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Hello! I am working on my dollhouse kitchen, and I want to add beams to the ceiling. I heard balsa wood is good for pretty much everything. Would this be a good choice of materials? What is the best place to buy it? The picture shown is something I found online that is something like what I want to do.

Hi All! I’m a newbie when it comes to finishing miniature furniture. I have a lovely unfinished chair that has some carved detail and I’d like to repaint it gold, bronze, or dark brown and reupholster it. Can anyone recommend a brand and color of gold paint? In general, what are your favorite paint types and brands to use when painting miniature furniture? Do you prime the wood before painting? If so, what do you use. Thanks in advance for your help! Sylvia

I recently acquired 2 old kits (Houseboat and Adams). While checking to see if they were intact, I noticed some mold on the edges of a few pieces. Should I use diluted bleach? In the past for mildew smelling pieces, I’ve wiped with Murphy’s and then dilute tea tree oil, rinsed, wrapped in plastic, and placed in the freezer. Worked well. But these are whole sheets of wood and I can see the mold. Advice?

Hello, everyone! I am new to Dollhouses and I would like to make a few of the furniture pieces myself. Right now, I'm decorating the bathroom and found a wonderful tutorial for a shelf for over the sink. The instructions call for one layer of mat board for the shelves. I'm not familiar with mat board at all and I would rather use wood because I think it will hold up better. Am I right about that? What kind of wood would you advise? I've included a picture of the project from the site and a picture of how I want it to turn out. Thanks for any help you can give me! Mary Jo

Just opened my first house, go me. and its said to mix shlac with wood alcohol. what do people use for this step? I never heard of wood alcohol

The Lily minature dollhouse all original pieces plus extras. The dollhouse is partially worked with the main structure firm in place, but she still needs a lot of love to finally make her the grand lady she is.

I have several sheets of Handley House wood flooring and I'd like to use it. But I would like the floor to look like it was whitewashed. I watched an online video of someone whitewashing a wall but that wood is so much thicker and I'm afraid of the dollhouse wood flooring buckling if I put that watered-down white paint on it. Any suggestions?

Best Adhesive For Thin Wood Veneer? What is the best adhesive to use on thin wood such as shingles or veneer for flooring? I posed this question on the Greenleaf Forum recently, and the answers were as varied as the species of wood available. Some liked to use hot glue, but the drawback was the longevity and the fact that getting burned was common. Some liked to use rubber cement, but others pointed out that eventually it dries out and loses it's bond. Some said contact cement, but others reminded us that you only get one chance to position it correctly. Once it's touched to the other piece, you're out of luck. Also, the smell was terrible. Still others said regular wood glue, securely clamped until the glue cures. Yet some said they had bad experiences with wood glue not drying clear and wood still curling in spite of clamping. Then there was the super glue camp, also pointing out the mess and the expense. What this told me is that we've all experimented and didn't like some of the results with different products. But do we all have our favorites in spite of certain risks? I had a terrible time finding a good solution with Encounters Gifts & Grub. I had thin veneer strips from HBS that I wanted to use as clapboard, wainscoting and paneling. Plus, there were all of the shingles! I had a lot to do, and needed whatever it was going to be to work! I started out with Tacky Glue and quickly realized that the only way to prevent curling was to put a thin sheen of it across the piece then get it down immediately and clamp it. That's okay if you have a lifespan of 1000 years and can wait for glue to dry. Even the clamping quickly method sucked. When I lifted the clamp off I now had oozed glue to clean up. Tacky is not a good candidate for sanding, either. Then I tried contact cement. Oh it stuck! To me and everything else within a 10 foot radius. And, if you aren't a pristine crafter, you'll end up like me with little rubberized gobs sticking out between your seems. :0( I tried Quick Grab. I was just as messy with that. I couldn't get it applied fast enough! I'd put out a little squirt on waxed paper, try to get the cap back on quickly before the oozing became too incessant, then try to spread it on the wood before it became too crusty to stick. I always somehow ended up with it on my fingers and didn't realize it until I had touched something. At $7 for that tube I'd have needed to be a millionaire to get all my wood attached. <insert sad sigh> In my pout, head on the table, 1000 mile stare, I just so happened to look at my wallpaper paste. It was sitting at eye level. It said "A Stikflat Glue". What? Could it be?!? It was the one and only Grandmother Stover's. I've been using that on wallpaper for ever! And it makes other stuff stick flat? At this point I really had nothing to lose. I took an old paint brush and painted a nice, thin bead across the wood strip. I stuck it on the wall. It stuck. I stared at it for what seemed like a full week. I never caught it curling. After several cocktails hours, I tried to pry it off. Nope! It was not coming off! Success! I used it to glue the rest of my veneer without a problem. It was easy to wipe off any excess with water, dried clear, and over three years later is still holding on great! Plus, it's like $5, and goes a loooong way! Okay, so I thought I might get an answer from the collective genius of the forum. Some magic product I had never heard of, and it would change my life. Not so much. It seemed everyone was just as dissatisfied as I had been. So, for the Alki Point flooring, I decided to experiment again. I used what I had on hand, because I assume most miniature enthusiasts would have the same type of adhesives, too. Quick Grab Tacky Glue, Titebond Wood Glue (the clear drying kind), and good old Grandmother Stover's. I have a pack of very thin veneer to use on my project, so what better to experiment with. I cut several long and several short pieces using my rotary paper trimmer. I took a piece of the 1/8" plywood from the Greenleaf kit (cut out left over from window) to use as the gluing surface. Then I added the adhesives to the long and short pieces, and affixed them to the plywood scrap. I pressed each of them a few times, but didn't want to clamp them. What would they do on their own without any force over time? They have been drying for a couple of hours now, and the results are pretty much as I expected. The Quick Grab Tacky - dried with edges curling up The Titebond - Significant curl initially, drying somewhat flatter but still not flat The Grandmother Stover's - Never curled, Stukflat, Stayingflat! Please do your own experimenting and please share your comments! I'd love to hear about what has worked (and not worked) for you! I know what I'll be using for the wood floors on the Alki Point! Good old Grandmother Stover's!

