Everything to know about painting fabric

happy thursday um you guys are live here on the dixie bell paint facebook and instagram page with brushed by brandy my name is brandi i am a dixville paint brand ambassador and i get to come here live with you guys every thursday evening and we do a paint project together um and so i want to make you guys a part of a paint project that i've been working on personally and that is we have bought an rv that we've been making over and i posted pictures of it recently on my page but one of the things i think people have the most questions about was painting fabric and i wanted to go through the steps with you and then i'm actually going to show you the finished product and what it looks like and we'll hopefully get some good camera shots so you can see what it feels like in person but i'm going to walk you through the steps to get a nice finish on painted fabric so um the piece that i have here for our example actually came out of my rv before makeover so um anybody who's familiar with rvs knows that can they come in these lovely floral fabrics right i sent sarcasm yeah i don't know who's picking this stuff out but they need to be fired um it seems like all of them even even more modern ones than what we have are still hideous fabrics so there's definitely a trend towards making over uh tiny homes and rvs and with covid and not being able to vacation right now a lot of people are getting into the rv world and so i think this is a very relevant topic right now so this was actually one of the window boxes and we ended up taking these all out of our rv but some of these fabrics existed other places and i ended up painting them so it's a great little sample board that i can show you the process and then we'll go check it out uh what it actually looks like on the finished product okay so when you're painting fabric all i recommend that you do is make sure it's clean you know as clean as you can get it you don't need to shampoo it or anything but if it's got bubble gum stuck on it you want to make sure that's taken off of it and don't put bubble gum on your fabric and then the materials that you need are actually pretty pretty slim there's not a lot that you need you're going to use your dixie belt paint whatever color that you choose besting wax and clear is what i like a lot of people also use the easy peasy spray wax for this but i like the vesting wax because it actually gives it a really much more softer feel whereas the easy peasy spray wax has a more matte feel it doesn't give it that same softness so we're going to use um besting wax and clear um we're going to use a lot of water can you actually hand me that mr bottle really i gotta work i know i'm gonna make you move you guys my husband sean is here to answer any questions that you guys have um a lot of water a lot of water goes into painting fabric and then i've got out a few brushes and that's because i want to show you the difference i think brushes definitely make a difference i've got out my good dixie belt brushes i love to paint with these but the truth is that the a fabric project is really hard on a brush and so um i don't know that i choose uh one of your dixie bell brushes unless you know that it could come out not in the same condition that it started in it's never going to be as good because you're going to be really hard on it so i actually think and then i've got some natural bristle brushes and i usually choose natural bristle brushes when i want a more rigidity and i'm going to be doing a more rigorous project so i think i'm actually just going to use one of the premium chip brushes for this um so i left this side unpainted so you can see some of my fabrics and i'm going to bring this in because i want to show you guys some of the texture in here tell me when i get too close too close um so this fabric here is kind of a velour fabric maybe maybe i'd call it a chenille actually so a lot of people say like um painting textured fabrics is a lot harder than painting a smoother fabric which is like like what i've got here which is more of a damask um it's just a damask it doesn't have a lot of texture in it i really can you get close in on the different types of fabric because i definitely want to show the different types and then up here is a is a traditional upholstery fabric where it's got a lot of um it's got a a weave to it but it doesn't have a raised texture like this fabric does here so as far as fabrics go i'm going to say this is our easiest one to paint this is somewhere in the middle and this is going to be your harder fa hardest type of fabric to paint so if you're looking at purchasing a chair or you've got one and you want to make it over if it's got a smooth fabric on it that's definitely going to be an asset to you if you've got a velvet or a chenille or something like that it's going to take you more work to get it to where it doesn't feel crunchy or like you don't want to sit on it it's possible but it's more work can you paint pleather yeah absolutely most definitely you can paint pleather so no probably yeah you probably want to use dixie bell slick stick which is a gripping primer because if it's if it's pleather and it's uh intact you know how pleather can peel and expose fabric underneath it's got a fabric bottom to it um the fabric will take the paint okay without but but the actual pleather it's like a vinyl um has nothing to grip onto so yes you can it actually uh and i'm going to say this