How to Paint a Sofa with Good Bones but bad fabric & add IOD Transfers

it's on here it's not coming off see it's not crunchy it feels like leather now this is how it was before after it's shinier it's a little bit more slick and if you're skeptical I've got nothing more to say what [Applause] Phantasy in this video I'm going to show you how to take a sofa that has good bones but bad fabric and give it an updated look stay tuned because I have a lot of tips Here I am right here in the magazine full article about my shop in Solana Beach but this is a picture of the sofa right here can you see it that sofa was a Pottery Barn denim sofa and it had been stained and it had been bleached I had sent pictures to Coastal Living magazine to entice them to write an article about my store the editor called me back and she said Debbie we love your store but we do articles mostly on homes she asked me if my house was cute yes my house is super cute it's yes it's so cute my house was just a disaster I never put any love into it because I was just working in my store seven days a week I was taking I found this sofa at my local consignment shop I love the shape but I was concerned that the textured fabric would look weird when I painted it and that the transfers would not adhere well it's a lot easier to paint a sofa when you are using a darker color than the original fabric here I'm using black velvet which is highly pigmented and pretty much covers in one coat I'm using the spray bottle and I diluted the paint working the pigments into the fabric so it works like a dye using the spray bottle continually and working my way around the sofa [Music] and he because DIY paint is so heavily pigmented five times more pigment than your average paint it doesn t have any self-love lers or any latex or acrylic in it paint will work into the fibers of the fabric and you don't have it sitting on the surface so your fabric is not going to crack as long as you work it down in [Music] I wanted to give this Victorian sofa a really modern look so I painted the fabric and the frame all the same color because I wanted the transfers to pop the velvet sofa I painted three years ago took two weeks I was able to finish this sofa in one day because of the difference in the fabric I told the editor that it was cute and she asked me to send her some pictures as soon as possible and literally had to move crap out of the way and set up like a little corner that looked cute took a picture then move all the stuff to another corner and took another picture and I just faked my way through the photoshoot at that time I didn't even own a computer or a camera I had to go to the Thrifty's and get one of those disposable cameras this is what I said and then she called me back and Emmy we love your house we love your store and we are gonna send a photographer out and a writer they are gonna write an article for our magazine and they will be out in six months oh how am I gonna make my house look good for real I was broke I was on such a tight budget my sofa was stained it was ratty it was covered in golden retriever hair I stripped off the slipcover maybe I could just paint it what have I got to lose and this was before chalk paint this was 2005 and the arms they went out like you know how arms go out like this so I thought I can encrust the arms with seashells and put a little hula skirt at the bottom and paint the whole thing that is the first sofa that I ever painted [Music] because I know I'm gonna break you before you apply a transfer to any surface it's really important to apply a topcoat first even if you're painting a dresser or wood surface the top coat helps the transfer glide on and adhere better I decided to use Big Top for the sofa it has a heavy shine to it and I knew it would give me the modern look DIY paint dries very flat in chalky so a top coat will deepen the color it also changed the look of the fabric from a damask fabric to a look like tooled leather which was the look that I was going for [Music] then I just thought okay you know hating sofas is not really like a good thing to do unless you're totally desperate like I was but then my friend Beth from farm-fresh vintage finds she told me that you could actually paint a sofa for real you could keep the fabric soft if you water down the paint you're painting but you're not really painting you're dyeing the fabric she told me to get a spray bottle and work the the pigments of the paint into the fibers of the fabric this is the sofa right here this is the cushion and you can see that it still has a lot of dog hair on it see this part right here there's a little part of the 70s gold that did not get painted see it's it's right there painted that sofa in 2003 years ago and everyday people ask me questions about painting velvet couches I have a whole blog post answering every question that anyone has ever asked me I will put the link to that down below I hung all these umbrellas from the ceiling because there was a big hole in the roof they took pictures of my house and they took pictures of my store there's the sofa right there can you see it can you see the seashells and the little hula skirt that I glued on I just hot glued the hula skirt to the bottom I didn't sew it or anything it was just all smoke and mirrors I was concerned that the transfer would not adhere to the textured fabric but the transfer ended up grabbing on to the fabric even more so than some of the wood surfaces I've done in the past I think it's also important to use a fabric that doesn't have a heavy NAP like velvet or corduroy you want something that is a tight weave I wanna check to understand but if it doesn't feel I used two different transfers for this project cutting them up into pieces to fit the shape of my sofa and I used a lot of leftover scraps from previous projects [Music] I want to take that step with you wanna do this is midnight garden ladies-in-waiting this is the transfer that has the biggest flowers in it wanted a big dramatic effect so I use I use this entomology the butterflies and the bugs the midnight garden and the ladies-in-waiting were the main transfers that I used in the naive scraps of other things transfers come with these little sticks you rub it on like a temporary tattoo and you get it nice and adhered to the surface of the fabric I only applied the transfers in the hard areas of the sofa where the fabric wouldn't move I avoided the cushion and the backrest applying it to the arms the sides the backs and the legs [Music] these transfers have gridlines so you can cut them up and use them like puzzle pieces creating your own new design or you can use them as is and apply them in one big sheet [Applause] [Music] this right here is big top it took it took this whole container see that's how much I have left when you apply the big top it's gonna look shiny I wanted that shine because I had seen a picture of a black chair on Pinterest I will put the link down below but it looked like leather and I thought that the shininess would give the sofa like more of a modern look you want to apply a sealer underneath your transfer and over your transfer after you have applied it you can use wax or you can use big top like I'm doing here between the flesh and the bone that'll never sound away when the night's go wild you can find me with a small tray in a bow that something with all the false prophets around me so I see you got a look I applied the transfer only to the parts that would be flat so I applied it down here I applied it on the back I didn't want to put the transfers on the actual cushion if you sit on the transfers then the fabric is gonna move and then the transfers could rip and break I have not painted the back yet because I wanted to get this video done this this is it's gross still just for all of you skeptics out there look it's not cracking when you can totally squish it up and you can rough it up it feels like leather now this is how it was before after it's shinier it's a little bit more slick and if you're skeptical I have got nothing more to say lives a code man it is never black and white can't have one without the other the dark without the light spinning my like I just got paid to find out more about the products I used in this video to find DIY paint in your area or to sell it in your store click the link below and if you would like to meet me in person I will be in McKinney Texas on March 21st teaching a workshop with the turquoise iris and Kara of Kara's Color Me vintage there are a few tickets left and the links are below let me know in the comments if you have ever tried to salvage a ratty sofa and subscribe I have a new video coming next week thanks for watching this

Channel: Debi's Design Diary

Views: 118,691

Rating: 4.940022 out of 5

Keywords: chalk paint, how to paint furniture, how to distress furniture, how to paint a sofa, how to paint fabric, Iron orchid design transfers, furniture transfers, diy paint, clay paint, craigslist makeover

Id: g4pye6OOBus

Length: 12min 35sec (755 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 11 2020