STAIRCASES

STAIRCASE TUTORIAL

DIY – 1:6  Scale Diorama Staircases

MATERIALS NEEDED

 

Foam Board 1/4"

Foam Board 1/4"

Cutting Tool - Medium Duty

Cutting Tool - Medium Duty

Decorative Tacks

Decorative Tacks

Duck Tape

Duck Tape

Foam Board 1/2"

Foam Board 1/2"

Ruler - L-Shaped

Ruler - L-Shaped

Sewing Pins - Flat Head

Sewing Pins - Flat Head

Dowel - Balsa Wood Strips

Dowel - Balsa Wood Strips

Contact Paper

Contact Paper

Jewelry Beads

Jewelry Beads

Hair Clip

Hair Clip

Dowel - wooden

Dowel - wooden

Cutting Tool

Cutting Tool

Decorative Paper

Decorative Paper

Sewing Pins - Ball Head

Sewing Pins - Ball Head

Masking Tape

Masking Tape

THE PLAN & INSPIRATION

First determine the amount of space within the diorama that the staircase needs to fit in.  That will determine how tall your stair Rise + Run will be, and the angle of the stair wall. 

Most of my stairs have a 1″ Rise (height of next step) and 1.5″ Run (step), because my dioramas are at least 30″ inches depth or more.  If you have a much smaller diorama, you can either increase the angle up, make the rise 1.5″ inches, or change a straight staircase up to a multi-directional with a landing stairwell.  The more directions your stairs change, the larger your staircase will be within the diorama.

Also, think about the materials you will be using to create your stairs.  Foam board is my favorite building material because it’s easy to cut, construct and take down when I’m finished with the diorama.  Unfortunately, foam board can’t create rounded corners, curvy stairs, or intricate railings, etc.  Everything needs to be straight with corners. Plus painting it is difficult since it’s paper-based and gets mushy or warps. 

If you’re skilled in woodworking, have a large amazing 3-D printer, or have a any other type of plastic molding skills and equipment, then the sky is the limit. I want to read your tutorial. I’m eyeing 3-D printers hard right now.   Until then, my tutorials are based in paper products.

Try to model your stairs after real ones as best as you can.  Any attempt is a good one as staircases are the one of the best diorama tools to photograph your dolls on or near.

Plan the shape first, then measure start and stop distance to determine how tall your stairs need to be. Also, how high up do you need the stairs to go up to get to your 2nd floor? Will you have an actual 2nd floor landing? Or are these stairs just for photos on the 1st floor with the top of the stairs not showing?

2nd floor landings will need stair railings (see the ones I made below).  The more complicated you make the staircase, the more you’ll need to use materials like wood, 3-D printing etc.  

 

USE REAL STAIRCASES FOR INSPIRATION

STAIRCASE CONSTRUCTION

Start with the right and left side walls of the stairs.  Either the walls with be:

  1. Full walls to the floor
  2. A thin diagonal strip on either side of the staircase.

On a 20″ x 30″ Foam board (you decide 1/2 or 1/4″ thickness), measure, then draw lines 1″ up, then 1″ right, 1″ up, 1″ right.  Cut the zig/zap for the stairs perfectly straight.  When finished, place them side by side to make sure they match.

For full walls that go to the floor, cut a back wall and Pin and/or glue it to the two side walls to make it a structure that will stand on it’s own. 

Measure & Cut strips of steps  from the foam board, size may vary, most of mine are 1.5″ depth and the width varies on the space I have for stairs in the diorama.  Measure and cut the rise strips and begin to pin them to the right and left side of the stair wall. I don’t normally wrap them in wood grain contact paper, but it’s an option. 

Wrap wood replica contact paper around the steps.

If the staircase if more permanent, glue rise and steps together to the left and right walls.  If you need to take this staircase apart later like I do, use flat head sewing pins to put the whole unit together.

If the staircase don’t have any railing or walls, to cover the cut edges, I’ve covered them with thin strips of contact paper (see the photos in the gallery below). 

STAIRCASE CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS

 

STAIR RAILING

With my building methods there are many railing choices for both on the stairs and on the 2nd floor landing. 

  1. Full walls on both sides
  2. Half walls on one side
  3. No wall or rail on one side
  4. Bar on the wall
  5. Balsa wood railing 

#1 Full Walls both sides – As soon as I figure out how to light and pose dolls in that kind of very tight space with walls on both sides I’ll build this. 

#5 Balsa Wood Railing – I have yet to spend the time to make an entire railing out of Balsa wood dowels, that’s a lot of precise cutting and gluing involved. But it’s on my list of things to try, so when I do, I’ll upload it to this page.

My examples are for 2-4 above.

