DIY : Wooden Floors

Hello everyone

Today I thought we might talk a little bit about how you can make your own wooden floors. 

Don't worry, I'm not talking about difficult inlay techniques or such, just simple plain wooden floornig with wood stripes

 For a first try, I would recommand using balsa wood, it's extremely light and easy to handle, very easy to cut and to color. OK, it breaks easily too, but still, if you want to try yourself at making your own floors for your dollhouse or room box, it might be easier to start with balsa wood. You may of course use any other wood of your choice. 

The balsa wood usually comes in size 10 cm to 100 cm and in different thicknesses. I always use 2 or 3 mm thick balsa wood. Remember, it's 12 times the real size, so keep your calculator around if you're not sure. 

First thing : you need to measure the room where you intend to put your wooden floor in. You can cut your balsa wood either into pieces the length or the width of your room, that's up to you. It depends on what you want the end result to look like.

You should sand the pieces before you start with anything else, to smooth the surface. You can then apply at least one coat of wood sealer, otherwise the wood color you're gonna use will be soaked up completely and you wood pieces will most certainly start to bend on the sides. If they do, put them under a few heavy books over night, that should help. To give your wood a natural wood color, I think it's best to use wood dye. You can find these in hobby and dollhouse stores. If you have wooden garden furniture (real life size) and you are treating those with wood color, you can use that one too of course. Just be careful to work in a well ventilated area, always keep at least a window open when you are work with such products. And also, you might wanna use gloves !!!

Once you have painted or stained your wood, let it dry over night if possible. If you're not happy with the result, sand them again and put on another coat (but remember : the more coats you will put on, the darker the color will get). 

Then comes the fun part : you have to cut your pieces. If you're not sure about the size (width) just take a look around if you have wooden floors in your house. The width of each piece should be the same, but the length may vary, that's completely up to you. I think it looks nicer and more realistic if you cut your pieces into different length. It's a little tricky to cut them all the same width, but with a little practice, you'll see, it will get better. That's why I would recommend to color and cut a little more wood than you need for the size of your room :)

This picture shows the progress ..... and helps to see if all the pieces are the correct size

They are not yet glued !!!

Once you've cut all your pieces, here's some advice : DO NOT GLUE THEM DIRECTLY TO THE FLOOR !! If you change your mind or make a mistake, it will be very messy to get them off again.

What I do is cut a piece of cardboard the exact size of my floor and put double sided tape on it. Then and only then, I start gluying the pieces to the cardboard. And once the entire area is covered, I use double sided tape again to attach it to the floor in the dollhouse.

Feel free to get in touch should you have additional questions

See ya 

👀👀👀