I happened to glance over at the cover of Perfect English Farmhouse the other day …

And I couldn’t help thinking that the sofa on the cover of that book was similar to the sofa that I had ordered from The Modern Dollhouse for the living room of the free dollhouse.

It’s not exactly the same, but similar.  Could I replicate the look from that book cover photo using paint?

I started by watering down some Dixie Belle paint in a color called Putty.  I probably ended up with about a 50/50 mix of paint to water.  The extra watery-ness helps the paint soak into the fabric of the sofa.

I taped off the wooden legs, used a brush to apply the watered down Putty to the fabric, and then left it to dry for several hours.  It will take quite a bit longer for this to dry than your typical painted surface.

Next, I dry brushed Dixie Belle’s Ecru over the Putty.  I totally meant to take photos of each step, including this one, but as per usual I got involved in the project and totally forgot about taking pics.

Once the Ecru was dry, I taped off some thin grain sack stripes and then dry brushed those in Dixie Belle’s Barn Red.

After taking the tape off the legs, I applied some Sweet Pickins Dark Oil Wax to them using a small brush, wiping away any excess with an old t-shirt.

Finally, I added some of Dixie Belle’s clear wax over the fabric.

The next step was to add some pillows similar to those in the inspiration pic.  After once again searching miniature fabrics online and not really finding exactly what I wanted, I wondered if I could print my own.

After first accidentally ordered printable canvas which wasn’t going to work at all, I found this cotton printable fabric on Amazon.

Then after an hour or so of scouring the world wide web for the perfect image of the fabric I wanted, I finally found it on a wallpaper site.

I sized the image by pasting it into Excel, and then just clicking and dragging to the size I wanted.  After printing it, and then letting it dry for at least 15 minutes as per the instructions, I peeled off the plastic backing and had the perfect scrap of fabric to make into a throw pillow.

Once again I used Tacky Glue to make the pillow cover, I glued it up with the right sides together leaving an opening at the back.  Then I turned it right side out and filled it with rice which is something new that I tried.  It looks a bit more realistic than using polyfill.  Once the rice was in place, I glued together the opening.

I ended up making just the one pillow.

I may go back and make a couple more down the road.

In fact, I’m actually going to make another sofa too.  I like how this turned out so much that I finally feel like I’ve found the right look for the living room in my first dollhouse.  And I think I found an even better option for my next re-creation of the perfect English sofa …

This one is also from The Modern Dollhouse and is called the White Chesterfield, and its shape is even more suited to copying that inspiration piece.

But what do you think?  Did I meet my goal of copying that perfect English sofa with this first one?

Leave a comment and let me know.  And then come back soon to see the rest of the completed living room in the free-at-the-curb dollhouse!