1/12 Scale Dollhouse Wood Plank Flooring

I’ve been installing wood flooring in my Bellingham farmhouse kitchen. I’ve been using 3/8 ” wide craft sticks, a.k.a. popsicle sticks, which are equivalent to 4.5″ wide planks in real life. That seems about right, although I really don’t know. Our own house, which was built around 1930 has wood flooring with 2.25″ wide planks, but that seems more modern to me than this dollhouse, which is an architectural style that is at least 40 years prior to that.

I started by sawing the ends of all the craft sticks off with a small Exacto miter box saw. This takes longer than you’d think. Then I made a paper template of the kitchen floor. Some of the sticks I kept at whole length and some I sawed in half. This caused the planks to be staggered. Then I laid them on the paper with double-sided tape. At the end of each row, I cut the last stick to the proper length. After I got a bunch of the pattern laid out, I stained the whole thing with Minwax stain and polyeurethane in oak color. It’s what I had, but if I did it again, I’d go darker. Maybe I will in the living room later.

When it was dry, I removed each stick from the paper, and glued it to the floor in the same layout. I used wood glue, but I think maybe rubber cement or hobetac would have been better, because then there would have been some flexibility as everything dried completely. You can see in the picture that a few boards warped a little when they dried. I guess it gives it a very rustic, realistic look.

Here is part of the finished floor:

I think it’s turning out pretty well. Can’t wait to get it finished, so I can move all my kitchen cupboards back in. I spent way too much on this set, but I just had to have it. It is very realistic with doors that open. I just love that. I spray painted the fridge to look like stainless steel. It was wood when it came, and I thought: “Who has a wooden refrigerator?” That had to be fixed. I don’t really like the stovetop either, so I’ll probably change that up to make it look like a gas stovetop. My mini people have to cook with gas!

Before I can move everything back in, I have to finish the tin tile ceiling (post to come on that later), and get all the trim up.