Some of our dollhouse furniture for 1:6 scale dolls such as Barbie® comes as a flat-pack kit, and several assembled pieces come unpainted. The parts are cut from 2.5-3 mm HDF or MDF board, and you put them together or paint them at home. A kit costs less than an assembled piece, and an unpainted piece can be any colour you like.
Board like this is easy to paint, but it has one weak spot, and it is worth knowing about before you open the paint.
Which of our pieces come as kits or unpainted
- Flat-pack kits: the cube display cabinet (also sold assembled in brown, white, blue or red) and the wooden vegetable crate.
- Assembled but unpainted, natural brown board: the dresser in brown, the modern chair in natural brown, the patio chair and the patio chaise lounge.
What you need
- The kit or the unpainted piece
- Fine sandpaper
- PVA wood glue, for kits
- Primer (a white base coat)
- Paint and a small soft brush
- A damp cloth and a dry cloth
Sand every part lightly
Before you glue anything, go over every part with fine sandpaper. A few light strokes are enough, you are not changing the shape. Sanding takes off the smooth top layer and any loose fibres, so the primer and paint grip much better. Wipe off the dust with a dry cloth.
Assemble first, paint after
We glue the piece together first and paint it once it is assembled. Glue holds best on bare board, and paint on a finished piece covers the joints too, so they do not show. Painting the parts first also puts paint inside the slots, which can make them too tight.
Fit the parts together without glue first, to see where everything goes. Then glue them with PVA wood glue. A thin line is enough. Wipe off any glue that squeezes out with a damp cloth straight away, because dried glue shows through the paint. Leave the piece to dry fully before you prime it.
Prime it
MDF and HDF soak up water, and the cut edges soak it up much faster than the flat sides. If water-based paint goes straight onto bare board, the fibres on the edges swell and turn rough, and that is hard to fix later. A primer seals the board and stops this.
- A primer that is not water-based (oil-based or shellac-based) seals the edges best.
- If you use a water-based primer, put it on in thin coats. Let it dry, sand lightly again and add a second thin coat.
- Give the edges a little extra primer, they take in the most.
Paint
Once the primer is dry, you can treat the piece like real furniture. Furniture paint works, and so does ordinary acrylic or vinyl paint. Two thin coats look better than one thick one. Thick paint also runs into corners and joints and dries there in drips.
If you would rather skip the primer, use paint that is not water-based. That is what our product pages say for unpainted kits, for the same reason.
Colour ideas at 1:6 scale
Small pieces take colour differently from full-size furniture: a strong colour that would be too much on a real chest of drawers looks right on a 17 cm one. Matching a piece to the doll's clothes or to a room box wall is the usual starting point. If you want the board to show, a clear varnish instead of paint keeps the warm brown of the material. Whatever you choose, try it on the underside or the back first, where nobody will see it.
Handle with care
Board is sturdy in use but can break if bent or dropped, and the thin parts of a chair back or a drawer front are the first to go. Carry an assembled piece by its body, not by a leg, and let glue and paint dry fully before you hand it to a child.
Questions we get
Can I use acrylic paint?
Yes, on a primed piece. Acrylic is water-based, so without primer it raises the fibres on the cut edges. Prime first, or use a paint that is not water-based.
Do I have to glue a kit?
The parts slot together, but for play a thin line of PVA glue keeps them from working loose. For a display piece that you may want to take apart again, you can leave it dry-fitted.
Can you paint it for me?
The cube cabinet is sold assembled in four colours, and the dresser in five. For other colours, write to us at mbdinerija@gmail.com before you order.
All pieces are in dollhouse furniture and accessories.