Remember how I am slowly trying to redecorate my house?
This project has been a long time in the making, meaning I have wanted to do something but it wasn't until I read this post on painting upholstery that I knew what I wanted to do!
You see last year my sister gave me this chair I really liked it a lot
but it was a little old fashioned in ways I didn't like (the skirt for
example) and the fabric was dirty looking despite my scrubbing it. You will have to trust me here (because the picture doesn't do it justice) it was really dirty looking! It had pen marks on it, plus B had a bloody nose one night and he got some of it on the chair that wouldn't come out.
So I painted it!
Here is a better close up of the cushion before, imagine it looking a lot like this everywhere.
Here is the chair before and after
Notice that I got rid of the skirt?
Here is the process I went through:
First I tore/razor-bladed off the skirt, that was my glowing with pride at my genius moment!
After I finished taking off the skirt I was scared! What the heck had I done?! I didn't have a plan for what to do with the raggedy raw edges leftover from my cutting either!
I decided that I could use the skirt, sew it together in strips like bias tape and hot glue them over those edges. It worked really well, I was SO relieved!
Then I started painting, I followed this tutorial exclusively as I went. I was worried after the first coat it looked a lot worse than I thought it would just like the tutorial said it would.
After the first coat the picture doesn't really show that the paint was pretty uneven at this point.
It started to look a little better by the 2nd coat and I was feeling better about it!
After the final coat it looked new again, whew!
The before and after again!!!!
A close up of the cushion after.
I love that the skirt is gone and you can see the legs now!
A few notes about the chair after painting it:
-The paint dries to an almost faux leather/canvas feel.
-I would like to try painting it only in the base coats and see if it dries differently, with the final coat it is pretty stiff even after sanding it and working very well into the fabric.
-My kids have already gat stuff on it and it has wiped off just fine!
-After a few days it has softened more than right after it was done.
-Definitely only try this on something you are going to redo anyways so you don't mess it up a lot!