a lot as we go through this project tonight it comes out feeling like a leather when you're done these fabrics even are going to feel more like a leather than anything when i'm done um so here's what i will say it takes a lot of paint to paint fabric you're basically taking your paint and you're going to turn it into a dye using the water which is right in line with what dana was just saying yeah that's exactly what you're doing with it so it says it does tend to take a lot of paint i'll show you guys when we go into my rv um how much fabric in there i painted yeah we're going we're making a field trip tonight it's field trip tonight did everyone bring their permission slip everyone choose a buddy we are going to go over to our rv and i'll show you how much fabric i painted it took about a full 16 ounce of paint and i didn't do a whole lot of fabric in there so just know that you want to make sure you've got plenty of paint so i'm choosing dixie belt hurricane gray and i chose this uh because the tones in our rv are grays and taupes and beiges in that family and then i also thought it was a good color to cover up this is a green here and then cover up some of this pattern up here too if i wanted to try to make this go white it would probably be more challenging so i want to cover up britney says she doesn't have a permission slip but she has wine okay i'll take i'll accept it yeah what your parents don't know won't hurt them right okay so the first thing i'm gonna do there's padding on this but this is just um it's just gathered over the piece of wood so it doesn't have any padding underneath i'm going to take a little bit of water we'll start over here in the middle and i'm going to saturate that and i'm going to work the paint in and then i'm going to add water to it after it's on there and that dilutes the paint on there and it's just gonna let it soak into that fabric too so you can you can get your fabric a little bit damp but it does more if you spray the paint once it's on the fabric because then the paint's going to seep into that fabric robin says she feels like she's at her house since the late night slumber party and you're live last night i know like you haven't ever left yet we've just been hanging out for 24 hours straight i went live at like midnight last night i liked uh yeah sorry jason i don't want to get in trouble someone someone called it a bedtime with brandy i kind of like it because i'm a night owl and we painted last night late last night i did a project with uh redesign with prima transfers came out really cute i'll be posting sneak peeks of that for you well i was watching care bears yeah or what was it you said i was watching grey's anatomy yeah yeah i'm kidding we've never watched grey's anatomy neither one of us has ever seen an episode but they were harassing sean for watching anatomy because he was in the living room watching tv so i'm you can see why i would want to use a less lesser quality brush than my good dixie belt brushes because i'm working this just grinding it in yeah the fibers of that fabric it is like a dye and you've got to work it into the fibers so this fabric up here is interesting because it's got kind of a texture to it so over here i've got one coat on it this is definitely going to take two coats on this type of fabric you can still see the pattern through it it lightened up a little bit but i can still see some of the color variation so i'm putting a first coat on it up here and we'll go over there and do a second coat but if this pattern fabric definitely needs two coats the camera wants to go in and out of focus for something on that fabric must be that sheet gorgeous fabric surprise i haven't been asked about that oh there's nothing behind here you guys it's an unfinished piece that i'm trying to get keep paint off of because it's been stripped oh man so a lot a lot a lot of paint a lot of water and work that paint into your fabric work it girl okay so let's come down here and let's work on this textured fabric a little bit it's going to be the same process this has a gather to it which would be similar to like a tufting or something it's not ideal you guys if you get a choice some things i would avoid when paint you know not avoid it's still possible it's just more it's just harder is tufting uh gathers um pleats um textured fabrics things like that the more of them you have the more challenging your fabric painting project is going to be sorry just a couple of the comments so i'm just i'm spraying my fabric before working my paint in spring it after working it in again so uh brittany's come up with a new show for me prime time it's called uh stripping with sean oh that sounds terrible yeah i don't know i think the rating has been suck on that one it's already been cancelled yeah yeah we tried that it's been cancelled nobody paid for it and they still want money back yeah didn't that did not fly with anybody and then the other question is uh that noise in the background oh my god my friend i timed him this morning it's every uh like 12 seconds who's watched moana yep that's correct hey hey that's our rooster our neighbor's rooster we don't have a rooster because why that's our neighbor's rooster we give him to the neighbor we call him hey hey okay so this fabric right here is an absolute dream to paint it doesn't have a raised nap on it that's that would be a fabric term more than a painting term but it doesn't have a raised nap on it it just has a little bit