**So I'm sure you've seen this already on Pinterest (as found from the website here) but this is MY experience with painting furniture fabric... and the AWESOME results I got!**
Most of this stuff has just sat on my boards, but nothing really reached out, grabbed me, and said "YOU MUST DO THIS IMMEDIATELY"... that was until I pinned a "fabric painting technique" found here.
I thought the idea of taking a old craigslist/garage sale find and painting it would be something fun and different, although slightly scary/terrifying at the same time (seriously, who PAINTS fabric?!). I had kept my eyes open on craiglist and well as my local "g-and-e sales" ("garage" and "estate"... its how we reference it in the hood... thug M-street style. Word.)
Either things were too pricey (paying $40 for a chair?! Psh, they are out of their mind!) or not really my style... As always, it was my last sale of the day a few weeks ago when I passed these two beauts in a drive-by (I like to case the joint before actually stopping... ... ... this post is turning gangsta quick).
As you can probably tell from the picture, they were dirty, gross, and stained (I was hoping the red stuff was either ketchup or wine... not blood), but over all in tact.
When I went to ask how much they were, the very nice gay guy told me, "$10 each or $15 for both"... Bonus point for buying from two gay guys - It made me believe the red stain was 100% wine...
I "hmm"ed and "haaa"ed over it for a while (like $7.50 a chair was WAY out of my price range), when the other guy comes up and said "Oh for heaven sakes, look at her hair! You know I have a thing for blondes! $10 for both if you take them away"... Compliment and offer accepted.
I got them home and Chris was a little less than thrilled. I had been promising him FOREVER (aka. many months) that I would find him two manly chair for his new "Man room" in the sunroom/my former office. Something dark, leather, and reclining... two velvet, stained, high wingback chairs from a gay couple wasn't really what he was thinking. Alas, I told him to trust me and if he didn't like them, it would only be a $10 experiment.
The next day, I broke out the fabric/furniture cleaning machine that we hijacked from Chris's parents and went to town cleaning these bad boys. **I will spare you the details of the color of the water while cleaning, but just know that after 3 rounds, it still wasn't perfect**
After everything was said and dry, it was time to bring them in and begin my experiment. (Chris loves it when I do projects in the house... LOVES. IT... just ask him...)
I kept my computer open to the original site and followed the directions as listed.
1. Assembled my supplies
- 1 quart latex satin paint
- 1 spray bottle full of water
- 1 paint brush (one that I didnt mind beating up a bit)
- fabric medium (found back with the acrylic paint at Joann's/Michaels, etc)... get the big 8oz size... I started WAY too small and had to go back to the store a LOT!
- high grit sandpaper (I used 160 grit)
The original website (again, found here) used a mix of acrylic paint as well but for my little project, I just wanted to used regular latex satin paint |
Chris DID end up approving the color |
Per the instructions, I gave my cushion a heavy spray down with my bottle, crossed my fingers,
Not too bad!
The spray bottle really helps the paint distribute evenly on the fabric and use less paint/fabric medium mix than I thought I would need.
Next step... the big chair.
It looks a little better after being cleaned 45x, right?! |
Here is a good side by side view of the original fabric and the painted side with its 1st coat... be sure to paint with the grain of the fabric... Up and down worked best for me.
After finishing the entire chair, I got excited (YAY!) but then exhausted (Aww) when I remembered I was doing TWO chairs instead of one... for the sake of this post, I'm just going to show you the updates on one since you don't need to see everything twice.
I let the chairs dry overnight (as per the instructions) and was happy with the results in the morning. It wasn't hard or harsh at all... and some parts that were a little rough, I smoothed over with the fine grit sandpaper.
It didn't flake off or anything... just allowed it to be a little smoother.
After wiping it down... I used the same mixture as coat #1 and applied coat #2.
Here is the side by side with coat #2 on the right.
It looks lighter just because its wet. |
Letting it dry again overnight, I did the same thing the next day with the sand paper.
This time there were a few more rough areas...but nothing too bad.
The next step was coat #3... slightly different mixture... 1 part paint, 1 part fabric medium, tiny, little amount of water. It will look like sludge compared to the first two coats, but don't worry. The 1st two coats hardened up the fabric and made the surface a LOT easier to paint...
DONT FORGET TO KEEP USING THE SPRAY BOTTLE BEFORE PAINTING! I forgot this a couple times and not only did it suck up a ton of my paint, but it didn't go on as smoothly.. EACH COAT (#1, #2 AND #3) needs to have the fabric sprayed down before painting. Do it area by area.
Low and behold... 4 days after starting, our living room looked like this...
(insert minor paint spills, cleaning, and small little husband wife arguments here... "but honey, I'm making this for YOU!!" |
Its not a velvet material anymore by a long shot, but it feels more like canvas... not uncomfortable at all!
Oh, one of the things I WILL mention is to buy a LOT of fabric medium...
Yes, I was doing two chairs, but I still seemed to use up a lot of this stuff (I completely bought out one Joann's and had to make two additional trips to one across town). Better to get it and have extra then have to drive to the store in the middle of a project.
To add a little bling-bling to my chair, I enlisted the help of some $1.30 Home Depot upholstery nails
Since I was going for an antique-y look, I chose an antique brass finish.
The original site used nail head detail around the front of the arms, so I thought that would be a good place to try mine as well. I measured out the length with a string so I would know exactly how far apart to place my nails.
Measured out to be just over 20" inches
I think this is pretty standard for wing-back chairs, if you want to use my measurements. |
I cut a little piece of paper and reenforced it with tape to use as my measurement guideline.
Once all nails we in place, this is how
Not enough of a statement for me. Too spread out.
But the good thing about measuring everything before hand was that it made it super easy just to put another nail in between each one and still come out even.
Much better!
Here's how it looked with both arms done.
Dont get me wrong, it looks great... but still could use a little more dressing up...
Soooo I decided to do the sides as well.
Since I already had my 2" measuring paper/tape thingie made, I decided to do the same 2" first, then go back and add another in between each one.
After all was said and done...
L.O.V.E...
Knowing Chris wanted them out of the living room ASAP, I cleaned up our sunroom and put the bad boys into place.
The pillows were a HomeGoods find (only took me 4 trips to find ones I liked) and the little table/cubbie is another g-sale find that I made over...I will tell you all about next week (spoiler alert: it was only $5)
It was a bright day out when I was taking these pictures, which is why everything looks a little washed out, but they really do look awesome and I love how the color matches the rug.
One more side view for the nail head detail...
And, the ever so popular before and after picture...
Here is a pricing breakdown too:
- $10 chairs
- $8.77 latex paint
- $2.99 paint brushes
- $1.99 spray bottle
- $16.00 fabric medium (3 - 8oz bottles $7.99 each + Joann's 50% off coupon... 4 - 2oz bottles $1.99 each with 50% off Joann's coupon)
- $13.10 Decorative Upholstery Nails (10 packages of 20pc... 5 packs per each chair)
- $25.98 Pillows ($12.99 each)
TOTAL:
$78.83... that's less than $40 a chair!!!
We have sat in them a couple times now (we will a LOT more once the TV is installed in the sun room and we start using this room more) and where the chairs aren't perfect, they are a great fit. The fabric is seeming to loosen a little and not be quiet as stiff as when it was first painted and we have had NO problems whats so ever about the paint coming off on clothes or anything else (that's what the fabric medium was for).
If you have any comments or questions about them or the process, I would be more than happy to answer!
I hope you like em as much as I do! Thanks!
-Samm