DIY Dollhouse – Lighting

Sorry, I know I have been very late with finished the posts on this house. But I’ve been going from fair to fair without much breathing room in between. But I know lots of people are waiting on this so I do apologise for the delay.

At this point the entire house is done and I have gone though and made up all the lamp shades. You might have been doing this as you went along. Its up to you if you make the lamp shades as you go, or just leave them till the end like I did.

Here are all of mine. The good thing is you actually get 6 lights but only need to make 5, so you have one spare.

You can also do a quick test to check the lights are working before going to all the trouble of adding them into your house. Just put a couple of AA battery’s in the battery pack, take one light and touch one end of its white wire to the black wire, and the other white wire to the red wire. You wont get a shock, so don’t worry about that. So that’s white to black and white to red – get that right and hey presto! – We have light! Test out each light to make sure all are working.

Once you have all the lights tested and added to the lamp shades its time to add them to your house. You can follow the steps I have taken, or if you think there is a better way you are, of course, welcome to do it your own way. First step is to glue the lights into their places on the ceiling and run the wire across the ceiling and out through a gap in the wall so that all cords are hanging out the front of the house (by front I mean the side with the front door). A touch of superglue will hold them in place.

Once you have all the cords hanging out through the walls it’s time to tidy them up all. I have chosen the spot I want the battery to sit is on the balcony, you can change this if you want – just ensure where ever you decide to put it is close enough for all the white wires to reach. In the picture above you can see the paths I have taken (click on it for a bigger view).

The red is the bathroom – across the roof-line, down under the roof awning, across the second floor bedroom ceiling and down the window line.
The Blue is the lounge – across the ceiling, out the wall gap, along the second floor lounge/bedroom ceiling and down the window line.
The Green is the bedroom – across the ceiling, out the wall gap, along the bedroom ceiling and down the window line.
The Orange is the kitchen – across the ceiling, out the wall gap, across to the balcony and up through a gap between the balcony and the wall.
The Purple is the Conservatory – across the ceiling, out the wall gap, across to the balcony and up through a gap between the balcony and the wall.

You will need to keep track of the pairs, so it may help to tape each pair together so they don’t get mixed up. Once you have every wire in place a touch of super glue will hold them all in place. Now the scary part, if you don’t want excess wire you need to trim them all back so they all end at that balcony point. I trimmed all the white back without much excess but left the red and black wires on the battery pack long to allow me room to lift the battery pack in and out when changing the batteries.

Once you have all the wires to the right length its time to join it all together. Basically each light has two wires – one goes to the red, one to the black. So you want to take one from each light and twist or solder it onto the red one. And then take the other half of wires and twist or solder them onto the black wire. Soldering is better – it will make a more permanent hold, but just twisting will work you just might find you need to strip back the wires a bit. Once you have the wires all connected then cover them up with some electrical tape to 1) keep it all together, and 2) hide any yucky solder or bulky wires.