I recently acquired a large wooden dollhouse from Freecycle which is in much need of a makeover. One of the first things I wanted to do, after giving it a good clean, was to paint it. I had never painted a wooden dollhouse (or any dollhouse!) before so I did a lot of research and bought a tonne of paint to see which paint would work best.
Furniture paint is the best paint for a wooden dollhouse as it is specially made to be used on wood, so it is thick enough to only require one coat of coverage in many cases. Furniture paint doesn’t have to be applied to a primed surface (unlike latex/emulsion paint) and is water-based so doesn’t have a strong smell. Furniture paint is available in different finishes – chalky finish for a flat matt effect, or gloss, satin or metallic finishes for a high-sheen effect.
For this dollhouse, I used Rust-Oleum Chalky Finish furniture paint from Homebase and it was by far the best paint out of the sample pots I tried. Below I walk you through what paint I tried and the results I found.
What types of paint are available for wooden dollhouses?
There are hundreds of different types of paint and colours available. I wasn’t sure which was best for painting a dollhouse so I tried a different paint in every room of the dollhouse and had some very mixed results, below are a few of the paint options I tried.
Furniture paint with a chalky finish
Pros:
- Provided the best results out of the paint samples I tried.
- It was easy to apply and only took one coat for almost full coverage (I did two coats to be sure).
Cons:
- More expensive than emulsion (a 125ml can was £5.50, compared to a 125ml can of emulsion which was £4).
- As the paint is thicker I had to use light strokes to stop brush strokes from showing as the paint is quite thick.
- Fewer colours to choose from compared to emulsion, but the Rust-Oleum range of chalky finish furniture paint has 110 different colours so there’s still plenty of choice. And this type of paint is available from other brands.
Emulsion (also known as latex paint in the USA)
Pros:
- Easy to apply – some sample pots come with mini rollers included.
- Much cheaper than chalk paint. This was the cheapest option and sample pots cost as little as £1.50 for 40ml, which should be enough to paint a dollhouse room.
- Hundreds of different colours available.
- Wide range of finishes available from flat matt to high gloss.
Cons:
- Took at least three coats to provide full coverage.
Semi-translucent paint
Pros:
- Semi-translucent paint is less opaque than regular emulsion so it can offer different effects that regular emulsion can’t.
Cons:
- It was tricky to apply as it felt very runny and separated quickly after stirring.
- I had to use four coats to provide full coverage, even after priming.
- It’s very expensive – I bought a tin of this at half price from Homebase, but it was still £3.50 for 125ml so it was by far the most expensive option.
Other paint options
I’ve seen on other websites that people recommend acrylic paint as an option for painting wooden dollhouses. I tried this myself and found that the paint was way too thin. The acrylic paints I have are very cheap so this could have been the issue but given how expensive acrylic paints can be and how much I would have had to have used, I think using acrylic paint would be a very costly.
Gloss paint is another option for painting wood, it’s an oil based paint which is very thick. I remember my Dad painting our skirting boards and window frames with this and it’s extremely smelly and very difficult to clean off brushes and surfaces.
I also tried some of my daughter’s craft paint to see if this would work as a primer, but as it’s very watery, it was almost completely absorbed by the wood.
What to consider when buying paint for your dollhouse
Before you start to consider what paint you’ll use for your dollhouse, you’ll need to have a good idea of what you want the rooms to look like. Creating a mood-board or looking online for inspiration from real-life or dollhouse rooms is a good place to start.
I created this mood-board for my dollhouse dining room and i used it as a reminder of the overall look I was going for:
Below are a few things to think about before you head off and buy your paint:
Type of paint
Furniture paint and emulsion are the best options for painting a wooden dollhouse. You can use other types of paint, such as acrylic or gloss, but I found the easiest to use and best looking results came from furniture paint or emulsion.
The vast majority of paint in most retailers will be emulsion, which means there are hundreds of colours to choose from. And once you’ve chosen the colour you like, you’ll also need to decide whether to go for a glossy or matt finish (or anything in between!). This is completely down to personal preference – glossy is super shinny and matt, at the opposite end of the scale, has a flat non-shiny finish. There’s a guide on the Elle Decor website to what each type of paint looks like.
Furniture paint can also have different finishes, such as chalky (which is the ultimate matt finish) and satin (which offers a mid-sheen finish), or even a metallic finish.
Paint colour options
I found the choice of paint colours available pretty overwhelming as there are hundreds of different options. I would recommend having at least some idea of the colour scheme for each room of your dollhouse so you don’t get completely overwhelmed when you go paint shopping.
You could just use a flat matt white paint for your dollhouse instead of using coloured paint or wallpaper. I found my dollhouse actually looked really smart all white, you can always add colour with accessories and decor.
Wallpaper options
If you’re going to use wallpaper alongside painted walls then choose colours and finishes which will complement this wallpaper. I actually had the wallpaper for each room first and then chose colours that worked with this.
If you’re wallpapering your dollhouse then it’s worth preparing and priming the wood first as this will provide a smooth finish for your wallpaper and also mean the wallpaper colours will be as bright as possible.
If you’re not sure which wallpaper to choose, check out my advice on how to wallpaper a dollhouse here.
Durability
Most paint will handle some knocks, bumps and dirt, but there are certain types, specifically semi-gloss paint, which can be wiped clean. This is very handy if you know things are going to get messy in the dollhouse when children are playing with it.
One of the downsides of chalky finish paint is that it isn’t the most durable of paint, unless you seal it with wax once it’s dry. However, whether it’s worth sealing it or not this will depend on whether your dollhouse will be used by children. If not, you’ll probably be ok not waxing or sealing the paint as it will have much less wear and tear.
