I've been asked several times what I made the wooden floor in the dollhouse out of and how. Here's the how and why 🙂
I ordered wooden tongue depressors online. If you do a quick Google search, you'll quickly find some, and they're not even very expensive. I think you can also get them at the pharmacy. I was really looking for tongue depressors because they're bigger than popsicle sticks, and I'd read somewhere that they're easier to cut. Since I wanted to have the entire house (so, six rooms) in the wood floor, sawing every stick didn't seem like a good idea. The tongue depressors I used are 150 mm x 18 mm. You'll also need good wood glue, a ruler, a pencil for marking, and possibly some clamps.
How to do it: First, straighten the rounded ends of a large number of spatulas. I placed them one underneath the other, then used a ruler to mark both ends and cut (be careful of bystanders, as it flies around the room quite a bit, at least in my case). By the way, not all spatulas are straight; they have a bend, so you might have to discard some.
Now take a spatula and place it against the left wall along the front of your dollhouse. Glue it in place and clamp it in place with a glue clamp. Then place another spatula against it with the short end. You'll need to measure and cut the third to size. Now you can place this between the middle and right walls (and it should fit). I then took another long spatula and glued it to the right wall behind the first row, a long spatula in the middle, and then measured and cut another spatula to place it against the left wall. Now continue behind the second row, starting on the left. Work from left to right until the end. You can initially clamp the spatulas with the glue clamps, but not later. I simply placed them down and pressed them down occasionally. It's also best if a spatula is slightly curved to glue it in place with a curved edge. Otherwise, the sides will keep coming loose (trust me, it's very annoying).
In my case, I ended up with about 2.5 spatulas per row, and it fit perfectly towards the back. Of course, this depends on how wide and deep your dollhouse is. You can also easily cut the spatulas lengthwise. I would start at the front, though, so you can measure out the back row when you're ready. I plan to add skirting boards to the surrounding rooms... but hey, we still don't have that everywhere in our own house 🙂
I haven't varnished or sanded the floors, but you could. I think I'll paint the attic floors white or some kind of whitewash. Honestly, I still have to figure out what to do with the hallways.
I hope you find the explanation clear and helpful. Otherwise, please let me know!
(And I promise that next time I will tell you how I made the trendy jute rug).
