Painted Upholstered Chair Tutorial {before and after}

Painted upholstered chairs – story of an unplanned DIY.

Does your DIY ever go like this: I started my day with big plans to finally sew the curtains in the family room. In order to do so, I needed to clean off the dining room table which was piled with boxes filled with ornaments and holiday decor and other junk from the shuffling around, rearranging and decorating {because of course the table in my craft room is piled high with an unorganized cluttered mess that also needs cleaned}.

And I had the brilliant idea to paint them. Right then. That minute.

I had seen the upholstery painting tutorial at Hyphen Interiors in 2011. Loved it. Left an impression. Very inspiring.

I also knew I had most materials on hand. Paint! Everything except the fabric medium. I’ve looked at the bottles for sale at Michael’s in the past {for painted curtains} and knew they weren’t cheap. I was also still in my pajamas and on a mission. Sewing curtains, remember?! But these multi-colored chairs were an obstacle.

DIY girls thoughts: No fabric medium. No budget. No desire to run to the store. Lots of leftover latex paint. The only one who really sits in these chairs is the cat. So for now…if painting doesn’t go right, I can still slip cover them at a later date. GO FOR IT!

I found a left over can of Ralph Lauren paint that I hated working with as it was super watery. Perfect! I watered it down even further with water. I didn’t measure, just created a consistency that was still able to hold to the paint brush but watery enough to be absorbed into the textured fabric of the chairs. I used a 2.5 inchPurdy brush.

I gave the chairs a good cleaning, getting up all of the cat hair (FrogTape works great as a cat fur remover).

And I just started painting. My mixture of latex and water had amazing coverage.

I also taped off the legs using FrogTape.

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