Quick Question Please: Arthur and wallpaper

[moonberry]

My Arthur is coming along nicely. Yesterday I glued the foundation board pieces together (as per Gina's blog) and also the front back section underneath the ground floor piece.

I am about to start gluing the rest of the shell together,but before I do, it just struck me that it might be easier to glue wallpaper on all the bits while I can still dry them flat on the table with weights on top.

This is my first attempt at wallpapering and I am SUPER nervous!

I have to choose from my stash of scrapbook papers and wallpaper sample books - but I only have 2 hours this morning to work on it and I would appreciate any suggestions, if you are still awake and online!

[Minsanity]

hi lene

I know some people paste the paper on beforehand. for me I think I would not plan well enough and might not paper the right pieces. a room would have a wrong paper on a side. also the corners will show seams where the paper was not wrapped. you should not need to put weights on as you might with glueing other things. while you will see bubbles, they will disappear when dry. I remember being nervous about that. I believe Gina has a great tutorial on papering. I personally love wallpaper paste that you would use in your real house but other glues work well too.

good luck

[havanaholly]

Lene, the Arthur was the first team build we did and I papered the bathroom before I assembles the house. And I tore it out and repapered it after I had it together, to get things to meet and match.

[moonberry]

Thanks Cynthia and Holly!

I'm busy reading Gina's wallpapering blog post now, but we don't get Yes Paste here and it will be very hard to find wallpapering paste, because the UAE doesn't exactly encourage people to do things for themselves. The maintenance companies that put up wallpaper, carry HUGE drums of the stuff around and it is mostly produced in China anyway.

Do you think I can use woodglue? I only have a small bottle of Tacky Glue and I want to keep that for the house joints instead of the wallpapering.

I am not wallpapering entire rooms - I don't like the look that much, so I'm opting for the new interior design style of doing a feature wall in wallpaper, and painting the others.

So joins and matching up won't affect this build.

I see Gina recommends a primer before wallpapering - the only one I could find was an oil-based primer called Royal Exteriors by Ace - for excessively chalky substrates.

Oi, my nerves are getting so tight, I may as well play a harp tune on them!

[Stacey6163]

I was super nervous the first time I wallpapered , seemed like everything went wrong - started off by cutting it out backwards and then messed up the first wall , but it all worked out. I use either white glue or the tacky glue thinned out and have had really good results . I'm not sure I'd use an oil based primer , I use RL interior paint on mine . I'm sure it will turn out fine.

[fov]

I don't think wood glue would be good - if it's tinted that might show through. There are some topics on the forum already about which glues people prefer. Do you have craft stores? You might try to find something that's meant for paper crafts, scrapbooking, decoupage...

I like to wallpaper after assembly for the reasons others have mentioned, but with certain angles (like the Arthur's gable) it can help to make a template while you're still able to lie the pieces flat.

I never use primer, and the one time I did (oil-based Kilz) it hardened and turned into crumbs over time that kept my wallpaper from sticking. I'm not exactly sure what happened there but I'll never do it again! This is another of those situations where there isn't a "right way" - some people swear by primer, and others don't use it at all. Neither camp is right. :lol: If you're painting the rooms anyway, though, you might just want to paint all of the walls and then paper over one of them for your accent wall. That way you won't have any "naked" spots where the wallpaper meets the paint, and the paint will serve as a barrier between the wallpaper and the raw wood (which is the same reason you would use primer).

[moonberry]

Thanks everybody!

Turns out, I had to rush off to the garage, my car's a/c stopped working - the main pipe cracked, so many $ later, I have to go back tomorrow morning to get the new pipe fitted.

Sigh.

I managed to make a side trip to another Ace, where I found flat acrylic primer (yay), so I'm feeling more confident about using THAT. They said I could brinlvg back the other tin of enamel primer for a refund.well

Then I stopped off at the craft shop, they had the same modge podge and white acid-free PVA glue that I already own (and is stored SOMEWHERE in my craft room).

And I got some Americana paints for the walls: Santa Red, Festive Green, Holly Green and two DecoArt metallics: Venetian Gold and Luminous Gold.

Going through my scrapbook paper stash, I found some dark green velvet flocked paper. It is very luxurious - I think I may use it in the living room and bedroom for flooring.

The other scrapbook papers are all dark (reds and greens), so I'm not too worried about discoloration.

Emily, thanks for the tip about painting adjoining walls before wallpapering - I hadn't even thought that far ahead yet.

Have to fetch my other daughter from school in half an hour, when I get back, I'm going to start priming and painting the ceilings!

[havanaholly]

Lene, thin your white glue with about one part water to three parts glue, to start with, and use it on a test sample; keep thinning until you get a mix you can paint on. Do immediately wash out your brush when you finish, to get out all traces of glue.

[moonberry]

Thanks Holly! I will try that ratio and see how it paints on.

I've done one thin layer of primer on the ground floor ceiling (underneath 2nd floor) and it dried very well, it will need another coat though and then I'm going to paint white acrylic over it.

Then I need to decide where lights are going to go - I'm going to make a pinhole for a flat pin jewelry finding for each light. I will bend them into hook shapes to hang lights from.

My daughters are super excited and little Vivian (4) said that as soon as this house is finished, the real Santa is probably going to take it back to the North Pole to keep in HIS house!

Hehehehehe...... it's nice to feel the first whispers of Christmas spirit in the house :xmas_tree:

[Roxxie2]

I have done it that way many times. The only problem I had with that was when I glued the house together I often messed up the wallpaper or found out that I had not matched the paper very well at the corners etc. Sometimes it is easier to do wallpaper first on places where you won't be able to fit your hands into later.

[Just One More]

I don't put in the wallpaper until the house is assembled. I stain the floors before assembly with water based wood stain I find in the craft stores and water based satin varnish. When assembled, I prime the interior walls with what I paint the ceilings with, any good quality flat white or off white paint. I use regular wallpaper paste in the size available for real house size borders. I use an old credit card to smooth out any bubbles in the paper while it's still wet. The primer seals the wood so the wallpaper paste will stick. The slanted ceilings in the upper floor of the Arthur are tricky so you can make a plain paper pattern to make it easier. I use dollhouse wallpaper, scrap book paper and if I can find a small enough print, real house size wallpaper. A lot of the wallpaper is pre-pasted now and it works really well. I only use the wallpaper paste on paper without it. Hope this helps.

[Roxxie2]

Pat, I use plain white scapebook paper for ceilings sometimes. I have also used regular cardstock in various colors. I always seal it with acrylic spray before I use it for wall or ceiling paper.

[More Minis Dollhouses]

For the Arthur, I suggest wallpapering the first floor after the shell is assembled but wallpaper the second floor before assembling. Basically the second floors walls are all the angled parts of the roof so wallpapering those before assembly will make it much easier and give you a better look. I always use mucilage or Yes Paste for wallpapering.

[havanaholly]

The Arthur was the house I learned that I cannot paper dormers or gables before assembly.

[More Minis Dollhouses]

I hear you Holly. I wallpapered mines after assembly and the wallpaper came out like patched pants. Good thing I hid the seams pretty well but it was a mess..lol

[havanaholly]

When I papered my upstairs before assembly none of the wallpaper pattern matched and the gables were a total disaster. After assembly I could match patterns and when the paper was all dry I could trim the seams so they didn't show.