of a light woven texture it's a dream to paint this is so much easier than either one of these up here at the top oh a nap nap um i can still see the pattern through it which i actually like it looks nice i've just changed the color of it so we we didn't keep any of these window boxes in our rv um it's a great sample board but we actually ended up taking all these window boxes down and then in some fabrics like that when you're working in an rv space there are some fabrics you can just eliminate but there are some that you can't take out without um you know doing a real big project and we were just doing a cosmetic project so that painted remarkably easy compared to either one of these fabrics across the top that's the smoother fabric that's along the sides i'm going to come do this little spot in the middle this over here is fairly dry i did this earlier so that i could show you putting a second coat on and i think we'll actually um we're gonna show i'm gonna show waxing inside the rv that's where it's dry it's got sufficient coats on it that's where you'll really get a feel for what it's gonna what it's gonna feel like and look like in a realistic setting so we have a couple of questions as far as uh making sure we're okay if we're involved in the fires uh we're not thankful you guys thank you for asking i've gotten uh so many people asking if we're close to the fires you'll see when we go outside tonight what the air looks like the air quality is terrible it's smoky and hazy but we're still about two hours away from anything that's actively burning so we are remarkably lucky because we do live kind of rural in california everybody knows that our state just burns year after year after year um okay so let's come over here and let's put a second coat on this the process is gonna be exactly the same um and i would say i i don't think there's really any way around a second coat i have not found a fabric yet that i don't need to put two coats on yet even this here i still have some exposed fibers in here that i would come back and just fill it in with a second coat but this especially the the printed pattern on here um is harder to cover this is a more solid color fabric easier to cover these are great things to consider when you're considering you know like i said if you get to go pick the chair versus one you already have in your house just know that if it's got a pattern on it with different colors in it that's going to definitely take you more than one coat to cover same process lots of water working that paint in and this second coat i can definitely tell the difference on i'm getting full coverage it's taking away i can't see that ugly floral anymore it's gone bye bye 1990s you were good while you lasted but you got to go although i take the 1990s over 2020 that's for sure oh amen to that okay so i'll just do about half on here and that's probably enough to show you guys just just it's a lot of arm work it's a lot of armor um who was i talking to oh it was one of the dixie belt retailers was thinking of doing a couch and i looked at it and said you're gonna hate that couch so much by the time you're done because you it's a lot of working that paint into the fabric a lot of it it works great but plan on it being a lot of arm work so now just stepping back for a second did you prep the fabric uh no just making sure it's clean if it's got any um you know somebody spilled i don't know what did your kids spill on your fabric everything just wipe it down i i wouldn't shampoo it at all unless it was just disgusting and then you may want to just replace it i don't know um no i'm kidding um just make sure it's clean just make sure it's clean you really have to judge that because you're not you don't want to paint over if it's if it's disgusting you're not trying to hide that make sure it's clean um you know the fabrics so here's one thing to consider this is a window box you're not going to touch this very often it doesn't it's not something that gets a lot of finger wear you know dirt on it whereas it's if it's your sofa or an arm chair it's probably been used a little bit more i vacuum it well you don't want cat hair all over it or um trying to think of what other situations there might be okay so it was asked obviously what it feels like once the once you're done with this and process was a skeptic sean knows i'm total skeptic about painting some fabric but it sounds silly to paint put paint on your fabric but dixie belt is a water-based paint so it's no different you guys got to think about like if you were to take your sofa and dip diet in a fabric dye it's a water-based dye that's what you're creating is a water-based dye out of the paint it's no different that's the feeling that you're going to give it saying hi from cairo okay so the next step i can't complain about your fabrics and we're going to go inside the rv in a minute and we'll do more of this it's going to be your wax so this fabric right here again this is going to be a dream to wax it's a smoother fabric this is going to stink to wax how do i know because i waxed a whole bunch of it this is what's all over my rv is this textured fabric not with these gathers in it though it's smooth so just another really quick question as far as a sanding sponge you pretty much use a sanding sponge on everything you touch i do either the sanding sponge or the um surf prep rad pads i don't have any oh do i have anything and just to throw a couple things while you're