Page 10

The Roof of the Dollhouse

The front part of the roof is hinged so we can use the third floor. You don't have to do this. If you only want to use 2 floors, nail both roof poeces on.

I used 4 small hinges to attach the roof to the beam. Make sure you use short screws. We don't want the screws to poke up through the roof.

You can shingle and paint your roof at any time, but it is much easier to have it all finished before you install it.

I don't put the roof onto the dollhouse until the rest of the dollhouse is finished, just because it is easier to move the dollhouse to work on without the roof on.

The back roof needs to be nailed and glued on.The same way the walls were assembled. The front roof has to be hinged onto the roof beam.

You can purchase folding brackets to hold the the roof up when you want it open, or you can do the same as me, use a stick.

ROOF SHINGLES

There are lots of great shingles you can buy from commercial dollhouse suppliers.
My son came up with idea to make the dollhouse roof shingles from sandpaper.
It is relatively inexpensive and easy, two words I love, inexpensive and easy.
If you want to give it a try , read on.

You need to cut the sandpaper into 1 inch strips .

Then cut the strips halfway across to make the shingles. To speed this job up, I made a little template .

You can paint the sandpaper shingles before or after you glue them onto the roof.

The Chimney

The chimney began as a block of wood.

The base has to be cut at a 45-degree angle.

First I covered the block of wood with polyfilla.

When that dried I painted the whole thing with various brick colors, you can be as messy as you like.

After the paint dried , I scratched out the brick shapes.
A few scraps of balsa painted a terra cotta colour make the chimney pots.