Making a dollhouse couch (sofa) out of foamboard

Here is how to make your own doll house sofa out of foam board... we put it in our foamboard dollhouse.  Here is a finished picture, followed by detailed instructions.

Print this template... I designed the file to be 10.5" x 8".  You can scale it to be larger or smaller than that, or just come up with your own style!

Now lightly glue your template onto a piece of foam board.  (You will peel it off when you're done cutting it out so don't  use permanent glue stick.)

Using a straight edge, and a very sharp cutting device (see the picture for the type we like to use), trim out all the pieces...

The pictures below show what "score cut" means... The idea is, that when you score cut foamboard, you are only cutting through one layer of the paper and all of the foam... you do NOT cut through the second layer of paper.  By doing this, you can gently fold back the foam board both directions and then pick out the foam.  Score cutting is generally measured to be the same width as your foam board.  The foam board we use is 3/16th of an inch thick (4 cm).  If you have thicker foam board than this, please adjust the green line width in the template file.  

Note how score cutting allows you to have a finished looking corner with no visible foam.  It not only looks better, but helps you get your corners hot glued at 90 degrees.

Here are a couple of pictures showing the two ways you can glue your foam board that you have just score cut...

Next glue together the 3 couch (sofa) seat pieces...

Now take some fabric and "wrap" your sofa seat like it's a package, using hot glue where you would normally put tape if it were a package!

Next glue the bottom of your couch (sofa) back and sides to the middle of your fabric piece...

Now trace the sofa back shape onto the fabric...

Trim the fabric along your trace lines (you can leave some little fabric wings to cover part of the foam if you'd like, see the picture below)...

Glue the couch cushion to the back... the positioning of this is entirely up to you.  You can make it flush with the floor, or raise it up a bit like we did.

Now stand up the sides of the couch and hot glue them... we put glue in the white "gap" and along the side of the couch cushion.  Push down on it with your hand to make sure the glue makes good contact and keeps your couch at 90 degree angles...

Almost done!  The edges of the foamboard show... so...

...trim them with trim, or extra matching fabric, or rope... whatever you think looks good!  

That's it!  Have fun!

Free "oiled walnut" dollhouse floor - extra large file!

If you are decorating a doll house that has larger floors than our other files print, here is an extra large file of wooden flooring.  It should print around 30" x 30".  You could use a printing service (like Costco, or Walmart) and print either a regular print or a poster print to get some "instantly ready" flooring.  I have not done this so do not know how durable it would be without spraying with an acryllic sealer... let us know if you do it - do you like it, would you do it again, what would you do different...  Enjoy!

(Be sure to select the picture, save to your computer or device and print (or order a print) from there.  Printing this page will not print the full resolution of the floor.)

As always, for personal use only.  Thank you!   

doll house wall box roof: free printable

Here's a free printable for you in case you want to "roof" your dollhouse wall box...

How to make your own dollhouse mantel clock...

Making your own doll house mantle clock is quick and easy...

1. Find a piece of trim that has a profile you like.



2. Cut off a small chunk about 1/2 inch deep.

3. Do an image search to find the type of clock face you want and print it.  I took this picture myself, so you are free to use it (personal use only, no resale).

4. Paint or stain your clock and let dry.

5. Glue on the clock face.

6.  You can stop here, or for a more playable dollhouse mantel clock, spray it with clear acrylic sealer.



For instructions on how to make a grandfather clock for your dollhouse, please see our earlier post.  

Free printable dollhouse wallpaper

Here is some more "print your own" free doll house wallpaper... same pattern, just different colors.  As always, personal use only please, thanks!

Doll house butterfly wallpaper - free printable download!

Here is some more homemade dollhouse wallpaper... butterflies this time... personal use only, thanks!

Download a free printable log cabin wall / wallpaper for your dollhouse!

We used Lincoln Logs and Photoshop to create this doll house log cabin wall / wallpaper.  If I can ever get our comments working, I'd love to see what you all can do with this one!  Again, personal use only please.  Thanks!

More free printable dollhouse wallpaper and border for you to download!

Here are various kinds of pink flowered doll house wallpaper and border for you to use free for personal use.  Have fun!

This last one is a sheet of pink daisy border:

Free Printable dollhouse wallpaper: candy stripes with pink scallops and colored dots with pink bead border

Here are two more free doll house wall papers for you to download... You can trim the scallops or beads and hang it on a partially painted wall, or you can cover the whole wall with it.  As always, personal use only please.

How to change the color tones of free wallpaper files...

Say you find the "perfect" wallpaper for your dollhouse... but... it's pink with orange polka-dots and you can't stand pink with orange polka-dots!  Using Adobe Photoshop (or Adobe Photoshop Elements) you can easily change the doll house wall paper colors... Here's how:
* open the file
* Choose the "Replace Color" command.  (In my version this is found by clicking: Enhance, Adjust Color, Replace Color)
* Click on the color you want to change
* Adjust the 3 slider bars until you get the color and look you desire
* Click "OK" and you're done!  
* You may need to do this multiple times for a file, depending on how many colors you are wishing to change.
Here are three of my earlier files with the above technique applied:

More free printable doll house wallpaper for you - this one is extremely bright colors

One thing that sometimes is fun to do in a dollhouse is decorate a "kid's room" with popular kid themes... this can be difficult because of copyright laws. You can create your own, but not distribute them... that being said, I won't post any like that here, but here's one simple thing you can do... right now Wal-Mart (likely other craft stores too) has a cute Hello Kitty ribbon that is the perfect scale for a doll house. So I designed a coordinating striped wallpaper... you could paper the entire wall and put the border at the top, or paper just 1/3 or 2/3 of the wall, paint the rest, and "join" the two with the ribbon border. Here is a picture of the ribbon so you know which one I'm talking about (the flash distorted the color a bit), as well as the free wallpaper download.