looking for that kimber no it doesn't rub off on your clothing no it doesn't the wax is going to cure and harden so it doesn't and you're going to work it so much into that fabric i'm going to show you guys what i did to work like it flakes off or anything like that no it stays soft wax stays soft um um i lost my train of thought we're gonna work it so much into this fabric and i'm gonna show you what i did in my rv to make a textured fabric feel smooth let's go ahead and do this smooth section right here which is a really easy section um because it doesn't take quite as much so for this i would put my wax on and this is clear wax this is a besting wax and clear it does look white in the container and it goes on white i had mixed in some older wax on top of my new container wax mine's a hot mess so ignore that if you can it's a hot mess no big deal so it looks white going on i need to work this wax into my paint okay this is too much wax too i don't want this much sitting on top of the surface what i want to do basically is massage it in so that the porous paint absorbs what it needs to of the wax that seals it and then anything that's residual left sitting on the top i'm going to take that back off i don't want it sitting on the top i want it massaged into that paint it's that's the same thing when you're waxing a piece of furniture you just want enough wax that the paint absorbs it you don't want it sitting on top of your paint that's not what wax should be doing so if you were going to do this like on a vinyl or even pleather would you still throw wax on the top yeah i would i would because the paint itself dries to a really matte chalky feel the wax on the top just brings it back to that soft supple feel of leather it feels like leather if it's that supple feeling it's wipeable and you know i would feel much better about my kids uh spilling food on this fabric with a wax coating on it because i can come back and wipe it off all right enough talking for me i want you to go ahead and work while i sit here and watch so i'm taking another natural bristle brush this one's it's a more dense brush it's a fuller brush this one's by redesign with prima this is their what two inch wax brush stencil brush and i'm going to take this and i'm going to work this wax into my paint and you can see how it takes it from having this white to now i've got it worked into my paint but here i go again where i had to work the paint into the fabric and now i'm having to work the wax into the fabric so like it's just getting into those pores plan on your arms like your arm is going to be ice it ice it it's going to take a picture so now when i feel this it doesn't have any residue i can come back and i can all you know buff i can buff my wax whatever's sitting on the top which is minimal because i just worked it all into my fabric now i'm going to bring this close and i'm going to show you guys this is the only portion i've waxed this is wet paint up here so ignore this part right here but let's look at this up close and see how well we can see it okay this is only one coat of paint too i would have liked to put two on here so you can't you know i've got a little bit of places where my fabric's a little um thin like i can kind of see the white peeking through and i needed a second coat on here so i plan on doing the second coat but this is like i want to pick do we have a volunteer from the audience who wants to come feel this no like i want to call someone out of our live studio audience to come touch this because it's feel it feels touchable it doesn't feel like i would not hesitate to sit on a chair that had this on can we make it like the price is right and the person comes down all crazy yeah dressed like a chicken wait what how about i just sound like one hurry up it's on your side of the closet so oh that's nice i know see i get stuff in the rv too it surprises me it surprises me but this this is an easy this is an easy choice here because this is that smoother fabric this is where it gets into more complex because all this nap that's in the fabric you've got to loosen it back up so i'm going to show you how we do that you guys want to have it head over to my rv right now not really well we're going to i know we've spent a lot of time in there we don't want to be in there at all um so i don't know can you guys see the texture in this fabric up close uh right hold on there we go for that one and scoot scoot the piece over this way and then down then to your left and then no i'm just kidding okay sit still there we go there's the money shot yep that's perfect yeah can you go down a little bit i don't want to see you okay perfect wait a minute it's like [Laughter] maybe i'll keep this yeah and this woman keeps following me so that's a that's an easy choice for me right there honestly i don't think this painted version feels that different from what fabric felt like unpainted it's still got that same kind of smooth feel let's make a deal it wasn't prices right i know but they ran back to back right didn't you watch let's make a deal on them no no i was probably doing homework yeah of course okay so let's put this down let's go over to the rv let's wax some textured fabric and i'll show you what it looks like in an actual realistic setting i'm gonna bring my wax brushes i'm not gonna bring the paint brush because we're not gonna paint anymore oh i have a nice tan on my hand all right thank you all right sean's going to do some camera work