Painting a dollhouse is an exciting stage of the build or renovation process – you get to choose the colour and finish of paint for all your internal and external surfaces. It’s a big task though, and one which can be incredibly fiddly, and there’s much debate about whether it’s best to paint a dollhouse kit before or after assembling it.
In summary, painting a dollhouse before or after assembling is down to personal preference. Painting a dollhouse before assembling allows access to areas that are hard to reach once built. The downside is that if you use too much paint on the tabs and slots, they may not fit together properly.
In this guide, we take a closer look at how and when to paint a dollhouse kit.
The benefits of painting a dollhouse before assembling
When you paint your dollhouse kit really does come down to personal preference, but there are some advantages to painting it before you put it together.
- You can easily access every part of your dollhouse
I’ve painted and wallpapered an assembled dollhouse and some parts are incredibly difficult to do. Stairways, ceilings, attics and small rooms are all far more difficult to paint once assembled, so if your kit as lots of these, it may be best to paint it before you build it.
- If you don’t like the colour or finish you can repaint
Painting the pieces of the dollhouse flat can give you a better idea of what colour the paint is, compared to painting on walls inside the dollhouse. Better access also means it’s easier to repaint the pieces if you don’t like the colour.
- You will have a more precise finish
Painting before assembling means you won’t have to tape up the edges of the walls and ceilings to paint them. When I painted my dollhouse it was already built and trying to tape the edges and then paint them (upside down in many cases!) was not an easy task.
The downside of painting a dollhouse before assembling it is that if you get any paint on the tabs and slots then they may not fit together properly. But you can easily rectify this by using a nail file or small piece of sandpaper to remove excess paint.
How to dry fit a dollhouse before painting it
There is a third option for whether you paint a dollhouse before or after assembly, and that is to do a bit of both!
You can do what’s called a dry fit, where you build the dollhouse and secure it in place with tape, rather than gluing anything together. This will give you a good idea of which parts of the dollhouse go where and which parts will be difficult to access when assembled.
It will also allow you to see if any of the bits of the kit are missing and give you an idea of the size of the house and how much room you’ll need for constructing and displaying it.
You can either dry fit the entire house, or do it in sections and label each section as you go e.g. floor or ceiling, external or internal, just so you don’t get the different pieces muddled up.
Before you begin, carefully read all of the assembly instructions and then follow the instructions as if you were building the house for real, only use take instead of glue. If the house seems a bit wobbly, secure the pieces with extra tape at the floor and ceilings.
Once you’ve dry fitted your dollhouse, you can label which room is which and note down how you’re going to decorate each room. For example, if you want to paint the children’s bedroom with yellow paint and add a feature wallpaper, mark this on a piece of painter’s tape stuck to the wall. Also write it on the back of the wallpaper which room you plan to use in in light pencil.
This may sound like overkill but building and decorating a dollhouse can take many hours so being as organised as possible will mean you’ll know exactly what you’re meant to be doing every time you come back to the project.
You’re now ready to disassemble your house and start decorating!
Do I need to prime a dollhouse before assembling it?
Again, the answer to this is it’s personal preference. But from my own experience, I would recommend priming a dollhouse first. I used a white latex (emulsion in the UK) primer to prime my dollhouse before painting and papering it and I felt like this extra step just made the end result took more polished and even.
Some people prefer to prime the wood and then sand it before applying the top coat to get an ultra smooth finish. I didn’t do this on my dollhouse, I just primed and painted with zero sanding and the end result looked pretty good. Whether you sand or not will depend a lot on how smooth the wood is and if, after priming it, it looks uneven.
What’s the best primer for a dollhouse?
If you’re in the UK, then the best primer for a dollhouse is Dulux Primer and Undercoat, I used this on two dollhouse projects and it gives a great coverage, even with just a couple of coats. If you’re in the US try any flat white interior latex paint as a primer. Basically, any paint you’d use to prime the walls of your home, will work just as well on the walls of your dollhouse!
You can find out what more about choosing primer and paint for a dollhouse with the blog post What Paint Is Best For A Wooden Dollhouse?
What about painting or fitting dollhouse floors before assembly?
In my experience, I would recommend painting, staining or carpeting floors after you’ve assembled your dollhouse.
When it comes to fitting the floor in, if you’ve already covered the floor it can be impossible to see the slots and you won’t be able to attach the walls correctly. This will be especially difficult if you use a thick material for the flooring such as DIY parquet flooring.
It’s also a good idea to fit the baseboards (known as skirting boards in the UK) last as these can adhere to the walls and flooring and hide any imperfections where the two meet.
As the floor is the easiest part of a dollhouse to access, fitting the flooring after assembling the house gives you the best chance of having a perfect fit. You can find out more about fitting dollhouse floors with our blog post How Do You Lay Dollhouse Floor?
Top tips for painting a dollhouse before assembling
- Avoid getting paint on the tabs and slots. But if you do, use a nail file to sand the paint off once it’s dried.
- Once you’ve built your dry fit dollhouse, mark the edges of the walls and floor with a pencil, so you’ll know exactly where to paint or paper up to once you dismantled your dollhouse.
- Save any left over paint for touching up the paintwork once you’ve built your house. You’ll probably find there are little bits at the edges that need a little more paint.
- Paint the doors and window before attaching them to your dollhouse, this avoids the fiddly job of taping them up to paint them when they’re glued to the house.
In conclusion, even though it’s down to personal preference, it probably is better to paint and decorate dollhouse walls and ceilings before assembling it. You’ll be able to reach hard to access areas and it makes it easier to get a neater finish. Just make sure you don’t paint over the tabs and slots and don’t fit the floor until after you’ve built the dollhouse.