Doll House Wiring

Lighting is one way you can really bring your dolls house to life. Lighting adds warmth and a feeling of homeliness to your dolls house and really is something you should consider doing and it is easier than you think.

There are lots of working lights available in miniature and as with your own home you can get ceiling lights, wall lights and table and floor lamps. Miniature lights should all come with a bulb and a miniature plug so you can fit them easily into your dolls house.

The Basics

There are two basic methods for doll house wiring your dolls house: copper tape and the twin wire or socket strip method. Although both are frequently used in dolls houses many dolls house shops and builders recommend the twin wire method as being the easiest for beginners. I will explain both here:

Copper Tape Method of doll house wiring

The copper tape method of doll housw wiring uses a very thin strip of adhesive copper tape to conduct electricity around your dolls house. To use this method you would run two parallel lines of copper tape right around your dolls house forming a continuous loop. If your dolls house is front opening the best option here would be to run the parallel lines right around the back of the dolls house. You can then attach the wires from each light in the house to the copper tape by drilling a tiny hole in the back of the house and passing the wire through. The normal method for attaching wires to the copper tape is to solder them on. Once you have connected your lights you can connect a transformer plug to the copper tape, plug it in and your house should light up.

This method is more often used for houses that are not front opening as the copper tape can be run around the house and hidden under flooring and wall paper. One point I will mention is that copper tape can be eroded by adhesives and does break which is why it is not the favored method of many miniaturists.

The Twin Wire Method of doll house wiring

The twin wire or socket strip method of doll house wiring uses a combination of wires, plugs and sockets to connect lights in your dolls house to a power source. This method is easier to modify, easier to install, is less likely to break and is cheaper than the copper tape method. This is how it works:

Lights are fitted into each room of your dolls house. Lights normally come with 60cm of wire with a standard sized plug on the end. The wire from each light is run either to a point in the house where you have decided to place your socket board or out of the back of the house to where you socket board is attached. In front opening houses it is easy to attach a socket board to back of the house and drill a tiny hole in the back of each room to run you wires through. The plugs at the and of the wire is then plugged into your socket board. You socket board is attached to a transformer which plugs into any normal household socket to supply your house with electricity. It really is that simple.

Socket Board

This is a socket board. As you can see it has several tiny holes along it in which to plug your lights. The wire at the end of the socket board will be attached to a transformer which you can plug into any household socket. These socket boards come in various sizes with any number of plug sockets. They have adhesive backs so they can be easily stuck to your dolls house.

Dolls House lights come with standard plugs which you will find at the end of the wire attached to your dolls house lights. These plugs will fit into the sockets on the socket board.

Transformer Plug
Transformers are used to change our normal household power supply into one that dolls house electric's can handle. The standard transformer used for a dolls house is twelve volts. The number of bulbs you can run off a single transformer depends on the 'watt' value of the transformer. Remember that watts determine the number of bulbs you can run from a single transformer and not the number of lights, therefore a three arm light counts as three bulbs.

If you are using a large amount of lights you should balance them out over two or more socket boards in your doll house wiring. Also you may want to consider using two transformers and two separate lighting circuits if your doll house is large of if you are using a lot of bulbs in each room.

Basically there are three components you need for lighting your doll house; a transformer plug, a socket board (when using the easier socket board method) and lights. I have put together three lighting sets below that contain everything you need to light your doll house. Pictures of the lights are below.

Bathroom Light	Petal Hanging Light	Tiffany Light	Bedroom Light
Tripple Tulip Light	Vintage Lantern	Three Arm Chandelier	Double Tulip Drop Light

For step-bystep-instructions on how to install lighting in your doll house Click Doll House Wiring