you guys i'm i am going to point out the sky is what the skies look like is it blue the sky is blue it's actually orange all right we're going mobile all right ladies and gentlemen we're taking the show on the road okay hold on i gotta try to do two two phones here okay so first i'll i want to show i'm going to show you guys the sun huh oh i'm over here where are we going can you see it up there no it's behind the trees sorry guys crappy yard right now yeah you'll drip so you can see it's right behind you can kind of see it's really orange out here it's just not it's like my tail nice at all it's um all right let's go we have blue skies directly above but everything else is just a haze of come out so this is our rv our rv is a year 2000 um fleetwood storm so it's not super nice it's not a you know it didn't cost us tens of thousands of dollars what um the outside of it looks worse than the inside and we've slowly been working on making this over you gotta yeah there's the latch that you okay so let's go inside and i'll show you guys what we've done so far nothing like walking with two cameras and then still trying to keep my balance it's like a good friday you may have to turn off the air conditioner in here wow if you go back there you can flip the switch it's a dip switch the selection switch up oh yeah i got words it's one of the there you go flip it all the way up to where it says off i know it's just technical words so it's going to get hot in here pretty quick um and then i'll let you pick i'm also trying to go slow so i don't you know make you guys want to throw up yeah so this is the main piece of the fabric never mind the wire this is that same green fabric that was on the wood window boxes this is this was the same green fabric so this is number one an area that nobody's going to sit on or touch or anything but it's got that texture in it that made it a challenge so let me show you how i cured that so what i did to really work in my wax i did the same process where i took my besting waxing clear and let me is this a good spot yeah you go now okay you go now and i just brushed it on and there i am back again with that white wax let me get a little bit more and it looks white going on so then i need to work this into the texture of that fabric at the same time i'm going to brush it so that when i'm brushing it it's loosening up all the fibers in the fabric um so it's you know they're not going to be crusty because i'm going to brush them out so what i did is i took a nylon scrub brush which is this is just a little nylon scrub brush and i took that wax and i brushed it into the fabric and that just makes it so it's got that smooth leathery feel it's not going to take the texture out completely but it helps me i can by the brushing loosens up the fibers so they don't they can't stay crusty when you're brushing it like that i just realized why you have a mad right hook yeah it's like it's almost like a sanding i'm not taking the paint off at all i can't see the green fabric by doing that but i am able to work that wax in and make this fabric super touchable so now if somebody does you know this is kind of an odd spot to be touching but it is around our banquette too and i did the same process down here so let me show you guys that find a good spot right here this is that same fabric that same green velour fabric is all around here now this is a spot where if you're sitting you're going to put your arm here all the time right and you don't want it to be scratchy and uncomfortable and then it carries all the way down here and wraps around and i did this all with that same process so same thing i took some of the disgusting wax and clear two coats of paint on here already and once it was dry besting wax and then i [Music] i scrubbed it in and it just makes the wax just makes it smooth and then brushing out those fibers makes it so they're not restricted by the paint anymore and so up here same thing where your arms gonna rest one arm popeye i'm telling you guys you're gonna hate the fabric but how else i would have had to take all these off all this off and i could have put a new fabric wrapped it this was the easier choice for me um it didn't take me as much time it took me a lot of elbow grease and then up here i mean i could have probably like tried to glue a strip of fabric on here but it would have gotten weird so i just think this was the easier choice to just paint the fabric and it's clear wax it looks white but it's clear it is uh this is dixie bell besting wax in clear says clear on the package looks white in the container dry is totally clear little trick about the white or the clear wax it does look white in the container so same thing right here where your arm's gonna rest i took it applied a little bit of wax and now i need to work it into the fabric [Music] and then that's loosened up the fibers it's nice i don't think you've done that enough i'm going to come back in 20 years let me do more i feel a little bit like cinderella ish the before but i mean the results are something i'm really happy with and just i think the brushing of the scrub brush so you can put your wax on with a with a regular brush but with the textured fabric like this it's so much harder and i'm not gonna get that same brushing effect of loosening those fibers back up and working the wax in at the same time so i found this i could just wipe it on and then work it in with a scrub now if you're going to use uh put this on like a