Paint a Fabric Chair
If you have ugly or outdated furniture then you've come to the right page! Many people will tell you that re-upholstery is second best to buying a new piece of furniture, but both of these can be extremely expensive. With a small amount of effort, you can make an old or ugly piece of furniture look brand new and stylish for a fraction of the cost! All you have to do is follow the simple instructions listed below!
Contents
Steps
- Let's Prep! Before starting anything, we would recommend that you clean your couch or chair. Vacuum all the nooks and crannies, or you could even steam clean it! Pick a location for painting your couch or chair where dirt or high winds won't get to it. Once you’ve found a spot, grab your plastic cover and neatly place it on the ground, then place your couch or chair on top of it.
- Taping! Take your painter's tape and cover all the trimming of the couch or chair. Cover anything and everything that you don't want paint on! *Optional: You can take your fabric softener (make sure you dilute it- 2 parts water to 3 parts softener) and pre-soften your couch or chair by 'painting' it on with a sponge. Make sure to let it fully dry before starting. Doing this will give it extra freshness and make it softer after the paint sets.
- This is where it gets interesting...Open your paint, and take your mixing stick and mix the paint thoroughly! Now you need to mix the paint and the textile medium. It took us about 64 ounces of paint and 32 ounces of textile medium for our chair, so estimate the amount you need accordingly. It’s supposed to be 1 part medium to 2 parts paint, so take the amount of medium you have, and add twice the amount of paint! There is a little bit of math involved, but that’s why you need to stay in school! Grab your painter's tray, pour in the right amounts of paint and medium, and mix well!
- Now for the fun part! Grab your rollers and start painting. See How to Use a Paint Roller. When you paint, you should have nice even strokes-very similar to painting a wall. You don’t want to dab too much paint onto one area, light strokes are the key! The fabric absorbs the paint very quickly, so don’t worry about the light areas, you will need to do a couple more coats once it’s dry.
- One last overcoat! Once the paint is dry and the furniture's almost completely covered, go ahead and do one last coat of paint and medium. Make sure everything looks nice and smooth (this step doesn't require a lot of paint because it doesn't absorb so much). Once your furniture is completely dry, take your sandpaper and start sanding the rough areas to smooth it down and even it out. Then take a clothing iron and iron your couch or chair to set the textile medium; do not use steam,and keep the iron between low and medium. Don't let it linger in one spot too long!
- Optional! Take your fabric softener and your sponge and apply a light coat to all newly painted areas of your furniture, just to give the painted fabric some extra softness. It should feel just like fabric when you've finished. Once it's painted you can refinish the crowning of the chair or couch with wood stain to give it that brand new look. See How to Stain Wood. Wait for the fabric softener and/or the stain to dry and voilà ! You have successfully painted your piece of furniture!
Tips
- Try to avoid painting over cushion zippers, especially if they're plastic.
- Do not use steam when you iron.
- If you have trouble removing the tape near the edges of your painted upholstery, try using a piece of plastic (like a credit card) to avoid scratching the wood on your furniture.
- Make sure you cover the crowning of the furniture really well.
- Try to paint evenly, and use many light coats to maintain fabric textures.
- Once you cover the furniture with tape, press on the tape thoroughly, leaving no air bubbles. Paint tends to seep through if not covered correctly.
Warnings
- If paint gets in eye, immediately rinse eye with cold water and consult a physician
- Keep paint and textile medium away from children
- Beware of high fumes from the paint; Textile medium has no high fumes
- If paint or textile medium is accidentally ingested, immediately call poison control or consult a physician
- Keep paint and medium away from fire
Things You'll Need
- An upholstered couch or chair, whichever one you have handy
- Flat paint-any brand of good quality paint is fine.(amount varies with size of furniture)
- Mixing stick x2
- Paint roller tray
- Delta Ceramcoat Textile Medium* (amount varies with size of furniture)
- Painters tape
- Clothing iron
- Sandpaper
- Plastic to cover your floor (So things don’t get too messy!)
- Paint rollers
- Paint brushes
- Optional: Fabric softener (Any brand that you use on your clothes would be just great)
- Sponge or some sort of cloth
- Wood stain
