I have to be honest, I thought there was a pretty good possibility that I’d get started on my dollhouse renovation and realize that working in miniature was just too fiddly for me.

And then the dollhouse would become one of those projects that gets shoved aside and never finished.

I think that’s partly why I gave it away in the first place.

But I’m beginning to realize that I can do fiddly things, so I decided to tackle adding some shiplap to the dollhouse.

I started by ordering some wood strips from Miniature Crush.  After they arrived, I gave them all a light sanding with 220 grit paper followed by two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

When creating a faux shiplap wall you intentionally leave a tiny bit of space between each board, you don’t butt them up tightly together.  So you need to be sure that the edges of the boards are painted because it looks obvious if they aren’t.  Therefore, it’s easier to paint the boards before you install them.

Another important step before installing faux shiplap is to paint the wall first.  Because again, it might show through those tiny gaps in the planks of wood.  Especially if your wall has a color on it, or in this case, some floral wallpaper.

That brings me back to the ‘before’ photo of the dollhouse’s main bedroom, which is where I’m putting the shiplap.

Phew!  I really loved some horrible shades of mauve in the 90’s.

Yep, I definitely needed to cover that up first.  So I gave the walls, trim and ceiling two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.

Since I was only going to shiplap one wall, I decided I needed a little bit of contrast between the color on the other walls, the shiplap and all of the trim, so I added just a bit of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage to some Drop Cloth to darken it up a bit and then added that on just the walls that would remain bare.

Then it was time to install the shiplap so I got out my tiny step ladder and my tiny hammers and got to work.

LOL, OK, the actual tool I used was one of these.

This is called a multi angle miter shear cutter, and it worked beautifully for cutting my shiplap.  I didn’t have to cut any fancy angles, just straight cuts.  But down the road I may need it for some angles.  You can find one of these for less than $20 on Amazon, FYI.

I also didn’t really use a tiny hammer and nails, I just used some Titebond Quick and Thick glue to attach my boards to the wall.

I shiplapped (not a real verb, but it works here) the back wall as well as the fireplace surround.

OK, I have to admit that the corner near the bottom is a bit wonky.  But that’s far more noticeable in this photo than it is in person.  Plus, to do this ‘right’, I should have removed the base board, added the shiplap, and then replaced the baseboard over it.  But ain’t nobody got time for that.

Plus, I’m a beginner.  Everything doesn’t have to be perfect, right?

Also, I should note that you can buy 1:12 scale shiplap paneling in sheets, but I think it would be more difficult to cut a full sheet of ‘paneling’ to fit an existing wall.  Whereas these strips were quite easy to cut using my new tool.  In addition, I think shiplap looks more legit when you have staggered seams like I’ve created on the back wall (although in real life you’re supposed to caulk those seams).

What do you think of my fiddly shiplap job?

Not too bad?

I want to encourage any of you who are thinking about tackling your own dollhouse renovation to consider starting with a shiplap wall or two.  It was fairly easy and a real confidence boost when you realize that you can do fiddly things after all!

Be sure to check back on Wednesday for the full reveal of the main bedroom.