Paints and Wallpaper for Decorating a Dolls House

'Real' size wallpaper in a small print

So you're building a dolls house or you have a kit set one to make up. In your mind you've chosen the colour scheme and decided where the furniture will go in each room. Now you need to make those thoughts a reality. What supplies will you get for the painting and wallpapering?






  That's the part I love about this hobby. I don't like the construction side of it, but I love the interior decorating!
Paints:  Test pots of ordinary acrylic house paints from painting and decorating stores are just fine. You can get a great colour range -  look at the paint charts for ideas and shades that complement each other. It pays to choose lighter tones rather than darker ones. The small spaces of dolls house rooms mean the paint does not reflect light as much as a full size room and the colour can appear deeper than expected.
  If you want to experiment a little, cut a piece of cardboard the size of the back wall of the dolls house room, paint it and, when dry, place it in the dolls house. That will give you an exact idea of how the colour will look.

Fabric on the Walls

Wallpapers: I have used all sorts of paper to wallpaper my dolls houses' rooms. Embossed paper for ceilings to give an ornate, 'plastered' look; scrapbooking papers; 'real size' wallpaper in tiny prints and pale patterns; gift wrapping paper and specialty wallpapers made for dolls houses. I've even used fabric on the walls of some rooms.
  

Scrapbooking paper on walls

Just remember to prepare the wooden walls first, either with a coat of white or cream paint or use wallpaper size. And to glue the papers to the walls I use regular wallpaper glue, the kind that is a powder you mix with water and leave to swell and thicken.
   An old credit card is a handy tool for smoothing the paper down and getting rid of air bubbles.
  If you have a kit set dolls house, it's so much easier to wallpaper the walls before you fix them into place.
  Have fun with your interior decorating on a mini scale!