Wallpaper templates

[mygrommi]

I have so many decisions to make on my dollhouse since everything has to be installed in a certain order.

I'm restoring my daughter's large dollhouse I did 30 years ago. At that time I did not know to prime the plywood walls before installing wallpaper and the wallpaper developed brown spots from the wood after several years. I have removed all the wallpaper (a very time-consuming, difficult task!) as well as the carpet I had glued to the floors over the wiring hidden in grooves in the floor. Since I have now added two wings to the house which will be wired, and since I wanted to update all the light fixtures, I ripped out all the old wiring and am starting over.

I am almost ready to install the new fixtures and wiring. This time I am I installing hardwood floors on styrene sheets so they can be removed to access the wiring if necessary in the future.

I had planned to paint the walls and not use any wallpaper. Since I am 30 years older and the house is so large and can't easily be turned upside down, I just don't think I have it in me to wallpaper 16 rooms again. I plan to prime the inside and paint.

However, I am intrigued with using templates of poster board, applying the wallpaper to the poster board. It would be nice for these templates to be removable in the event someone in the future (when I'm gone) should like to change the wallpaper and also to be able to hide some of my wiring. I see that some of you use this method and glue the poster board templates to the wall, but is it possible to make them removable (by applying with double-face tape)? If so, it seems you would have to apply the crown mold and baseboard first and then tape in the wallpaper templates. However, that seems backward to me since the normal sequence is to apply wallpaper and finish off with crown mold and baseboard

Is it even practical to try to have removable wallpaper templates? Has anyone done this? I am very close to having to make this decision.

If I decide to use the template method I will probably use fabrics instead of wallpaper because when I originally did this house, I used tiny scaled fabrics in 3 rooms and they were the best looking rooms. No brown spots appeared in these rooms like in the rooms with the wallpaper.

Thanks for your patience with all my questions. This forum is such a wonderful resource.

Renea

[KathieB]

Renea, these are great questions. Don't apologize! I'm sure the answers are helpful to other members, too.

If you use templates, make them the full size of the wall, floor to ceiling. If you glue the baseboard and crown moldings to the template, not the floor or ceiling, they will come out with the template should you want to remove it. (And help keep the template from warping in your lovely Georgia summer humidity.)

I'd suggest double sticky tape or rubber cement to hold the template in place but I'm sure other members will have other suggestions.

[havanaholly]

Kathie's suggestion is excellent. I believe I've also read that you can set the templates in place and glue your baseboards to the floor and your cornices to the ceiling and hold your templates in place that way; and the templates can slide out from between the baseboard and cornice to access the wiring for troubleshooting.

[KathieB]

I believe I've also read that you can set the templates in place and glue your baseboards to the floor and your cornices to the ceiling and hold your templates in place that way; and the templates can slide out from between the baseboard and cornice to access the wiring for troubleshooting.

I think that would work fine for the side walls. The walls across the back (the inside of the front in open back houses) are another issue. You may wish to avoid having to remove the template by not running wire or tape along that wall.

[Inge]

I have done all the rooms in my Harrison using templates. I first used a sheet of paper to do the template so I could make adjustments, then I did a cardboard template and used wallpaper muselage (?) to attach the wallpaper to the cardboard, then I attached the cardboard to the wall using double sided tape. Yepper, it is alot of work. I did this for two reasons: 1 to hide the electrical wiring and have access to it and 2 if I get bored with my wallpaper I thought it would be easier to remove than to remove wallpaper from a wall (even if it was primed). I do appreciate the suggestions about gluing the crown moulding to the ceiling and baseboard to the floor, duh....how did I think I was going to remove the cardboard/wallpaper? I've had to move my dollhouse so many times that 6 lights didn't work...put my thinking cap on...pulled my dining room table apart (where the additional leaves fit in) and put the house over the opening so I could have access to all the wires underneath.....only to find there was nothing wrong with the wiring....just had to tighten the fixture.

[KathieB]

I've had to move my dollhouse so many times that 6 lights didn't work...put my thinking cap on...pulled my dining room table apart (where the additional leaves fit in) and put the house over the opening so I could have access to all the wires underneath.....only to find there was nothing wrong with the wiring....just had to tighten the fixture.

Clever you! I got a quick image of one of those flat carts that mechanics use to slide under a vehicle when they're doing repairs, with you armed with pliers and flashlight rolling under the table!