How I painted the inside of my wooden dollhouse
Once I’d decided on the colour scheme for each room, I chose the wallpaper I wanted and then chose paint to complement this.
My dollhouse has a lip around the top, bottom and corners of each room, so I chose to paint this in the same colour as the side wall – this lip acts like a skirting board and coving for the rooms.
Sanding for the perfect finish
Before I started painting, I removed any existing wallpaper and glue and cleaned the wood with warm soapy water. I then sanded the wood to remove any stubborn bits of glue and to smooth out the surfaces. Although you don’t have to sand the surface of a dollhouse before painting it, it does make it the end result look much smoother when it’s painted.
If your dollhouse has been painted with gloss paint (the lacquer-style paint usually used for skirting boards and window frames) then it’s worth sanding the top layer of this off so the new paint you use will adhere to it.
Instead of using the sand paper I already had, I bought a sanding block, this was only £2.95 but as I was sanding in a confined space with lots of edges, it made the job much easier.
Choosing the perfect paint
Most types of paint will work on wooden surfaces, but some will look better than others. I found emulsion went on fine but required about three coats to look its best. Emulsion (latex paint in the USA) is the cheapest option for paint as tester pots can cost as little as a couple of pounds.
Emulsion and latex paint are water-based and mainly used for walls and ceilings. This type of paint is one of the most readily available, which means there are hundreds of different colours to choose from and a huge range of finishes too. Emulsion/latex paint is suitable for use in a dollhouse, but it’s best to prime the wood first before applying the paint.
Chalk finish furniture paint was more expensive than emulsion but it required only two coats for a solid finish. I found it easier to apply than emulsion because the paint was thicker.
I chose colours that complemented what the room would be and what wallpaper I’d already chosen. My advice would be to go to a home improvement store or paint specialist and buy a range of testers to see which colours look best and which type of paint works best.
Do I need to prime a wooden dollhouse before painting it?
Primers stop the paint from being absorbed by the wood, it acts as an undercoat which will ensure the top coat of paint looks its best. You don’t have to prime your dollhouse before painting it but it will help to prevent the paint from absorbing into the wood which can cause the wood to warp.
I chose to prime my dollhouse before painting it as some of the walls were already partially painted, so priming the wood first made sure that the surface was all the same bright white shade, before I painted it with a top coat. As the dollhouse had been stored in a damp garage for many years, I also wanted to make sure I did as much as possible to get rid of the musty smell, so I stripped all the walls back and thoroughly washed them before priming.
I used a 250ml tin of Dulux Primer and Undercoat For Wood as my primer as its purposely made for wood and it was what the paint expert in Homebase recommended. It’s also in a small tin so I didn’t need to spend a fortune to prime the wood – this tin cost £9.99 and I used around three quarters of it to prime the entire interior of the dollhouse. I bought mine from Homebase but they don’t have any in stock online at the moment so you can buy it from Amazon for £9.45.
If you want to save some money and have some spare white emulsion then you could use this as a primer, you don’t necessarily need to buy a proper primer.
Choosing the right brushes
Painting a wooden dollhouse can be a really fiddly job so getting the right tools will make it much easier. I used a Harris Easy Clean 0.5 paint brush from Homebase which cost £2.25, rather than using any of the existing brushes I had. Using a smaller paint brush made it much easier to apply the paint and it was very easy to clean too which made it simple to swap between different paint.
I used masking tape for some of the edges, but I left others as I knew I would be papering over them.
What paint I used in each room
So far in the wooden dollhouse I’m working on, I’ve finished painting the following rooms:
- a kitchen
- a dining room
- a living room
- master bedroom
The Kitchen
For the kitchen I wanted to use some wallpaper with lemons on it that I made using Canva (you can download the wallpaper here), so I picked Dulux Golden Sands with a matt finish for the side walls to complement the wallpaper. I do wish I’d gone for a slightly lighter shade of yellow, but I’m sure the lemon wallpaper will brighten it up.
The tester pot for Golden Sands comes with it’s own mini role, which is really useful for covering the walls quickly, although the roller can’t be removed so it does make it a bit tricky to paint the edges of the room.
The Dining Room
I had some wallpaper from My Tiny World which has teal flowers on it for the living room. I chose Elle Decor Enchanted Ivy which comes in a Flat Matt finish which I hope will enhance the teal flowers in the wallpaper. This is a lovely deep green colour which I also plan to use to create some climbing plants on the exterior of the dollhouse.
One issue with using such dark paint on primed white wood is the white showed through, even after three coats of paint. I used this paint on the wooden trim of the room.
The Living Room
Again, I was led by the wallpaper for this room and chose a paint that complemented the blue floral wallpaper I’d already bought from Minimum World. This is where I discovered the ease of furniture paint and covered the side walls with Rust-Oleum Chalky Finish Furniture Paint in duck egg.
The Bedroom
For the master bedroom, I wanted to go all out luxury, so I chose a Mocha Pearl Effect semi-translucent paint by Craig and Rose. The light reflecting properties of this paint mean that it shimmers in the light and provides a luxuriously rich mocha colour.
As I mentioned earlier, the issue with this paint is that it separates really quickly so I had to stir it continuously. As it’s semi-translucent, it took multiple coats to cover the white primed wall.
There you have it, now you know the best options for paint for wooden dollhouses, you can skip to the fun part of picking the best colours and finishes for your dollhouse.
Keep coming back to the blog to see what the rooms look like when they’re finished and to see what colours I choose from the kids’ bedroom and the bathroom!
