Just noticed the wall is still only partly painted in the pictures. Guess I could take a new picture. The wall is painted now and is a light gray.

OMG, that's insane! Never heard of such a thing. Big improvement.

Wow, all I can say is "wow". Amazing transformation! (Love the cat and dog pic.) Beautiful.

Amazing!

I have chairs really similar to your club chairs. They are upholstered in a rose corduroy. I wonder if this paint would work on them?

I also have a rose colored moiré cushioned chair like your cane chair. I might practice on that.

Wow, wow, wow!!! Brilliant!

Will you use these chairs a lot? I have considered painting or dying my faded furniture navy, but I worry about their staining my clothes or skin.

I am leaning toward reupholstering since I love the furniture and use it a lot.

Yes, I use the club chairs daily. The others get used usually when we have company. I figure since no paint came off when I sanded them, they should be good to go. The paint doesn't transfer at all to my clothes or skin.

Mythreedogs, Riley is adorable and looks like he's claimed the chair for his own. Your chair looks fabulous. I really wanted to try reupholstering but chickened out.

I have always heard you should finish up with pastewax. I believe Magnaverde did that. Your chairs look so good. Makes me want to try it on one of my old chairs in the basement.

Yes I remember the earlier threads on painting upholstered furniture and always envied people's talents and vowed to attempt it, but never got the nerve.

Pattyxlynn - those are great! Congrats.

I too wonder about the paste wax for protection. Or could Scothguard be used. I'd want to protect from staining.

That is simply amazing. The chairs and your room look great!

What a difference! I am amazed that the paint could cover up the stains on the arms. Good luck with your table search.

You've been very adventures and it's paid of three fold, great job. The room looks lovely.

Awesome!!!

I find it amazing it was just paint those chairs needed. They have been around sooo long, and well used from what you said, how could they not be thread bare.

Missouribound, the first coat of paint looks like you've done nothing but made a huge mess because a lot soaks in and it's very spotty. Second coat - magic! It covered everything. But I went ahead and put the third coat on because I wanted extra coverage in those areas.

I was sitting in one of the chairs last night talking on the phone when I noticed, in horror, that there was white stuff all over the arm. I had been working on some hot air balloons and I was sanding dried joint compound. I tried brushing it off but it didn't budge. I got a damp sponge and wiped the area fairly hard and it came off with. It didn't hurt the painted area a bit. Whew!

Arcy, there were a couple of areas that were indeed thread bare. Luckily they were on the back of the top out of view. So I snipped, lined with material that I glued in with fabric glue, and (from underneath) and painted. You don't notice unless you look really close. I figured I could live with that since we are the only ones that know the areas are there.

Thanks for the comments on Daisy (dog) and Hank (cat). They love to tussle with each other and Hank grooms Daisy. It's so cute to watch! In that picture, Hank was enjoying a nap and Daisy decided it was play time.

Well, I must begin by saying our best dog ever was a mutt named O'Reilly, and my son's dog was Hank, his cat is Daisy!

For months I've been trying to get up enough nerve to paint my couch. It's in good condition, I still love the camel back shape, but I'm tired of the flowered upholstery. Maybe your beautiful chairs will motivate me! I haven't studied your link yet, which I will do before I start asking a million questions.

Thanks for posting. ~Sheesh

I too have a camel back couch I'd love to paint.

Someone mentioned starting a project with a test pillow. What about starting with the underside of a cushion. That way, if it doesn't look good, you have not ruined the couch.

You go first, nhb22! Then tell me how long it took, if the paint covered the pattern or does it look more like damask, and where you did the project - living room? Garage?

Thanks! ~Sheesh!

I painted two chairs but must have skimped on the textile medium. They looked great but when sitting on them, it was like a life raft with air slowly escaping because the fabric holes were clogged with paint. Sanding helped some.

Sheesh, like the Moire, I don't think the paint covers a fabric pattern. It will over a printed pattern, however. Saw that on another thread.

This is my cane chair. Fabric is linen, not moire like I thought. I will save it for a winter project. We are house hunting, so my colors may change. Don't want to pick one for my current house. Here is my sofa. Also has a fabric pattern. Plus a bit of thread bare where the dog chewed on the corner (see taped section.)

