Kids can make the simple couch, arm chair and table below using empty, recycled matchboxes. These are sold in large packs in most dollar stores in the U. S.. They will need 6 matchboxes for the sofa, four for the arm chair and 3 for the sofa table. I also cut extra cardboard for the sofa table top to give it a smoother finish for the faux wood shelf paper to stick too. I also covered the sides of each sofa and chair with the same shelf paper in order to fashion these after mid-century modern designs. The colors: orange, brown, pink and green combined are very 1965-1970s.
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| The rocker on the far left is from a furniture kit, but I thought it would be nice to cover it in a matching striped paper to go with the living room sofa and side chair. I also made a tiny orange pillow using a child's sock for the sofa. |
Below is a photograph of 'how' I chose to assemble the tiny boxes using white school glue and masking tape. You many not be able to see that the sofa and chair back cushions are slightly set at an angle in order to give dolls more room to sit down. After letting the glue dry, I chose to cover the light weight doll furniture with decorative paper, tacky shelf paper and school glue.
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| Above you can see 'how' I positioned the matchboxes to make the dollhouse furnishings. |
I left one drawer free from glue and tape to open at the center of the sofa table. Then hot glued a bead in the center of the drawer so that it could be pulled easily to open it for tiny magazines etc...