How-To-Guide

These instructional guides will take you through a sequence of steps that will give you what you need to know to finishing a dollhouse or miniature project. The instructions are written for the novice as well as the more accomplished miniaturist.

Select a topic below for step-by-step help.

These instructional steps above are from the book,

Everything You Wanted to Know About Dollhouses But Didn't Know Who To Ask

The complete instructional guide to finishing a dollhouse or miniature project

by Nancy Van Horn; 30+-year staff miniaturist with miniatures.com Nancy writes that “the purpose of this book is to show the miniature enthusiast the essential techniques for finishing a dollhouse. After both owning a miniature shop and working with miniatures for many years, I found that there are numerous "tricks of the trade" that make the finishing and decorating of dollhouses significantly easier. Many of these ideas I discovered through trial and error; many more came from customers, friends, family, miniature workshops and seminars, books, magazines and House parties.

While this book is an instructional guide to finishing dollhouses, the techniques given are not "cast in stone." Instead, I encourage you to use the techniques in this book as a beginning point for customizing your dollhouse. Once you have mastered these techniques, feel free to experiment.

You will find that many methods used in the "real" or lifesize world also work well with miniatures. In the world of miniature, you can get as precise as you want. However, sometimes I find it necessary to use illusion and scale to eye.

The chapters of this book are arranged in the same fashion as the steps you should take when finishing a dollhouse.”