And don't you just hate it when you're all prepared to perform major surgery and discover a band-aid will do the job? But what a treat to learn that your wiring held up to all of the bumping and buffeting of the moves!

[twinsareenough]

Inge

I am currently working on the Harrison, still on dry fit and would so appreciate knowing at what stage you made your templates, especially of the tower! I have never made a dollhouse before and I find myself settling on one idea of how to do it then changing my mind. I would so appreciate you sharing with me your process for the Harrison. Also, curious what configuration you used for the moveable walls/ stairs/closet/partitions.

Thanks in advance!

[Inge]

Hi Diana: Sorry, I didn't get back on this I am just learning how to find this in my profile and I've been ever so busy pulling my hair out trying to find help for installing crown moulding...I found a youtube video that helped.

Anyways, if I ever build another house, I won't be putting the whole thing together before decorating. I wished I had not put on the second floor before wallpapering, putting in the electrical, and doing the floor on the ground level. However, due to my grade 12 education i WAS SMART enough to wallpaper and put the trim around the inside windows BEFORE I glued the tower together and attached it, as well as the bay windows. The tower was pretty tricky as I had one wallpaper at the bottom and another wallpaper at the top, I did these with the cardboard/wallpaper template thingy...I think it took me most of the day. I DO KNOW that the plastic windows won't be going in until the bitter end as it's alot easier to get into the house if you need to.

As for the stairs and partitions. First of all, I did not like the wall with the holes cut out for the bannister (this would be your center wall on first two floors) so I papered over them as this would also give me more room to put furniture against the walls. My house will be viewed, I guess from what you call the "back", where it is open, so I reversed the stairs (which I think are ugly, just my opinion) so they are facing away from the front of the house, and I took the partition that should be attached to the bottom stair (it's not a square partition) and put it flush against the 2nd floor stairs, there was another smaller square partition and I put that against the bottom stairs. Another partition was used about 5 inches to the left of the stairs to make for a small entry. Another partition was used on the 3rd floor. All partitions have been wallpapered to match the rooms.

I've spent hours going through the mini talks to get ideas and last night I found where someone used magnetic tape to hold the partitions in place and I think that's what I will do so that I can move them if I need to get to the back of the dollhouse and also because I have wiring going down from the wall through the floor.

Configuration? Bottom floor left is the living room, then a partition, small hallway, stairs, kitchen. Next floor, left is a LARGE masterbedroom, NO PARTITION, stairs, dining room. Next floor, left, nursery, partition, small hallway for nanny to sleep, wall (at the back is the secret room),to the right is the bathroom.

This is my first dollhouse too. For me, because of the electrical, I bought (and received as gifts) all the furniture, then I bought miniature wallpaper and cardstock and real wallpaper. I think it's better to have your funiture first than to try and match wallpaper to furniture. I have more time than money...so I didn't buy any flooring. Instead, I stained all the floors, let them dry, then I took a pencil and drew in the lines to make it look like a wood floor, and then I varnished them. I think it looks good.

Hope this helps...I'll try to check my profile more often in case you have any more questions and one day....I will have my own personal gallery. I'm more than happy to help if I can.

[twinsareenough]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to me. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Of course I have more questions and I would love to see pictures of your house when you get around to posting them. The question of the day for me is did you have gaps between the tower walls when you finally glued them in place and if so how did you cover them if the walls were already wallpapered? Did you leave paper hanging over the edges for this? And did you put trace the template around the window trim? Meaning, did you glue the trim and then create a template or did you glue the trim of the interior windows onto the template?

Good luck with the crown molding!

Diana

[Inge]

KathieB: Your image of a mechanic is about right. I could kick myself for not thinking of it when I installed the wiring. I had the house on books, if you can imagine, on the table, to get it high enough to work under it and it took me forever.

Diana: I just checked my tower and nope, no gaps...if there was, I probably would put those skinny bamboo skewers down to hide them. I'm trying to remember how I did it, as it was 2 years ago. I put the wood tower piece on the table, put white paper on top and drew the windows, and cut them out and then put the paper on the cardboard, and drew it again, and then glued wallpaper on top. I left a "wee bit" of overhang on each side of the pieces and dry fitted them and trimmed off the cardboard/wallpaper if it was too much. If you don't have that extra bit on each side I think you will have a gap. Once all the tower pieces fit, I then glued the trim onto the wallpaper and then glued the tower pieces to the house. Hope that helps.