Armchair makeover

One of my recent expeditions to charity shops yielded some old - "vintage" as the price tag claimed - dollhouse furniture. (The pieces in the background are Poundland, several of which I have already transformed).

They were sold as a bundle, although the bed, nightstand, wardrobe and stool are more or less half-scale, while the sofa and armchair are full scale. The half-scale furniture went into my half-scale house, although I think I will repaint it some time.

I have renovated the sofa. Now it is the armchair's turn. As with the sofa, I think the pattern of the fabric is too large for the scale. And too dull. Off with it!

You can see that it is a nice piece, but it does look like a very old, worn-out chair. I am now an experiences unholsterer, and making the Chippendale wing chair in particular was an excellent lesson. The old upholstery wasn't done properly, but I now know the secret. First the seat, then the back, and cut the edges to fit neatly. I make a mistake and used all-purpose glue on the seat, which stained. For the back I used ordinary glue stick.

Then I made the back cushion and the seat cushion. That's the secret: they are made separately, not just glued onto the back and seat. This makes a neat finish, and you don't need to hide the seams with cord. I don't know what other people use for padding, but I use pantyliners. They are just the right thickness, and self-adhesive. One was enough for two cushions.

The result: 

And, to make it clear, before and after. I admit that the angle of the before picture is unfavourable. 

More furniture improvements

Now that I have figured out how to make the kit furniture nicer it's just a matter of patience. I made a table for the drawing room

A bookshelf

with book rows cut from a magazine

An armchair

 

After which I gained so much confidence that I decided I could make something that was missing from the kit. I took the side pieces from another armchair and used the empty template to make the seat and the back. I used a cheesebox, and because I don't have any elaborate tools I simply cut it with scissors.

 I don't think my sofa is significantly inferior to the one mising from the kit.

 Of course it still looks more like a park bench than a sofa, but wait...

Here is the whole set. I stained and varnished the furniture, and unfortunately the stain didn't stick where there was some glue left on the sofa: there is an ugly patch that I will do something about. The ceiling lamp is a toy from a Christmas cracker, and the table lamp is a chess piece with a plastic tube cap. The carpet is paper, cut from a catalogue and fringed all round
 

Chippendale wing chair

For this project I didn't have any instruction sheet, and somebody had started it and left unfinished. If I hadn't made the sofa I wouldn't have had a clue how to make this chair and what all the templates were for. You might think there is no big deal upholstering a miniature chair - try it next time!

  

The person who started on this project had assembled the legs and apparently given up on upholstery. The smaller templates were torn so I had to make my own. I wasn't sure it would work, but it did.

I knew how to make the sides since it was more or less the same as the sofa: first the edges, then the inside, then the outside.The bottom and the cushion were also easy.

 

But then the trouble began because I couldn't figure out how to make the back, and the sofa instructions were not helpful because it was a completely different construction. I sat for a while staring at the bits. I know I made it wrong because there was a template left so obviously I missed at least one step. But nobody will ever know.

 

The chair and the sofa go well together, but I am not sure what else will fit in this room. It feels crammed. Even though it is correct scale it feels that the firniture is too massive for the room.

 

Painting wooden furniture

I bought this wooden set in my favourite antique shop in Ely. There was no label, and I have no idea where it comes from. I very much like the furniture, but I hate the pink colour. For some time I could not decide where I might want the set so I kept it in my antique shop. Then it occurred to me that I could have it in my modern house, in the upstairs sitting room. Surely you can have two slightly different sets in the same room. The pink didn't fit with the other set, and I hated it anyway so I needed to make it over. I considered covering it with fabric, but thought it would be a pity because it was such a fine wooden surface. I tried to paint it red, but it was wrong red. I then tried to stain it, and it was a disaster. I was so upset that I put the miserable armchair away and didn't look at it for a long while. But I felt bad every time I saw the lonely pink sofa. So eventually I simply had to do it. It took ages to sand-paper away the failed stain, but I felt it was my duty to do it properly. I mixed some green gouach with off-white hobby paint, with this result

And this is how nicely they fit together with the other furniture.

 

Drawing room development

I made an armchair to match the sofa, and I made a little cushion from a ribbon. I bought a fireplace front from ebay because at that time I couldn't imagine that I would ever be able to make one myself. I have made several since then (which I will show in due time). For the back, I took a piece of cardboard and painted black, and to make the base, I used a bit of a plastic container. Then I found a perfect firescreen, a bit of an old metal belt:

In this picture you see that I have floors and wallpaper, and you can almost guess that there is a wall on the left. So I am a bit ahead of time. The lamp is from a thrift shop and is made from a copper coin.