How to put a small bit of wallpaper in your dollhouse...

In an earlier post I told how I put full walls of wall paper in a wooden doll house.  This post will tell how I do smaller bits of wallpaper... for example, a painted top and wallpapered bottom.  This method also works for installing borders.  Remember things look better in "thirds" rather than "halves".  (for example, paint 2/3 of the wall and wallpaper 1/3... or wallpaper 2/3 and paint 1/3...)

1. Measure and cut  your wallpaper
2. Always have your wallpaper go continuously around a corner... don't have it stop at a corner or a dark "gap" will show when you're all done.  To make this easier, crease/fold the wallpaper piece where the corner will end up.
3. Use an old magazine and lay a piece(s) of your wallpaper upside down on it.
4. Smear tacky glue all over the back of it, paying special attention to the edges.
5. Quickly go wash and dry your hands, or keep a wet rag handy to wipe the glue off your fingers before pressing the wallpaper into place.
6. Turn the magazine page, and you have another fresh surface for gluing the next piece!

Doll house butterfly wallpaper - free printable download!

Here is some more homemade dollhouse wallpaper... butterflies this time... personal use only, thanks!

More free printable dollhouse wallpaper and border for you to download!

Here are various kinds of pink flowered doll house wallpaper and border for you to use free for personal use.  Have fun!

This last one is a sheet of pink daisy border:

Free Printable dollhouse wallpaper: candy stripes with pink scallops and colored dots with pink bead border

Here are two more free doll house wall papers for you to download... You can trim the scallops or beads and hang it on a partially painted wall, or you can cover the whole wall with it.  As always, personal use only please.

A quick dollhouse border...

You scrapbookers likely already know about this! But I just discovered the self-adhesive ribbon that craft stores sell in the scrapbooking section... there are all kinds of doll house sized "borders", and better yet, they have adhesive on the back of them, so you just peel and stick! No need to deal with gluey fingers! Here's a picture of a kitchen I just did with an apple border and yellow scrapbooking paper wallpaper...

More free printable doll house wallpaper for you - this one is extremely bright colors

One thing that sometimes is fun to do in a dollhouse is decorate a "kid's room" with popular kid themes... this can be difficult because of copyright laws. You can create your own, but not distribute them... that being said, I won't post any like that here, but here's one simple thing you can do... right now Wal-Mart (likely other craft stores too) has a cute Hello Kitty ribbon that is the perfect scale for a doll house. So I designed a coordinating striped wallpaper... you could paper the entire wall and put the border at the top, or paper just 1/3 or 2/3 of the wall, paint the rest, and "join" the two with the ribbon border. Here is a picture of the ribbon so you know which one I'm talking about (the flash distorted the color a bit), as well as the free wallpaper download.

Free printable bathroom doll house wallpaper and linoleum set for you!

Print your own matching dollhouse wallpaper and linoleum set! For instructions on how to hang the wallpaper, visit this post. For instructions on how to lay the linoleum, visit this post. As always, free for you to use, no resale please. Have fun!

More free printable doll house wallpaper

Here's some more free printable dollhouse wallpaper for you... follow the instructions in the previous post.  You can also cut the paper right above the border and install it on a painted wall.  As always, free for you to use, no resale please.  Have fun!  

Free printable dollhouse wallpaper!

Here is some free printable doll house wallpaper for you... print it, cut to size, lightly mist with Matte Clear Acrylic Sealer if desired (it creates a more realistic sheen and feel), and glue to your wall!  (With this type of print-your-own dollhouse wallpaper, you should put very small amounts of glue directly on the wall of the dollhouse and then press your printed paper onto it.  Otherwise the paper curls up and is extremely frustrating to work with.)  This wall paper has its border "built in".  I created this using Adobe Photoshop Elements - if you're familiar with the program you can create your own - exactly the color and pattern(s) you need!  Click on this picture to see it larger, then right click and save to your computer.  For personal use only, not for re-sale.

I should add, several years ago my mother taught me to tat... I can't remember which of us tatted this butterfly, but that is what the faint shape is in the top part of the wallpaper!  Thanks mom :)  

Making custom borders for your dollhouse

You can create and print custom borders for your dollhouse using clip art, or by drawing and scanning your own shapes.  Then using either a  picture editing program or a word processing program, copy and paste the shape over and over.  Print, cut, and paste to your dollhouse walls!  If you use an ink jet printer, be sure and let the ink dry before you glue, otherwise the ink will run.  I tried covering the border in this picture with clear laminating paper, but I think it would look better without it.  Before cutting out your border, you could also lightly spray it a couple times with clear acrylic sealer to give it a more realistic look.  

Making borders for your dollhouse using scrapbooking paper

Another great way to make borders for your dollhouse is using scrapbooking paper.  Cut thin strips, measure, and glue!  Here is an example (not actually a small enough print in my opionion, but it was what we had at the time).  

Making borders for your dollhouse using ribbon

Ribbon is a fun way to add borders to your dollhouse.  Solid colors or ones with small prints work best.  Just measure, cut, and glue!  Here are some examples to get you started on your own ideas!  Click on a picture to enlarge it.