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Wood veneer edging looks great!


GrammieCal

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I bought a roll of wood veneer edging at Home Depot yesterday - thank you Micki! It's lovely stuff, comes in oak, birch, mahogany, etc - and will make very nice flooring.

As I was prying up the unfortunate popsicle stick floor (gorgeous running bond pattern absorbed too much stain in the cut ends, so dark it looked like mold, had to toss it), I was admiring the new roll of wood veneer edging and thinking about making some really nice floors. It occurred to me that this stuff is so nice and flexible, it would make great dollhouse trim - scalloped shingles, etc - cut with decorative edge scissors.

So I tried it out with the craft scissors I bought for my granddaughter, and it looks absolutely great! Beautiful clean cuts, and I think the possibilities are endless. Seems to me that it ought to work well attached row upon row as in shingles, or fused back to back for sturdier trim.

Has anyone else tried this for decorative trim?

Carol

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No but I am now, I love wood floors but don't want to spend a fortune. And I also did the popsicle stick floors and am not pleased at the resolts. But this sounds nice, do you have pics up? I would love to see it. I would definately redo my floors in the kids dollhouse (I think i play with it more then they do).

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That is a great idea, to use the trim for edging! Now that I think of it, it would be good to use for picnic table tops or wainscotting too! I got so excited at all the responses I went to the Home Depot myself last night to stock up! :-)

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Something I have done is use this as a backing for printed fancy veneers I snipe off pictures of full size inlays. Thin, lots of control, easy to cut, flexes and the feel of wood. I usually find it at the Habitat for Humanity store, this type is iron on, I don't know if all brands are, but it really sticks. A few coats of poly and the glued on fancy veneer looks great too. I don't know how much it costs retail for using on large projects of building exteriors.

TIP: I use PowerPoint to match up the patterns on the veneer designs I find because I can match things up on a larger scale then size down the completed sheet.

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You can buy the edging several ways...no adhesive, peel and stick, and iron on. For full size woodworking I used the iron on as plywood edging I would bet that the self adhesive might be the most useful for dollhouse use. Other interesting things to use for flooring veneer inlay strips would make great borders for parquet floors

Ed

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  • 12 years later...

I am trying the iron-on veneer edging now for one floor but I have a question.  How do I get the pieces to stay in place long enough for me to iron them on the mat board?  I thought of double sided tape - I could lay them out upside down then iron with the mat board on top.  However, I'm worried that the double sided tape might not come off well.  Any advice?

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Lani, I spot glue with a thin bead or small dots of white glue to hold the strips in place for two or three rows, then iron them in place and continue this way until my floor is laid; but I'm doing this directly onto the wood of the floor, not mat board.

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Havanaholly, Thank you so much.  I'm a new members and it is wonderful to be able to get answers from others.  I tried using the white glue - just a tiny dot at each end of the board - and the glue simply would not stick.  In spite of having flatten the pieces with heavy books for about 36 hours, they are still a bit curled.  After tacking the pieces with a dot of glue on each end, I put a full glue bottle on the section to hold it down.  After a half-hour, the glue was not holding the veneer to the board.  Did you have any such issue and, if so, how did you deal with it?

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I use the iron-on wood veneer I buy at the hardware store.  The white glue holds the strips in place song enough for me to lay two or three rows and then I hit them with the hot iron (ironing floorboards is much more satisfying to me than ironing clothes!); when the flooring is cool enough for me to touch with my fingers I lay some more rows.

Back when I built Dura-Craft kits and used the veneer strips that were included for flooring I used contact cement, brushing it on the floor as well as on the backs of the strips.  You have to be spot on using this method, obviously.  I'd burnish each strip in place using the back of the bowl of an old teaspoon I bought at a thrift store for the purpose and then weight the whole thing down with my old nursing textbooks.  I have to cut the iron-on veneer into strips, but it's worth it to me!

Edited by havanaholly
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I made a template of my dollhouse floor out of poster board and then used the iron on veneer edging for making my floor.  I worked on a metal table and would iron down about 8 inches worth of strips (no additional glue necessary), then laid heavy boards on top until the wood, glue, and metal table top cooled down.  After I had the whole floor covered in veneer strips, I flipped it upside down and trimmed the wood that hung over the edges of the template.  Then I used an awl and scored grooves into the wood to make it appear like there were narrower strips of flooring used.  After that I lightly sanded it, then stained and sealed it.  If you look in my gallery I have posted step by step pictures of how I made my floor.

large.IMG_4361.jpg.94aed7370cb344c168af6b6fe4e54df5.jpg

Edited by Tigpuppy
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On 6/7/2020 at 1:32 PM, havanaholly said:

I use the iron-on wood veneer I buy at the hardware store.  The white glue holds the strips in place song enough for me to lay two or three rows and then I hit them with the hot iron (ironing floorboards is much more satisfying to me than ironing clothes!); when the flooring is cool enough for me to touch with my fingers I lay some more rows.

I am definitely going to have to check this out, what a great idea! I love hardware stores for mini-things!

On 6/7/2020 at 4:45 PM, Tigpuppy said:

I made a template of my dollhouse floor out of poster board and then used the iron on veneer edging for making my floor.  I worked on a metal table and would iron down about 8 inches worth of strips (no additional glue necessary), then laid heavy boards on top until the wood, glue, and metal table top cooled down. 

This is beautiful!! I love how smoothly it lays out. I wonder how well it would distress? I'm working on something right now that requires so much of this woodwork for both the walls AND the floors... but the floors have to be really worn out. So the top floor here is final product - the lower floor is still just the Woodsies craft sticks with craft gel stain - I have to dremel distress the stain back off like the top floor.

 

Flooring.jpg

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7 hours ago, Intrinsicat said:

This is beautiful!! I love how smoothly it lays out. I wonder how well it would distress? I'm working on something right now that requires so much of this woodwork for both the walls AND the floors... but the floors have to be really worn out. So the top floor here is final product - the lower floor is still just the Woodsies craft sticks with craft gel stain - I have to dremel distress the stain back off like the top floor.

Thank you!  I don't see why you couldn't distress it - I think you just have to go easy on it with something like a Dremel because the veneer isn't super thick.

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Rather than using the Dremel I'd go with a few taps of a small hammer, with or without pieces of jewelry chain, and a swipe or two with an emery board.  That is, if you really have to distress those lovely floors!

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Update on my dollhouse hardwoods using iron on veneer:  I laid out the floor on paper but the veneer strips had been on a roll and wouldn't lie flat.  I tried heating a spoon on my iron but couldn't get it hot enough.  I finally took the glue stick out of my glue gun and used the tip of the glue gun to tack down each plank as I positioned it.  It worked great!  Once the entire floor was laid out, I ironed the planks down with my iron.  I then attached the floor to the dollhouse using modpodge and weighed it down with books for several hours.  It's never coming up!  The spoon idea led to the glue gun idea, so I really appreciate the tip from Havanaholly!  Oh, and the floor looks great!  Now I have the enormous chore of doing all the other floors in the house - what fun!

 

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