#4 Bar on the wall is the easiest. The photo to the right shows an example.  It just takes a cut dowel, which can be painted or not, and two flat jewelry metal beads pinned to the wall with flat sewing pins.  Put two-sided tape or glue on the flat beads to make the dowel stick to them, and instant bar railing. 

 

 

Solid Half Wall rails are the next easiest to make since it’s just a higher side wall to the stairs.  The angle of the stair accent has to match the wall. 

In the past I’ve painted flat Balsa wood strips white and either glued or taped them to the stair wall.  This works best when the right and left stair walls are made of 1/2″ thick foam board.  

 

Half Walls with cutout patterns is another way to give the railing flair and make a focal point in the room for the staircase. 

Draw a pattern on the railing half wall and cut out the pattern with the cutting tool.  I’ve also added balsa wood dowels and transparent non-sticky kitchen drawer contact paper to create wood railing or glass railing looks.

Check out the photos below of other railings.

HALF WALL STAIR RAILINGS

 

SECOND FLOOR

Second story floors have been challenging for me for many reasons.  

The sheer size of a two-story set with each floor being 16″ high or more is tough to build in my space since the table I’m working on is already a barstool high table.  I need a step ladder just to get up there.  That’s a strain on my back to build with my arms up leaning in on a ladder.  Then when I’m posing dolls in the set and trying to light both floors I also need to be on the step ladder. 

Lighting a set when there’s another room on top of it is extremely difficult. For my latest diorama City Loft used in ‘Sister Williams’ I used battery operated bars of LED lights lodged into the 1/2″ thick ceiling to help light the room.

The City Loft was in such a small area I needed to cheat on the staircase. I purchased a very light weight wood circular staircase from a Russian vendor on eBay.  I then made the 2nd floor height hit right where the stairs would end to make the diorama work.

So far this is the largest 2nd story room area I’ve ever attempted.  Before  this I only tried the small hallways in the Paris Loft used in ‘Death of Vows’.  Now that I’ve learned some lighting tricks I’ll probably try more extensive sets with multiple floors in the future. I just have to worry about ceiling heights and try not to kill myself stretching forward over a table on a giant step ladder. LOL.

Check out how all these staircases & railings look in stories below.  Click on the “Story Index” button to see them in stories.  

HOW STAIRS IN DIORAMAS LOOK IN STORIES:

(CLICK ON 1ST PHOTO BELOW TO START SLIDE SHOW)

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11 Comments

  1. Zona Ray

    looks great

    Reply
    • Cindy Ward

      I would like to know where you found dolls with bendable knees? I was inspecting my granddaughter’s Barbies & they are junk they might cost 3.00 to make pull one of the heads off ,& it becomes a dangerous weapon with hooks & sharp daggers.mine were not like these at all!! They could sit down & have a meal or watch T.V. sit in they’re Barbie convertible.Unfortunately they were lost in a fire & I’m trying to build her collection.Shes 3 & has the big foll house but no furniture so im going to make some my mom did it one Christmas for me since I wanted the barbi dream house & she was a single mother of 3 so we couldn’t afford it.She even made a canopy bed & chest & dresser the top & bedspread were made out of one of her shorty nighties!! I loved all of it!!

      Reply
      • JATMAN

        emailed you. Thanks for your post.

        Reply
  2. Amy

    the loft is amazing Johanna! Can you let me know how you create the beveled finishings on your cabinet doors? I can see the inside is at an angle, how do you do that? Thanks!

    Reply
    • admin

      The cabinets are actually miniature dollhouse kitchen cabinets that I got from PureDream For Dolls on Ebay. They’re small for 1/6 scale, but perfect for wall units like I used them. They came like that with doors that open and door knobs. They also have three shelves inside of them. I just cut out a hole and pushed them through the foam board wall to make them look inserted into the wall. Thanks for your post Amy!

      Reply
  3. LauraLeigh

    Stunning work & talent. Thank you for sharing and giving me so many ideas. Your pics makes the little girl inside of me squeal with joy! 🙂

    Reply
    • JATMAN

      Thank you so much Laura Leigh. The kid in side of us may be the only one that enjoys life properly at times. So keep her happy with whatever you can. My inner child’s pretty spoiled and entitled at this point. I may need to slow down a bit…LOL. Thanks again. JATMAN

      Reply
  4. Carol

    This is awesome. So creative!

    Reply
    • JATMAN

      Thanks so much Carol! JATMAN

      Reply
  5. Flamingomoon

    I am just amazed at your construction talents! I love using stair cases for dolls, but have never managed to get just what I want. I think that often my imagination far exceeds my ability. You seem to have plenty of both!!

    Reply
    • JATMAN

      Thank you so much!! JATMAN

      Reply

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