tutorials for making simple furniture & accessories, such as beer bottle top pies & flans, or lolly stick garden furniture

We made rugs out of short pile fur fabric, such as an animal shaped leopard one, we backed this with a heavier fusing

We also searched rugs on the internet, dragged the images off onto our desktop. Dragged them into word/pages, resized & printed them onto a tee shirt transfer paper & then ironed it onto a bit of pale cotton fabric.

You can make art/paintings this way too, though back with card & use a bit of narrow gold braid to make a frame - make a transfer sheet with several images on it, iron onto your pale cotton & then cut them all out.

HTH

[RockinHippy]

These papers & flooring came from the site I mentioned& the UJ rug was made as described above...

[RockinHippy]

Whoops, sorry, ive just realised that the site mentioned above is the same one we used I agree,,it's a fantastic site :)

[skylark2]

I did a couple - great fun.

I did buy a couple of "proper" sheets of dollshouse wallpaper / fake tiles / dollshouse carpet because they were on sale. The rest were real wallpaper from the remnants bin at B&Q (marbled look rather than patterned) or just painted (most of my rooms at home are painted anyway).

Diluted PVA is much easier than Copydex.

Our local Sue Ryder charity shop had until recently a vast range of dolls house furniture and accessories - not as perfect as the really expensive stuff, but not bad at all. And some things are easy to make - I made a bed from a slab of polystyrene about an inch thick covered in material with a headboard made from a scrap of hardboard, beads for feet, and sewed a duvet and pillows. Bedside tables are cotton reels with a circle of cork tile for the top and bead feet again. Fireplace is dead easy if you have any scraps of hardboard and wood moulding for the surround - my grate is half a Coke bottle lid, a few little sticks, and tissue paper flames stuck against the backboard. My bathroom has cork flooring cut from a tile. I made a load of little pictures from the index prints you used to get when you had films developed. Candlesticks - upside down drawing pins with a 1/2 inch of taper candle stuck on them. Skirting board - again costs silly money from the dolls house shop, I bought a strip of moulding from B&Q.

Most of that relies on you being the sort of household which has a cupboard of random left over DIY and craft bits, of course...

[lavendersun]

Thanks everyone - great ideas and I love the photo. We have far too many cupboards of random left over bits - perhaps that is a good thing for once.

[574ejones]

If you want some dolls house inspiration, have a look at the one Craftiness is not Optional (sorry can't link at mo) did for her girls. It is divine!

[Lovelydiscusfish]

Am doing one at the moment for my daughter's Christmas present! I bought sheets of floorboard/tile paper of eBay for some of the rooms - yes it was expensive. I used PVA, which seemed to work fine. You can get sheets of tiles for the roof too. And I bought a self-adhesive sheet of carpet - again quite pricey, but very easy to lay! We're trying to make it as much like our house as possible - we've bought models of our pets, etc. But my word the price dies mount up!

[clangermum]

lavendersun I'm so doing this, my daughter has a very similar house and shows no interest, youngest daughter might enjoy it in a few years and it might become a family heirloom. I don't have much time at the moment but am going to start building my stash of bits so that when I do have time it will all be ready. 574ejones that Craftiness is Not Optional dolls house is great. Pinterest will be great too no doubt. Maybe people could post photos of their progress here and keep me motivated

[clangermum]

I've already dug out a length of spare soft furnishing cord (the sort you might tie back curtains with), thinking if I coil and sew this round in a circle it will make a nice rug

[BikeRunSki]

A very long time ago probably 35 years my dad made my doll's house from scratch and decorated with samples snd offcuts of real wallpaper, carpet etc. The big 70s patterns were a bit out of scale, but the more delicate stuff was fine.

[BikeRunSki]

The Sue Ryder stuff is available on line, here as part of their "New Goods that do Good" range. We have just got a Sue Ryder doll's house and it is lovely.

[KatieKaye]

Yes to using wrapping paper! It's much easier if you paint the diluted PVA onto the wall rather than onto the paper, btw!

Felt makes great carpets - again you can stick it down. If you are using a "floor paper" (either a wood effect print or tiles) stick this onto card that's the right size for the room and then give it several coats of clear varnish before sticking the card down onto the floor. It really does make a huge difference.

You can make great rugs by using crosswork canvas and using tent stitch.

[Keepcalmanddrinkwine]

I came onto this thread to recommend the Jennifer Dollshouse Printable site too. It's great for wallpapers, brick, flooring etc. You can print direct or copy and paste to word to adjust sizing.

[lavendersun]

Thanks everyone.

I have a loom and have decided to make rugs on my loom! If I string the warp with about 3" I could make a 4" x 3" rug, leave a gap with a bit of cardboard and then make another in a different colour and keep going until I have made one for each room .... Mr Lavender thinks I have lost the plot which isn't new but definitely reinforced by weaving dolls house rugs.

[clangermum]

Using a loom is a lovely idea. One of the things I like about this project is I'm not in a hurry to complete it, I want to enjoy the process. But at the same time some of the individual bits can be made quite quickly which will hopefully be satisfying.