This is our ‘Antique House’ project. The electrification of an antique dolls house  is more complicated than electrifying a new house. The most important rule with antiques is to change as little as possible on the house and it’s furnishings and decorating.Never remove the original wallpaper unless you have no choice. To electrify an antique dolls house we have to work from a different point of view. These houses were often made from any wood which was available; therefore, the back sides were made from several types of wood, which made shrinkage of the wood a common problem and little grooves appeared in the back side of the house. We will use the grooves to bring the wires to the back, helped by a simple tool you can make yourself from steel decorator pins. First of all, we will show you how to make these.

Use steel decorator’s pins( the kind used for window displays). You will also need a pair of needle nose pliers and a small side cutter.

Bend the pin with the pliers, see photo.

Cut the remaining part off the pin ( USE EYE PROTECTION! ). You will now have a u-form hook. The point of the pin is a bit longer to go easy into the ceiling.

This photo clearly shows how we fitted the wires to the back of the house with help from our homemade hooks, through a groove that was already there. By using this method the house stays original. Search for lamps for old houses at dolls house fairs, antique shops or on the Internet site Ebay .

Connect the wires at the back to a transformer, attach the wires with isolation tape.

We hope to show you more antique projects in the near future!