The Dollshouse Lounge

At last, it's finished. I think I could have constructed an entire real life house of flat pack furniture in less time than it has taken to complete this room! There are a number of reasons for this:
1. I spend an inordinate amount of time staring into studying a room hoping for inspiration to strike
2. I don't always know how to accomplish what I have in mind
3. I can be a bit of a perfectionist, if something doesn't turn out well I will start it again, and again ...... until I get it right.

I wanted to make everything myself, which explains reason 2 because ..............

Some time ago I sold house number 1 on Ebay for £150, my grandson thought I should have asked more. I explained that things are only worth what someone is prepared to pay, not what has been spent on it.

I've kept a running total of how much I've spent on each house, just as a matter of interest, not for financial reasons, it's my hobby, it gives me a lot of pleasure, it doesn't matter how much I spend, and it's a spend spread over many years. But then my grandson asked how much I have spent on each house. Number 1 was £700, and this one, number 2 so far is £1,400!! to which my grandson said "Nan, that could be two flights to Australia" Now as I said above, it's my hobby, BUT.... he had a valid point. So with that in mind I decided to make as much as I could for the rest of this house and for my next one, not only  to save money BUT for the immense satisfaction of saying "I made that". 

The making of the lounge.
The flooring is stained and varnished spatulas, and the wallpaper was some I had in my stash, nice easy start. Then came the curtains, quite fiddly but I've done fiddly before. Despite wanting to keep the spend to a minimum I was going to buy the furniture, I wanted a chaise sofa but there were none to be had anywhere, so, after finding an excellent tutorial on youtube I set about making one.
First delay - I couldn't decide what colour. I went through the whole spectrum. Definitely not red, pink, orange, yellow, purple, black or brown. Not much left. I liked the idea of white, but the TV unit was going to be white, I thought it would be too much, but in hindsight I wish I had gone with white - I could change it ......... so that only left grey or blue. Blue wouldn't match the curtains, so grey it was. Second delay, the right material. After weeks of searching I found one I liked in Laura Ashley but they wouldn't sell anything less than a metre. I only really needed a quarter metre but I would have bought half, but they were adamant, company policy. After more searching I found a £3.99 skirt in a charity shop! it matched the wallpaper and curtains perfectly.
So let's get started.

Pieces of foamboard. I used double thickness for the back and arms.

glued together

I glued on the material. The material over the back is one piece starting at the seat, over the top and under the back. Same for the base. The arm covering is one strip going from the front underneath, over the arm rest, down the back and underneath, and cut out shapes for each side of the arms. 

For the seats I cut pieces of foam, glued some card on the underside for support and covered them. I put some black foam feet on (which I later covered with silver sticky tape) then made the cushions.

Next job, the chair.

I thought if I did it in the same material it would be too much grey. Although I didn't want purple for the sofa I thought this from my stash provided a nice contrast. It took ages to make because the material is very thin and you could see every lump and bump from the foamboard.

I put 3 layers of white material over the chair before putting the purple material on.

I kept putting off the next job because, well basically I wasn't 100% confident of using my new dremel. But I gave myself a good talking to, along the lines of ..... there's a starting point for everything, we learn as we go along, and, what's the worst that can happen? - I mess it up and start again. I had protective gear -  a face mask and good quality goggles so I took myself off to the shed and started cutting. Securing miniature wood on a full size workmate was a bit tricky at times but I did it, and  produced this

I was so absorbed with it I forgot to take photos. I cut pieces of wood for the front, sides and bottom, a slightly deeper piece for the top to accommodate the overhang at the front, two lengths for pretend drawers, and two legs, one of which isn't right, but it's not seen once it's in place 😊 Then back to the shed for a few coats of spray paint.

Next came the TV, the second attempt

The frame was cut from a piece of plastic and painted with acrylic paint.

The Sky logo was printed and glued to a piece of card.

I glued some strips around the edges, put a piece of clear plastic over the logo image, then glued the frame in place. I cut a piece of old cabling, glued a piece of foam to one end to look like the bit that goes into the tv (the bit at the bottom of the picture), and attached it to the back of the tv.  

I forgot to take a photo of the back of it before sticking it to the wall

This was the second attempt at the bookshelf. The first one broke because it has very small surface areas. I used coffee stirrers for the uprights and wood from my stash for the shelves. I drilled holes in the uprights and the edges of the shelves and attached them to each other with tiny dowels. Finished off with a couple of coats of spray paint. The silver 'bowl' is a bauble from a bracelet with some flowers from a cheap bunch from Hobbycraft. The books are real printed covers glued over foamboard or wood, and the photo frame is silver ribbon glued onto card with a photo of me in New York! I enjoyed making the photo frames and have done more for other rooms.

I found the pictures online and printed them on gloss paper. I made the table by glueing small tiles onto card then painting a straw for the legs. The rug is a piece from some material that I found in a cupboard, I can't even remember when I bought it.

This was also a second attempt. I coloured both sides of small pieces of paper with 2 colours of felt tip pen. Folded the pieces in half and painstakingly cut out the stems and leaves, then coated them with mod podge. I stuck the leaves into some foam in the plant pot, which is the lid from something, I can't remember, maybe hand cream or body lotion. I put some glue around the base of the leaves to secure them and when dry I sprinkled in dried out coffee grinds which make great soil.

I found a tutorial on Youtube for the monstera. I coloured both sides of some paper in two shades of felt tip pen, cut out heart shapes, cut out bits from the leaves and coated them with mod podge. When they were dry I stuck them onto thin florists wire painted with green nail varnish and stuck them into some polystyrene to dry. I then gently bent the wires and leaves, stuck them into foam in another bottle lid, put some glue around the base and filled with coffee grinds.

I can't make lights, well not these sort of lights, so I had to buy them.

The next room is the kitchen - a bit daunting but I've already made templates for a fridge and some units so I'm feeling quietly confident 😊 

~ Be safe and well ~

Polly x