Hello, Mini Folks I'm nearing completion on my Beacon Hill build and I am interested in learning more about distressing the wood shingles. If anyone has ideas, methods or links it would be great to hear from you... I'm planning on using the shingles that came with the kit. I've tested a vinegar and water solution soak - which produces a grayish color - but i would like to test other options before making a decision. Thanks in advance Danny

I decided to make popsicle stick flooring in the entire attic area of my adopted RGT house. I still have a few bundles to tape together then I will run into the cellar to the scroll saw. Yesterday after cutting a small amount of the rounded tabs off of the ends my DH came home and asked what I was doing. After telling him , he of course had to give me his two cents worth of advice and here is where my questions come from lol. My plan was to cut 3 inch pieces and at the end I would need a one inch filler piece. Knowing this I was going to do first row started with a 3 inch and the second row started with the one inch piece. Hubby was quick to point out our hardwoods and said that no seams matched up every other row. He's right...So now I am making bundles of sticks and making random lengths so that no boards match up. (seems he loves to make things more difficult for me). My questions are: When you lay a pop-stick floor do you use a filler in between boards, almost like a grout? Or do you just leave the inevitable small space between boards? Is tacky glue okay to use ? I want to make the floor whitewashed wood, do I have to paint before laying the floor down? Or can I put it all down, attached to house and then run a watered down white paint over it?

Bought this beauty through a local shop'n'swap online for $60 fully furnished. I can't for the life of Google identify it. The closest I've come is a variation on the 1979 Franklin. But the windows are different, the stairs aren't curved and are opposite... Plus some different interior wall placements. Anyone know what it is? Approximate measurements are: 31.5" Height 33.5" Width 19" Deep (which also closely resembles the Franklin) Sorry the photo is sideways, the uploader is giving me the dickens....

I'm new to miniatures and I recently bought a small dresser from Hobby Lobby. It's unfinished wood and I've already sanded it so it's smooth, but I'm not sure how I should go about painting it. I have a design in mind, but I haven't seen any tutorials with step-by-step instructions. Should I use primer or sealer before painting? And what kind of paint should I use? If it helps, this is what I got and this is a picture of my dresser after it was sanded. If you could include brands of paints or any sealers I should use as well, that would help a lot. This is my first time painting anything and I want to do it properly. Thank you!

My Lily is probably channeling the spirit of Sarah Winchester.... now she wants an open deck outside/next to the Dining Room!!!! It looks like I have two options: 1. butting it right next to the dining room open-walled section - somehow implying either glass sliding doors or a bit of wall in-between the two "rooms" (how would this work/look?) or 2. creating a path from the kitchen door/steps around to the dining room area of the garden and making a separate deck (maybe flagstones, maybe wood planks) with a slope down to the beach. She simply cannot stand being beside the seaside without somewhere to park the beach chairs hehehehe. So, if I somehow manage to find the builder's foam board (am going to try!): * the beach will be in front, at the lowest level (with my rowboat parked somewhere), * then slightly higher up will the deck area (maybe round, maybe organic shape) * and behind it, the open facade of the house, which means the house will be raised more than the deck (since it is on a base already). Can you picture this? Do you think it will work? Not going to try and make waves or actual ocean/water, just some sand implying the shoreline. Cookie will probably hang out on the deck area anyway, since the steps may be too much and she cannot get into the house. Of course, will have to make the base only large enough to still fit through a doorway! If I leave a little bit in front of front door, I can add a small flower garden at the entrance. A little bit of extra space to the bay window side, and I can add my wooden fence and maybe a smallish tree (found a narrow wind-swept cedar bonsai at the home decor store which will be perfect).

Hello All, I have a mini project book that calls for obechi sheet wood. It is a british book, so I suppose this is a british term for something like balsa or bass wood. Does anyone know what we call this in the US? Thanks, Molly

I need some suggestions. I am looking for wood for scratch building furniture. There are plenty of outlets in the area for cheap basswood and balsa, but I am looking for more exotic woods (walnut, mahogany, etc.). There are a couple of woodworking stores in the city that I use, but I am looking for less expensive outlets. Where do you get your wood? Even if it is online and I need to buy in bulk, I am okay with that. Thanks!