Miniature lighting and wiring for projects for dollhouses, room boxes, and dioramas
See Also Candles, Chandeliers, Lanterns
Lights make dollhouses so magical.
Links to miniature projects
- photo albums, blog posts, web pages
Lamps - from Littleroomers blog
Lamps - by Merja
Lamps - various styles by Potinperä
Blogs
- Blogs concentrating on lighting or categories/labels about it in blogs
LED Lighting for Dollhouses - by Judy R
Matxalen/Lamparas
Groups
- Discussion groups, forums (or forum categories) and photo groups dedicated to lighting.
Supplies for sale
- Supplies needed for making lighting projects.
All Electronics
Battery Powered LED Lights - Victoria Miniland
Creative Reproductions - Jimmy Landers
Digi-Key
Dolls House Mall - Light switches, wall sockets
Eldorado Dolls House - sell electrics and other things the UK
Evan Designs Model Train Software - Hobby LEDs for model trains, RC, diecast.
Jameco
JAR-JAF Miniatures
Lighting Bug Ltd
Little Dollhouse Company
Luminations by Mr. K - Tim Kraft, will do commissions
Manhattan Dollhouse
Matlock -for electrics and lights and transformers
Model Train Software - lights for minis, THE definitive expert on LEDs and adapting them to your dollhouse, room box. The site is very informative.
Ray Storey Lighting - Tudor to Edwardian
Test Probe - for checking connections, from Miniatures.com
Whitstable Scene - sell electrics by Cosy Corners the UK
LEDs
Creative Reproductions 2 Scale - Jimmy Landers uses LED strips to supplement room lighting with fantastic results.
Novalyte - strip lighting, as used here
Real Good Toys - supplies to install supplemental LED lighting and a useful guide for installing LED Extrabrite Quickstrips that is a downloadable PDF.
DIY Miniature Dollhouse Lighting - from Mimo Doll house
Lighting Videos - from Little Houses Plus and small
Solar
Miniatures for sale
- Do you have a section for lighting in your shop? Add a direct link to that item here.
Books
- Books about miniature lighting projects (also books with chapters about it)
Dollhouse Lighting, Electrification in Miniature - by Barbara Warner
Instructions for miniatures
Miniature printables
Wallpapers
- Wallpapers that go well with lighting projects
Other Printies
- Book/magazine covers related to lighting
Links
- links to sites showing how to make items related to lighting
Basic Understanding of LED Lighting for Miniatures - from JAR-JAF Miniature
Battery Lighting - from 1 Inch Minis
Coin Cell Batteries for your Scale Miniatures - from Sandra McCall.com, how to hide a battery for a lamp in your scene
Crystal Chandelier - Dada's Dollhouse
Drum-style Ceiling Light - from Dillydally Dollhouse
Elecrifying Your Dollhouse - from Earthntree
Flickering LED's - from $ store Candles, by Japan Rail Modelers from Washington DC
Installing LED Spotlights in a Roombox - from JS Miniatures
LED wiring - from Model Train Software
Miniature Lighting - Pinterest board by Kathleen Heron. Lots of ideas, tuts
Paper Lampshade - by Nina
Rosettes - Dada's Dollhouse
Tips for using LED's and FAQ - from Model Train Software
Tutorials, Lighting, and Candles - Pinterest Board by Pauline Coombs
Wiring your Dollhouse - by Grace Shaw
Wiring Your Dollhouse - from Dollhouse Workshop,
Non-electrified
1:48 scale Kerosene Table Lamps - by Anna-Carin Betzén
Christmas Candlestick - Miniatur' Site
Contemporary Shell Lamp - 1 Inch Minis by Kris
Hanging Lamp from Fish-hook - by Maureen Heuchert
Floor Lamp - by Maureen Heuchert
Lanterns - from paper
Make a Miniature Lampshade - CDHM tutorial by Pat Carlson
Miniature Chandelier - Mis Primeras Miniaturas
Miniature Hanging Light Fixture - from Dollar Store Crafts
Miniature Lantern - by Magsim
Muller style suspension light fixture - by Magsim
Non-working Fluorescent Light Fixture and Bulb - from Kathie's minis
Supplies, Instructions - T2T Lampshade
Electrified
Chandeliers - Dada's Dollhouse
Crystal Chandelier - Dada's Dollhouse
Floor Lamp - by My Little Little Dream
How to Chose a Lighting System - from The Spruce
Lamp Harp - from Miss Kris, 1-inch minis
Learn to Tapewire Dollhouse - CDHM tutorial by Amanda Thomas
LED Tutorial - downloadable PDF
Luminarias or Farolitos in Several Scales - from The Spruce
Lighting Tutorial - from Mitchymoo Miniatures
Lights for a Cardboard Dollhouse - from Ikat Bag
Making Modern Strip Lights - from JS Miniatures
Pully Lamp - Marion Russek
Recycling Christmas Lights - Brilliant idea and so cheap! All you need is electric light and a battery, along with electrical tape!
