Urban Town Dollhouse: Lighting Tutorial

There is nothing more magical than a lit dollhouse!  Today's post will explain how I lit my Urban Town kit, and some tips from my experience.

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The Urban Town Dollhouse was designed by me and is sold by miniatures.com

I used Mega LEDs for the first time with this house, and I have to say they are amazing for 3/8" MDF! They shine beautifully and illuminate the space.  And I really like the warm white colour.  It's soft white without being too yellow.

I'm going to start off with a big disclaimer.  I regret not doing 3volt Mega LEDs.  I did 5-12 volt.  

Why?  Because 3volt LEDs don't need resistors.  And that means you don't need to spend time digging out channels and finding ways to separate the resistors so they don't get hot.  I did 5-12 volt so that I could mix in dollhouse incandescent lights.  But I quickly realized, these days most modern style dollhouse lights pretty much run on batteries and I didn't need the extra voltage after all.  This wasn't the case a few years ago.

I have used Chip LEDs in my past dollhouses like the Belmont but they are very yellow and not as bright. In previous roomboxes I've used 3mm and 5mm LEDs which have more of a spot light effect and are again not as bright and very yellow.  Now I did test and find that the Deka LEDs are nice, but I think they work better for 1/4" thick MDF or less.  The Urban Town has 3/8" thick floors.  You can see the differences in the test images below.

So here is what I suggest:
-Mega 3volt LEDs by Evan Designs in the colour Warm White
-3volt power adapter with 2amps (runs 50+ LEDs)
-Shrink tube  I like the variety pack
-hook up wire
-wire stripper and cutter tool 30-20 AWG Canada Link , US Link
-eyelets (I did 1/4", 6mm but a little bigger would have been fine too) Canada Link , US Link

-Alligator Clips for testing (makes life so so much easier than having to twist wires all the time) Canada link , US link

I like a plug in power source over battery, especially when running this many lights.  I find the lights tend to dim fast with a battery.

And again if you want to mix in your incandescent 9volt battery lights, upgrade your LEDs to 5-12volt and the power adaptor to 12 volt with 2amps.  But take note you'll need to separate the resistors at least 1/4" apart in the channels so they don't get hot.  I think it might be helpful to try using already bundled options like this 4 light strand in 5-12volt.

Before we begin, let's take a look at the different LEDs.  I just want to point out, that while the Deka looked good taped to the ceiling, once I put them through the drilled holes they were dimmed considerably.  I went with the Mega, and 6 in a room.

Note the sticky post-it in each image:

Let's get started!

I taped up my dollhouse with masking tape (dry fit) so I could plot out visually where I wanted to put my lights. This isn't a perfect illustration because the light will need to shine through the drilled holes, but it does give a pretty good idea of how many will look good.

Part of why I liked putting the house in a dry fit was so that I could easily line where the walls were.  (You do need to be careful though to not knock over your house and break any walls, use masking tape!)

I drilled holes on the painted ceiling side. I sometimes find the wood splits on the other side of the mdf when the drill pulls through.  I took a palm sander to soften any little raised bits, then repainted the ceiling later.

Channel making:
If you are doing 3volt LEDs with a thick wood floor, you might be able to get away without making channels.  You won't be hiding resistors, only elongating your wires with hookup wire to make the distance. You could use a utility knife to pry away little holes in the MDF for your hookup wire connections instead of using a Dremel.  Easy.

However since I picked the 5-12volt option I had to hide my connections AND resistors.

So I used the Dremel Trio to create channels for the wires.  This tool is discontinued, but I found it used.  It's advantage is you can drill channels in an already assembled dollhouse because of the height clearance.  

There is another Dremel router attachment that works similarly and is widely available.  It attaches to the regular Dremel tool and is a better price.  Works the same, it's just taller. USA HERE , CANADA HERE

Try to curve some of your channels. You want the easiest (and shortest) distance to your exit point.  I made extra puddles to hide the extra wire lengths and resistors.

I set the Dremel extra deep when I crossed over the wall grooves, just in those areas.  The rest I would say I set the depth close to 1/8".

I spray painted my eyelets white, let them dry and then used tacky glue to secure them to the ceiling. Let everything dry.

I then glued together my dollhouse.  After it was dry, I drilled exit points for my wiring.  I started with a smaller drill bit, and then redid the hole with a larger one.  I also went in and drilled again from the inside.

I placed in my lights and held them with masking tape.  I tended to bundle my lights per room/area.  So the bathroom is one set.  I twisted all the red together, and all the black, and then added one length each of hook up wire.  I covered these connections with shrink tube, and a blast of hot air from my blow dryer.  I snaked each of these lines out the back and to my power source.  

I do recommend testing your lights before securing the shrink tube with hot air.  Now is the time to fix anything before you've closed it up.  Otherwise if you notice a light not on later (like I did) it's a lot to go back and fix it.

Then I pulled the hook up wire through the rest of the house to the exit point.

Now, for those of you going with 5-12 volt.  This is key.  You have to space out your resistors 1/4" apart.  I originally had mine bundled together in tight groupings, which caused them to heat up like crazy.  Burn to the touch sort of thing.  Evan's let me know I had to go back and separate them.  The resistors help disperse the heat and regulate the voltage and they can't do that if they are bundled together.  This is easier said than done, because you have to have enough space to spread them out.  Again, this is why I suggest 3volt going forward.

Inside 2nd floor over the living room:

3rd Floor:

On rooftop deck:

Now, if like me you realize after assembly you didn't make enough channels or it's too awkward to run lights in a certain way, just take a utility knife and pry away some more mdf.  The MDF is so soft, I didn't have a problem.

I decided to run my lights out the side of the house down one line.  Mostly because I finished the exterior before the interior for marketing purposes.  You will have more flexibility if you are adding siding after you have your wires installed. 

I used Miniatures.com 1/2" U channel #7168 and 3/8" U channel #7167 to hide my wires.  First I cut 3 pieces of 3/8" channel and spaced them along my wires with a ruler.  Then I slotted the 1/2" channel over top, it's a tight fit but if you aren't taking if off all the time I think it works well.  I needed two pieces of 1/2" channel because the house is taller than 24"

I placed all my wires into a little shed I made, and then ran out a single black and red wire to hook up to my power source

Hope that helps inspire you to light your dollhouse!  Feel free to ask questions below.

Full Urban Town Dollhouse series posts:

Reveal

Making the Kit Behind the Scenes

Assembly

Exterior

Lighting

Interior