Sunday, April 17, 2016

An Un-staged Life: Painting Upholstered Furniture

Here was the dilemma; have in hand two really awful dirty wing back chairs.  Eventually want to reupholster them, but hating seeing this disgusting dirty cream colored fabric.   Yuk, yuk, eeeeeyuk.


And, I was unsure of what color or type of fabric to reupholster them in.  I truly do not want to choose a fabric I may wind up unhappy with, cuz that's kind of a costly boo-boo.

After seeing all the happy reports of Pinterest of folks painting upholstered pieces, I thought well, even if I don't like it, I am planning on reupholstering anyway. And, it will let me play with color and try it out. 

In this regard, the experiment was a success.  But would I do this again?  Um, no.  Oh, wait I did not even show what the chair(s) look like painted. 


I chose the Graphite Annie Sloan Chalk paint to do the honors with.  Why graphite gray?  Husband works on cars...  enough said. 

Three days and three coats of paint (1 and 1/2 quarts), aching fingers and hands...  not sure if the effort was worth the results.  It does let me make a more informed choice as to fabric color when I go to reupholster (sometime this summer, as funds permit).  I do like the graphite gray color, and I know now that I want a linen like finish on the fabric and I think silver nail heads adorning the wing parts of the chair and the very bottom front where there is a slight curve. 

Poor photo, it really is all one color, the streaky look is probably due to lighting (and my poor photography!).   I do still have to stain the chair legs. 


The short answer on painting upholstered pieces, yea or nay?  Nay, Neit, Nope, Negatory, Neine.   I'll throw a blanket over whatever it is in the future and wait until I can get the piece reupholstered appropriately. 

Do check out the various posts an the subject and reach your own conclusion.  There are lots of folks happy with the results.

On to my next painting project.  Another little end table! 

Next time, y'all! 

P.S. I truly cannot wait until I can stage and photo and post pretty things, but in the meantime this is my un-staged life. 

No comments:

Post a Comment