Dollhouse Update: Dollhouse Roof and Patio

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Learn how to shingle a dollhouse roof and make slate tiles for a patio.

Things in dollhouse land take about as long as real sized land to happen. Maybe not as long, but they do take much longer than I thought they would.

In case you missed the announcement, Dollhouse Therapy is a fun dollhouse makeover challenge that I’m hosting with Primitive & Proper, Thoughts from Alice, and Nalle’s House. My last update showed my dollhouse roof and exterior paint color.

Since then, I have added window trim, a front door kindly provided by miniatures.com, who we are working with for the Dollhouse Therapy challenge, and patio pavers made from egg cartons.

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Here’s a breakdown of how I’ve made everything.

The siding was made from thin balsa wood panels. I started off scoring each panel to make it look like siding, but I quickly decided to just use a bone folder and make creases instead. I already had a bone folder for paper crafting, but anything dull and pointy would work as well. I used to use an empty ball point pen.

This thin balsa wood was a dream to work with! It’s so thin that it practically cuts like paper. I used a sharp exacto knife.

I painted the siding and corner trim in Ace Hardware Clark and Kensington paint, OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! I love this paint so much. I feel like I talk about it a lot, but the coverage is amazing. Plus, this color is everything. It’s such a great dark navy blue.

How to Shingle a Dollhouse Roof

My dollhouse roof shingles get a lot of comments on Instagram. I bought these cedar shingles.

1. Paint the shingles with a mixture of watered down gray and black acrylic paint.
2. Hot glue each shingle onto the roof in rows. Place them slightly staggered to achieve a more natural look.
3. Overlap each row, trying to vary the shingles as you go.

I painted them one by one at first so that I could get the edges. Then I read that how most people install a dollhouse roof is to glue them on with hot glue and then paint them. So I tried that, but I think I prefer my one by one method.

It was painful trying to get all of the edges and paint each shingle differently. It’s funny because my techniques that look pretty amazing are pretty lazy. 😉 The arrow points to a painted shingle. You can see that the coverage is not perfect.

For the windows, I painted popsicle sticks white and cut the rounded parts off to size, then glued them on. I use a lot of masking tape to help hold stuff on. My favorite glue is tacky glue. I’ve almost exhausted my bottle and I’m only just beginning my dollhouse.

Installing the Door in the Dollhouse

The door came with a template for the door opening to size. I drew it out with a white pencil and removed the siding where I needed to. Luckily the width was perfect.

The height needed another inch off. This part was scary. I drilled pilot holes and used a jigsaw to cut the rest. Then I removed the plastic “glass” panels and painted the door and trim, before gluing it in.

I used a mixture of a few different mustard yellow and gold craft paints. I’m in love with this door. I wish it were life sized! I still need to add a door knob.

How to Make Dollhouse Slate Tiles for a Patio

1. Paint the patio area gray so that white does not show under the pavers.
2. Cut apart a paper egg carton. You want the flat parts.
3. The inside of the egg carton has a nice texture than imitates stone, but you can use the smoother side if you want.
4. Use watered down gray and black paint for the tiles.
5. Cut the egg carton into varied sizes and shapes to replicate slate.
6. Glue them onto the porch.
7. Paint any edges if needed.
8. Dry brush with gray and white to add more dimension to the tiles.

Still to do:

• Decide if I want to add shutters
• Decide if I want a covered a porch (which would mean more dollhouse roof shingles!)
• Door knob
• Porch light
• Mossy “mortar”
• Side grass

Note: All of the background papers are sneak peeks at wallpaper. 

I’m having way too much fun with this.

Want to see how the dollhouse turned out?

Click here for the reveal!

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