Titanic Swarovski Lamps - The Titanic in Miniature
Wall Sconce - by Tuula
Wiring Tutorial - by Hobby House
Videos
- YouTube videos about miniature projects related to this subject
Easy Chrystal Chandelier - by Yami Light House
Easy Lampshade - from Yami Lighthouse
Install Solar Lighting in a Beachside Bungalow - from Mini a Day
Origami Pendant light shade - from Yami Lighthouse
Soldering Basics - from DPM Electronics
QS Lighting Tut - by Michelle Miller
Tapewire TUT:
There are several how-tos on Youtube about using heat shrink tubing. Once you skim past the initial advertising, this is most informative. For one thing, it answers questions about heat sources and joining wires side-by-side.
Lighting Research/ Inspiration
Old House Lights Antique Lighting Catalogues
Miniature Lighting Tips/Hints
- Use drinking straws for running all the electric wires through under the house. Keeps them neat and they don't sag. Glue the straw to the underside of the house
- When joining wires, make sure they only touch where they are to be joined. When you have to join two wires, make one shorter than the other so that the joins won't be next to each other, then you know they'll never be able to touch and short out.test each joint before proceeding.
- Why are wire gauges numbered backward, larger wires with smaller numbers, and vice versa? A wire's gauge is linked to how many times the wire is pulled through progressively smaller dies, or traditionally holes in draw plates. So that means the 28-gauge wire is pulled through steel plates 28 times to get that small."
- The pull tops from dish liquid bottles make good ceiling fixtures. First, separate the up and down "pull" portion from the bottle top. Once that part is removed, it leaves a "stem" that will become the portion of the fixture that attaches to the ceiling. Use LED lighting strips and insert the hardwired strip into the cap, threading the wire through the stem opening in the top where the dish liquid would come out. Just glue the cap to the ceiling and hide your wires as usual and Voila!
- You can use an LED for the light transmitter for a fiber optic bundle. There are lots of online tutorials for wiring LEDs and proceed.Cut a piece of solid color heat shrink tubing that will fit over the round type of LED and the end of the fiber optic bundle and shrink it to make the connection. Heat shrink helps keep the light source from being visible as well as holding the fibers against the LED. Plus it is inexpensive and easy to do.Fiber optic strands can't take sharp bends. The minimum radius of a bend they can make depends on the diameter of the fibers. There will be charts online for this if you search for it.Search on Youtube and look at some of the videos on using fiber optic lighting for scale models
- Look for LED light holders wherever you buy car parts.They work on 12 volts so are perfectly suited for mini lights. They are also very small and do not heat up, so no fancy insulation tricks are needed. The bulbs last for thousands of hours can be hooked up to an on-off switch. A smallholder that binds all the fiber ends together is placed a few millimeters above the light, and the other end will shine very brightly when the light is turned on.
- LEDs are the way to go with fiber optics, and if you wire your own you have all the colors to choose from! Fitting five, 5mm LEDs (red, green, blue, yellow and white) under a 1:12 scale tree isn't difficult. If you have a party or wedding supply store near you, or a "dollar store" you can often find cheap bundles of fiber optics and LEDs sold as play wands, hair clips, etc. and "hack" them for the parts. This is a pretty good way to get low-cost strands, as some of the fiber-optic suppliers charge a fair amount for their strands or cables. For example, an LED wand flashlight for less than $2.00 from a party supply place disassembled, yields a bundle of fiber optic strands, LED, switch, and battery clip. Some of the novelty items in party supply stores even contain modules for flashing lights. Search for LED fiber optic novelty items on the web too, but drawbacks are delivery time, and bulk orders are often required.
- The fiber optic strands work best when the ends are cut as straight and cleanly as possible (though they will work with really clean angle cuts, obviously the more light you get into one end of the strand, the more comes out the other end).
LED Battery Life
- A quick and dirty estimate of the battery life - divide the battery's mAh (milliamp hours - usually printed on the battery exterior) by 20 (most white LEDs use 20 ma). So if your battery is rated at 980 mAh, then you'll get about 49 hours of use. This is just an estimate!
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Run the tape wires along the floor and just run a tape to where you want a light. This works excellent for chandeliers in the room below as well. Drill a tiny hole through the floor/ceiling and pull the wire up through the hole. You don't have to deal with that pesky bit of extra wire or fuss with the chandelier button attachments. Plus, if you want don't completely glue down the flooring, you have easy access to the wire if you need to repair.
Another little trick is to run a bit of clear tape over the tape wire....especially the ends, intersections, and especially where a light fixture has been joined. It saves re-connecting if you accidentally pull on the fixture wire while decorating.
Ideas about what is needed for these projects
Kitchen Chandeliers
- ideas for shop names
- YouTube videos on the subject
Facebook Links
Dwell in the House of the Dolls
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