Couch pota-two

Alright, so I made the rest of the cushions and have gone through and put cloth on them!

Now, the interesting part is that the cushions you see on the left... the two that actually match up

Yeah...

Complete accident.

Then, I attempted to recreate it, like, totes on purpose, but unfortunately when I was trimming away the extra cloth I trimmed away the wrong side and totally botched it, so I had to redo one of the cushions.



Also, do you know how hard it is to tape down fabric that's wet from glue? Pretty close to impossible. You end up having to use way more tape than you really want to and then the glue doesn't dry and then it's just a big old mess that's super annoying.

Don't judge me either for gluing the fabric to the cushions instead of sewing them. I would have sewn them, and I tried, but I would have messed up more fabric than I cared to so I just glued it all down.

Once all the cushions were made for the couch I decided it needed a homey little throw pillow, so I... threw... one together... I'll see myself out...

Couch potato

I told y'all I'd be building furniture, and here's the first piece. I've begun to construct a couch. I went to Michaels and I bought a basswood kit thingy that just has a bunch of random piece of wood in it. I also purchased some things of cloth. They aren't very large, but it's perfect for what I need them for. It's also a nice way to get a bunch of different patterns without having to buy a whole yard of cloth.

So I measured out what I thought would be a good size for three cushion couch and I glued it together.



After the glue dried, I removed the tape, and then added more glue to put on the fabric covering. This part was a little hard, and I actually had to redo it because I messed up the first time.

There were no directions to not follow!

 After all of that I had to make my cushions. The foam I purchased is like... waaay to thick, so I had to slice it in half lengthwise before I could shape them info my cushions. This was actually my second attempt because I messed the first one up on that too. This is what happens when you eyeballs stuff. You have to keep redoing it.

Either way, this is where I stopped because it was getting kind of late and I've apparently turned into an old lady and can't stay up late anymore. It's also because I get up at the butt crack of dawn.

Finishing touches!

Look at this beauty!

LOOK AT HER!

Isn't she gorgeous???

Sure, the process didn't go super smooth, yeah, there are some imperfections, but that's okay!

I can't wait to put carpet down (when I have the money) and I am super stoked to make furniture.

I also plan on making lights for this bish.

How cool is this going to be?

Alright, next order of business is to get a doll for this house.

SO EXCITED!

From the windows to the walls!

I painted and put in the windows and front door!

Each window is two frames and a plastic window in between. Once all the stuff was glued in, I taped the ever lovin' crap out of it.

I also put the shutters together and painted them blue (to match the front door).



The shutters were almost as annoying as the shingles, because I had the lovely pleasure of putting them together prior to painting.

I had to glue two smaller rectangle pieces to one larger rectangle piece. I had to do this ten times and hope I was able to line them all up correctly (straight and evenly). I think I did okay, but I didn't really mark them out of anything. I just... hoped for the best.

I also shingled the porch, which I think came out really well!

Lay down some plastic and let's paint!

And this is another point when I wish I had listened and just followed the directions. I didn't know what colors I wanted the inside of it to be, so I decided I could do it after I put the place together. I also couldn't decide if I wanted to paint or put up wallpaper. There had been plans to put in some wiring, but the cost was a little... much. I didn't want to go bankrupt trying to put together a dollhouse.


So, I went back to Lowes and this time I had some paint samples made. We already had some usable paint (old paint that hadn't dried out in the eight years it was sitting in the garage). So I went and had two paint samples made. A warm gray color and an olivey green. The third color was a lightish blue color (the one we already had).

It was awkward trying to paint everything without it dripping. I tried to keep paint off the floors, but I decided I was going to put in carpet, so maybe it didn't matter too much. I used a piece of cardboard to try and keep paint where I wanted it to, but I actually ended up getting paint on the floor because of the cardboard. It's rather ironic.

I also painted the ceiling white, because reasons.

The shingles virus is already inside you!

Hah!

I don't know why but that commercial always cracks me up, and it's all I could think about as I glued each individual shingle onto this damn house.

This was not fun. Like, avoid this part at all costs. I had to trim a ton of shingles down with a sort of but not really 45 degree angle. Did this with an Xacto knife. It sucked. It would have been nice if they pre-cut them, but I can understand why they didn't. It did make them a bit more fragile.


Also, I wish I had read the directions for this part because then I would have read to put the angled shingles on first and go outward from there... but I didn't, so mine doesn't look as nice. Oh well, I think it still looks good, but deep down I know it could look better.

Putting the shingles on is extremely time-consuming. I only got about halfway up the roof before I stopped.

Oh!

And on top of having to cut a bunch at a weird angle, I also had to cut a bunch of them in half... but not a normal half, because remember I didn't follow the directions so my shingles aren't really lined up the way they "should" be, so some of mine are a little off. But whatever.

Anyway, this is what is done so far (please don't look at the mess in the background):

Alright, so just keep in mind this is just the front. The back isn't shingled and neither is the top of the porch. Ugh.

There goes the next five weeks /s

The roof, the roof is not on fire!

So, yeah...

Definitely the wrong order.

This is what happens when you don't follow directions! You end up having to draw lines on something that's not on a flat surface!

Don't be like me, kids. Please, follow directions.

Anyway!

So, it's time for shingles.

The first step is I had to dye them. If you're going to dye some dollhouse shingles, I'd highly recommend checking to make sure there isn't a hole in the glove before you get wrists deep in dye. There was a hole in the index finger of the glove I was using and my whole finger ended up black. Took a couple of days to all come off.

So, when I had my original vision in mind, the shingles were not this dark. They were more gray... like, light gray.

These turned out more dark gray.

It's okay even if these didn't turn out how I originally intended, because I like the way they came out.

I think it's because I didn't really follow the directions.

Ain't nobody got time for that!

Yeah, totally doing this in the wrong order...

After gluing the main bits of the house together, I put down the final coats (yeah, plural... multiple) of paint on the house. I tried to make it as even as possible, but the house is ravenous and just kept eating it. It's okay though, as long as the light isn't juuust right, then you won't really notice.

While I waited for the house to dry, I painted the porch bits and the pillars. That part was messy.

But, I realized that I'm totally doing this whole entire house in the wrong order. Like, it hit me like a big bag o' bricks. I had to put the foundation and the porch on, which would have been fine if I had done them AT THE SAME TIME.

Nope.

I decided to put the foundation on first, which was fine.

Then I put the porch on. Which again, was fine, but completing the porch was the... not... fine part.

I completely ignored the directions like you're supposed to and just began gluing things on. This caused issues with the pillars not lining up correctly and have slight little gaps, which then made them even more difficult to glue in. Luckily for me I still had my Mary Poppins roll of tape, and I just taped those suckers down.

So once I had THOSE support beams in place I was able to put in the railings... which, again, decided to not fit the way they were supposed to because I was dumb and things in the COMPLETELY WRONG ORDER OMG I'M SO DONE.

Anyway.

So I get those damn railings in place, glue the front trim on and call it a night.

Taking the tape off and not having anything move was super rewarding and just reinforced my thoughts that if it isn't right just glue it down.

(That isn't really what I think but whatever).