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How To… Light A Dolls House US Style
The location of lights in a dolls house should ideally be decided before any internal decorating takes place. If they can be put in place and the wires concealed, the end result will be neat and realistic.
- Decide on the location of your lights (Wall, Ceiling, desk, candles?)
- The number of lights you require will help determine size transformer and socket board you will need.
- Count the total number of bulbs that will be required
- Count the number of lights that will be required (Remember one light may have multiple bulbs.) Each light will take up one plug socket in the socket board. As most socket boards have twelve plug sockets, if you are planning to use more than this then two boards will be needed. You will be able to run multiple boards off a single transformer.
- Add lights to your house, one room at a time. It might help to start on the ground floor and work your way up. Cover the wires up as you work. This can either be done using masking tape or by filing grooves into the walls and floor of the dolls house. Lay the wire along the groove and over with masking tape, a layer of wallpaper or rugs and carpets. Pay particular attention to the room above a room with ceiling lights. Drill a hole in the ceiling, thread the wire through and hide under the flooring.
- Tiled, parqueted and planked floors can be attached to cardboard which is cut to size and then slid into the dolls house. In the event of a fault, it is much easier to access the wires if the floor is not permanently stuck down.
- Paint ceilings before fitting ceiling lights
- Position you socket board, preferably somewhere easy for you to access and yet easily hidden. Socket sets are often attached to the back of the house. Double sided sticky tape should be strong enough to hold in place
- Drill a small hole for each wire to leave the room and connect through to the socket set:-
- Ceiling lights need two holes, one through the ceiling so the wire can run along the floor above and one hold on the back wall to reach the socket set
- Wall lights can be fitted to the back wall (after it has been painted or papered.) One drill hole will feed the wire through to the socket set.
- Wall lights fitted to other walls should exit from the nearest position on the rear wall.
- Desk and floor lamps can be fitted at the end. The wire will be visible as the lamps move around the room. If you are particularly brave, you can drill into the furniture top and feed the wire down to the floor to hide it away better.
- If a wire is to travel a long way before disappearing out of the back wall, it is helpful to cut a small channel or groove for the wire to sit in. Cut or file a “v” shape and sand lightly. Place the wire in the groove, secure with masking tape and decorate as normal
- Remove the light plug by pulling out the two pins using pliers. If you tug the wire very gently the plug should slip off. Feed the wires through the holes and reattach the plugs. Feed one end of the wire into each of the two holes on each side of the plug and refit the pins into their hole.
- Plug each light into the socket board
- Tape any loose wire to the back to the house
- Connect the socket board to the transformer
Click here to learn how to light a dolls house in the UK
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