I wanted a corner couch for my Rosedale’s second floor TV room, and unable to find any modern sectionals in half scale, I decided to make my own. IKEA furniture tends to have clean, straight lines—perfect for miniaturists like me, who don’t have the tools or the patience to get too fancy—so I checked out their website for possibilities.
The Karlstad corner sofa caught my eye, but it would be much too large for the Rosedale’s small room. I modified the design, coming up with my own dimensions to fit the space where I intended to use it. (Ironically, I ended up doing a standard couch rather than a sectional.) My few attempts at upholstery haven’t turned out so well and I thought if I tried to cover the sofa in fabric, it would be difficult to maintain the clean lines. Instead, I picked out neutral-colored scrapbook paper with a leather-like pattern.
After posting pictures of the result on the Greenleaf forum, a couple of people asked for a tutorial, so I made a complementary chair with fuzzy “suede” paper and took step-by-step pictures. I hope some fellow half-scalers find them useful!
Emily is a freelance writer, miniaturist, and adventure game enthusiast.