I saw a lot of different tutorials before I did this. The one I used has the paint, textile medium, and water. I don't know if that makes a difference but I suspect it might. One person's tutorial only used paint and even said she didn't bother with textile medium so she knew about it. Of course, she said the end result was stiff fabric that was uncomfortable.

I did this with two upholstered plaid chairs with great results. The photos are shown below. I also used paint, textile medium and lots of water. The paint wasn’t stiff at all, and there was no rub off. They looked great for a few years, until I decided to completely change the color of my living room. Then I took off the painted upholstery and reupholstered them to a navy fabric at the end. It’s a great way to easily restore stained and dated fabric upholstery and the fabric probably would have lasted forever. It took me about a week for two chairs, from start to finish, and I did mine on my outside screen porch, with plastic under the chairs. I did three coats, to best cover the plaid. I do think that if you’ve got a woven pattern in the fabric, that the pattern weave would still show, but the solid color could be completely different, even if it were originally multi-colored.

Pattyxlynn, just amazing. Especially for a first try. 4heidesign, I like yours too.

Nhb, Those both look like good choices for a paint project. Mine took about three days per club chair. That was because I used the marble coffee table in my living room to do it so I had to do one chair at a time. It worked out well because it lifted them off the ground a bit and made it easier to work on... with my old, out of shape body. :D I did the others at the same time and just put the cushions on the table nearby. Most of that was drying time between coats.

4Heidesign, Your chair came out great! I agree that the fabric will hold up for ages. It's very durable and, as I found out the other day, takes a scrubbing well.

I'm stumped. Some instructions explicitly state to skip the textile medium and that the result is NO stiff fabric (unlike when textile medium was used.).

Looking at 4Heidesign, the chair cushion even has wrinkles. Mine looked like almost a solid surface.

How much water did you use? That might have made the fabric more breathable.

Nosoccermom, on mine I believe the ratio was one part paint, one part textile medium, and two parts water. The mix was very thin.

Wow. I have an old chair I'd love to try that on. What kind of paint did you use? What is the textile medium and where to get it? Excuse my ignorance, I've never seen painted upholstery before, but I'd love to give it a try on an old chair I was going to replace, just to see how it looks.

Iam702, This is the textile medium I used here. For paint, I just went to Lowe's and asked for a quart of semi-gloss latex paint and showed them the color I wanted to color match. The sandpaper I used is this here. I used 220 grit and I do think having the flexible sandpaper made it easier. It was super simple to sand being able to comform it to my hands and have it go around curves snugly.

It is really a lot of fun to watch it go from old to new. Just remember, the first coat looks terrible. Second coat really good, sometimes enough. Mine needed a third coat to look great. I hope you show your results!

I used eggshell latex paint, one part paint, one part textile medium and two generous parts water, sometimes adding a bit more water. The end result was a soft, yet scrubbable fabric surface. Got the textile medium at Michaels. I didn’t use any sandpaper, didn’t know about that, but do imagine it would help even more to soften surface.

Yes, sounds like my mistake was using waaaay less water.

This is so fascinating! I have some gold chairs that I would like to paint. Does the color of the paint have to be darker then the fabric already on the chair?

Sabbath, It should be fine having a lighter paint. It just might take a few more coats (or not). If you do it, we'd love to see the end result!

This thread is so inspiring! I have two nice chairs that I would love to paint. I might do this. Thank you so much for sharing this adventure with everyone. If I do it I will share pics.

I used aqua over burgundy fabric.

Related to this, I have an ill-placed window behind our TV that I wanted to block out. The wall there is painted a dark, smokey blue. I tried a shade on the window and just could never find a fabric that I liked. I just wanted the window to disappear. I had a couple of yards of upholstery fabric in a textured, horizontal stripe (mostly gray with some blue and red). I didn't want the color of the fabric to show, but liked the texture, so I painted it with the wall paint, undiluted. From that, I made a simple shade to cover the window and trim; it doesn't rise up by design. It matches exactly the wall, but has a subtle texture that I just love!

Here is one I did about 6 yrs. ago. Not the best pic but it is holding up beautifully.

Before

After

.

Wow, that is great!

That looks great Summer!

OMGosh! Those came out beautifully! Does your sister want the chairs back? LOL!