When I first started renovating dollhouses, I wasn’t sure which glue to use to stick the flooring down as I wanted to use several different types of materials. As I didn’t know which glue was best, I tested a range to see what would work best for each material.
Mod Podge is the best option for sticking down most dollhouse flooring as it’s quick drying and easy to apply for most materials. However, you may need to use other glues such as wood glue, or even double-sided sticky tape depending on the flooring material.
Whatever flooring material you choose, sticking the material to a cardboard template, rather than directly to the dollhouse floor, makes it easy to remove and change.
Below we take a look at the best glue for sticking down dollhouse flooring.
Sticking down dollhouse paper or cardboard flooring
It’s very difficult to stick paper flooring directly onto a dollhouse floor and achieve a smooth result. Paper flooring is thin and prone to bubbling and revealing uneven flooring underneath. Cardboard is slightly better but can have the same issues as paper, depending on the quality.
The image below shows paper parquet flooring stuck down with Mod Podge. The flooring on the left is made from thick cardboard. The flooring on the right is made from thin paper. Both samples are stuck directly to the dollhouse floor with Mod Podge.
The paper on the right looks awful! This is glossy paper so it’s not as thick as card and has a light sheen on it which actually made the lumps and bumps on the surface of the flooring more obvious.
The cardboard flooring looked great, even when it was stuck directly onto the floor, so if you didn’t want to use a template then definitely choose thick cardboard flooring for your dollhouse.
If you do use cardboard or paper dollhouse flooring then use a cardboard template and stick the flooring down to this. Using a template acts like an underlay as it provides a smooth surface for the flooring and means it can be easily removed.
I spent hours removing paper flooring off the floors in this dollhouse, I’m not sure what glue it was stuck down with, but it’s put me off sticking flooring directly to the floor for good.
You can use double-sided sticky tape, glue dots or a glue stick for paper and cardboard flooring, but again, it’s best to use these with a template. Glue stick glue isn’t very strong so you may find the flooring peels off the template over time.
When it comes to removing the flooring, paper stuck down with anything (other than maybe glue dots) is a nightmare to remove. When I tried to peel off the sample of paper flooring I glued down, it wouldn’t come off in one piece and looks as though it’s going to take warm soapy water and scrubbing to remove it. The cardboard flooring was slightly easier to remove, but it still left a lot of residue.
Best glue for paper or cardboard dollhouse flooring: Mod Podge used on paper or cardboard stuck onto a template, or used to stick cardboard flooring directly onto a dollhouse floor.
Sticking down dollhouse carpet
Many types of dollhouse carpet come with an adhesive backing, which means they can be stuck directly to the dollhouse floor without glue. A word of warning though, I’ve removed adhesive carpet from dollhouses and it’s not an easy task, so unless you’re really sure you’ll never want to change the flooring, I would recommend using a template.
If you have carpet that doesn’t have an adhesive backing, then you can use Mod Podge to stick it directly to the floor. Apply the glue to the floor, rather than the back of the carpet, and focus on getting the glue on the edges of the floor and add a few dots to the middle. To avoid the glue soaking through, use a coffee stirrer to smear it into a thin layer.
You can use double-sided tape to stick down fabric dollhouse flooring, but attach the tape to the dollhouse floor, rather than the fabric. I attached it to the fabric sample and peeling it off was incredibly fiddly!
I tried using a spray adhesive to stick down a fabric sample, but it was difficult to get a thin coat of glue. This meant that the glue bled through the material as soon as I stuck it down. It didn’t matter so much on this particular style of material as the woven pattern hid the excess glue, but it would be more obvious on lighter, plainer materials. After the glue had dried, the fabric was peeling at the edges so spray adhesive (or this one in particular) is not a good choice for dollhouse carpet glue.
In the image below, the top left fabric sample is glued down with spray adhesive, the bottom left is glued with Mod Podge and the bottom right is stuck with double sided-sticky tape.
All the fabric samples were pretty easy to remove. This isn’t the case with self-adhesive dollhouse carpet, which is extremely difficult to remove.
Best glue for sticking down fabric dollhouse flooring: It’s not a glue, but double-sided sticky tape, with Mod Podge a close second.
Sticking down dollhouse wooden flooring
Some wooden dollhouse flooring is self-adhesive so can easily be laid once cut to size. Below is self adhesive wooden flooring I used in one of my dollhouses. I didn’t stick this one down as the lip of the dollhouse held it in place.
If you choose to make your own flooring out of small pieces of wood such as lolly sticks, then you can stick this down with Mod Podge.
You’ll need to cover the floor with glue section by section as you lay the mini floorboards. Covering all the floor with glue in one go will mean that you’ll end up with a sticky mess and patches of glue may have dried by the time you get to sticking the flooring down.
Make sure the glue is spread thinly so it doesn’t spill out between the floor boards. Another hazard of using too much water-based glue is that the water in the glue can cause the flooring to warp, so go easy on the glue. Again, attaching the flooring to a template will be easier, less fiddly and mean you can easily replace the floor if you change your mind.
The image below is courtesy of Gayle Morvan and shows just how useful a flooring template cane be when making DIY wooden dollhouse flooring.
Best glue for wooden dollhouse flooring: Mod Podge, applied sparingly.
You can find out how to make your own dollhouse flooring template with this guide.