Pimping up old furniture

In this post you can follow my sofa as it gets refurbished shabby style...

Before and after picture. I decided to pimp up some of my dollhouse furniture, finally got the guts to do it. I was so tired of my victorian living room, with heavy red velvets and the dark stains, I just had to do something.

 I got this sofa at a bookshop in Denmark last summer, together with some old dollhouse furniture that were scrapped in a box. I payed 100 DKK for 5 pieces, a reasonable price! I love findings like this:-)

This piece here is a mass produced sofa you can find in most toy shops, especially the ones with a small section for dollhouses and furniture. It's an easy piece to do a make-over of, it's made of wood and the fabric comes easily off.

First I ripped off the fabric and sanded the sofa.

I actually used nail polish remover to get the remains of the glue off.

I painted the sofa with one layer of gesso, it's an acrylic based paint used as an undercoat to give "tooth" before painting. Furniture like this is usually coated with a varnish from the factory that is very difficult to get off. Especially because the size and ornaments makes it difficult to sand.

On top of the gesso base coat I painted one layer of brown acrylic paint-

it gives a little more vintage style to the final result and gives depth to the ornaments.

Two, three coats of an antique white acrylic paint and one coat of matt varnish to add a subtile shine.

The last and crucial point to the process, rubbing the sofa with mahogany beeswax - gives the ultimate patina to the furniture I think. I glued some new fabric on top of the old mattress, and the wooden seat underneath it. I thought it looked pretty enough without fabric on the back and the armrest. Gives more of a "scandinavian bench" feeling to the sofa.

The final result! Made some quick pillows, and I like the colors but some of the pillows are a bit too big. I can change them later, so no worries!

Arrange and decorate as you like- hope you got inspired:-)