pleather or a vinyl or something you probably don't want to use that scrub brush you were just no yes no i'm talking about uh um textured fabrics you guys are going to be a little bit different don't be that abrasive with it it's it doesn't it's you're not going to have to work in the the wax as much you're not going to have to loosen the fibers back up that's what i'm talking here i'm talking textured fabrics so the process we did back in my workspace with just the window cornice on that smooth fabric section um you saw i was able to just massage my wax in with just a brush like this massage just like waxing a piece of furniture buff it out with a rag that's it on a smooth piece of fabric it's much much much simpler i wanted to show you guys that it's not impossible to paint a textured fabric though it is very much possible to paint a textured fabric smooth fabrics are much easier if you've got the option so that's kind of it you guys that's everything on painting fabric lots of water think twice as much paint as you think you're going to need is what you're actually going to use it's a lot of paint because you're making it into a die for your fabric and then i like the clear wax you can use the spray wax but like i said it's a more matte feeling that it dries to so i prefer the the supple feeling of um of the actual besting wax um so while we're in here i also like that in this small quarters there's no smell well it smells like smoke in here right now yeah best thing wax is a water-based wax you guys so it doesn't have a strong uh usually oil-based products or what have a really strong odor i'm opening these so we have better light so that we see the side of the workshop yeah um no i wanted to show can you catch the sheen on the painted cabinets like the martin or the charlie so all of the cabinets in here were painted with dixie belt paint this is sawmill gravy and i did the kitchen area in driftwood but i wanted to show you how nicely they came out um so a lot of people redo like tiny homes tiny home living this is actually meant to still be mobile we still want to be able to drive it you know which means i can't put like plants and pictures on the wall and things that will fall um the window coverings even we replaced so those those window boxes that we were painting i replaced just with window blinds and then they'll magnet latch to the window frame itself stay in place so i don't need those cornice boxes anymore that's why we're not using them so those are those are cordless blinds up there are those uh those wires hanging down is that an added feature i'm just having nobody asked i mean yeah it's 12 volt you know it's cool no big deal oh we ordered lights actually we're plugged in no don't don't don't touch the two together sorry um we ordered lights on amazon because they were this is this is this is 1990s at its finest the year 2000 is when this was built had ugly sconces so we're going to replace those they haven't come in the mail yet so we're doing a walk-through tour well no not all of it but i just really want to show what i did with the paint in here that's a really nice fan right above it i'm just saying yeah that's what everybody's looking at so this is dixie about paint and driftwood but really and then sprayed with gator hide and a smooth nice finish on an rv cabinet oh yeah so anyway most of this was done using dixie bill paint products the paint gator hide wax on the fabrics um and that was pretty much it and a lot of elbow grease you guys so anyway i'm going to pop off um we're going to go rving tonight yeah why not where we're just going to drive this around the neighborhood we're going to go get some you know to go for it i'm excited to have it done um so anyway i'm gonna pop off i will come back next thursday we will do another paint project with you but i hope you guys i hope that makes you feel more confident that fabric is totally paintable it's no different than creating a water-based dye is what you're basically doing with the paint and then the wax just makes it feel like a soft you know we've got leather furniture in here this same soft supple feel is what it feels like with the wax on the fabric especially when you've got a smooth fabric this is not painted this is actually leather but just you know i want you to envision that feeling that's how it's going to feel on a smooth fabric with the wax over top if you guys have any questions feel free to um add them to the thread after we get off if you tag me i'm more likely to see it you can just do the at symbol and brush by brandy you guys can find me on facebook instagram pinterest and youtube also at brush by brandy i put a link in the top of the post if you guys need to order any of the things that you saw tonight the besting wax the paints that we used um you know some of our brushes are on there you can also use that link to find a retailer near you if you want to go in and check out any of the products so um you guys have a great weekend i will catch you guys next thursday can you catch this one yep yeah thank you yeah i'm looking for where i need to end bye guys

Channel: Brushed by Brandy

Views: 14,143

Rating: 4.9501247 out of 5

Keywords: dixie belle, chalk paint, diy, tutorial, chalk mineral paint, redesign with prima, painted, painted furniture, blending, blended, paint, home decor, farmhouse, furniture, brushed by brandy

Id: sA2S16tF0nY

Length: 36min 13sec (2173 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 30 2020