Dollhouse – The Attic

I have finally made some progress on the dollhouse.  I have been working on the attic space.  The attic is made up of two rooms – one large space and a smaller space.  If you remember my post from a few weeks back I mentioned that I had opened up the third floor because I had always intended for it to be an attic and not a bedroom and bath as most renditions of this dollhouse model show.

While the two downstairs spaces will be white and airy I wanted the attic to be gloomy and kind of unfinished.  I found some wood plank scrapbook paper that works perfectly for my vision of the walls.

I wallpapered the main area with that paper.  For the smaller room I used some paper I had on hand that is the perfect scale and also was pre-aged.   I did make one tactical error in that I got ahead of myself and started to put the baseboards on.  I forgot that I want to install the floor first, then the baseboards so I tore the paper a bit when I was removing them.  No matter, it will all be covered back up by the baseboards eventually.

My plan for the floor is rough hewn planks made out of tongue depressors that will have a dark stain on them.  I have them all cut out and I just need to glue them down.  I slapped a coat of brown paint on the existing floor because I didn’t want the original pink or green to show through the cracks.

I did have to do a dry run with some of the attic bits and bobs.  I mean that is the whole point of a dollhouse, right?  All the fun bits.  I made a lot of the items you see in the picture above.  I made the suitcase (under the green tool box), the box with its books and maps, the puppet theater, the painter’s box, the armillary and the riding hat and crop on the coat rack.  I also printed off the dart board and circus poster.

The contents of the attic will tell a story about the occupant of the house.  I have an entire back story in my mind.  She may have been a circus performer in the early 1900s…

Oh and I made the rugs.  I plan on doing a separate post on them, detailing the steps.  I printed them on material using my inkjet printer.

When I am working on the dollhouse my office turns into an absolute hot mess.  I’m generally working on four different things at once so at any given moment there are paint supplies, sanding materials, spackle, you name it – it’s all spread out over the office.

An occasional cat gets in the mix too.   Wow that’s bad.  But reality.

Next up is the floor for the attic.  I’m thinking that should go fairly quickly since I have all the planks cut out.