I painted my couch! | Antique sofa makeover | chalk painted upholstery

hey everyone it's lisa from the blog farmhouseonboon.com and today i'm going to tell you about painting upholstery fabric on a couch or chair which is something i never thought i would do but after reading about it on several blogs watching several youtube videos i finally decided to try my hand at it and i'm excited to share with you what i learned if it worked if i even suggest you doing it [Music] so when i snagged a three-piece furniture set on facebook marketplace for 75 total 25 for the couch 25 for the love seat and 25 for the chair i had to get it i made luke go get it right away because this was a person who actually lived about seven miles for me which is crazy normally when i find great really good deals it's like we need to go to the city today and get this thing so once i contacted her she said i've already had so many inquiries are you really coming right now and so we did luke went and got here to take two trips in the back of our van to get all this furniture my first thought was i'm going to reupholster this with i was hoping to do some kind of velvet maybe a light gray or a light green was my thought process and then after talking to a few friends i was talked off the ledge of that one because i know i could do it but it would be such a ridiculous process that i'd probably just rather pay any price for new furniture so this is the diy person in me who thinks you know i can do this and instead i tried to start researching some other options and eventually came across the idea of chalk painting fabric my mind went to probably what yours is going to right now the first thing is that's not going to work it's gonna be crunchy it's gonna feel like you're sitting on paint so i researched into it a little bit further dug a little deeper and found out that there actually is a method that you can use that does not cause the fabric to be crunchy essentially what you're doing with this process is you are dyeing the fabric by watering the paint down so that it soaks into the fabric and doesn't actually sit on top of the fabric but goes into it and makes it to where you are dyeing it so i chose a color by magnolia home called emmy's room i believe yes emmy's room it's a green color in this chalk style paint i really liked the green shade especially for the theme that i'm going to be doing in my living room which will be coming soon i have so many big plans for it but getting this furniture done first is a priority now i will say that the color ended up taking on a little bit of a different shade on top of this yellow fabric that originally the set came in but i really do like it now if you're going to be attempting a project like this you want to get something that has good bones so all of the fabric is very much intact and pretty the only problem with the fabric was that it just wasn't my style i didn't like the yellow shade also the wood is in great condition at some point it would probably be nice to actually strip the wood because it's coming off the stain is coming off in several areas for now i just want to get the project done and in my living room and start living with it see if i like it before i invest more time so that's another thing i thought you know what why don't i try this fabric dyeing thing if in a few years i decide i love this furniture but i want something a little bit comfier more cozy then i could think about taking the plunge and reupholstering it in a velvet but first let's just see if we like it if the style looks right in the living room before i invest time and money in all of this fabric so let's dive into the process before i got started i made sure to trim off any strings that were fuzzies or hanging down and i also stapled anything that was loose back on my chair actually had duct tape on it and i had to staple the trim back on but it actually wasn't a very big deal at all the piping trim needed to just be secured you could also use upholstery nails or tacks i just had staples that's what i did the key with this is you have to get the fabric really really wet on the first chair that i did i didn't quite grasp this i mean i got the fabric pretty wet but whenever i did this next piece the loveseat i even made sure it was even wetter so that it really absorbed in and didn't get crunchy so on the chair i took a spray bottle and i just wet it in little sections as i was working so i would wet one little area work the paint into it wet another area work the paint into it and then i would even take my spray bottle and spray it to make the paint sitting on top even wetter and soak in more now this doesn't mean that you need more coats of paint because you will think that it's painted and then you'll come back two hours later and it's soaked in and you're seeing the yellow or whatever fabric you have before really prominent again so on the chair i ended up doing three coats i'm about ready to do the third coat here on this loveseat and then i think that it's the color i like it actually looks really good i've had the chair sitting in my living room now for a few weeks it's been done and i actually really love it it is not crunchy now one thing i did have to troubleshoot i found that if i got too far ahead of myself on wetting it it would be too dry by time i got to it so i used this spray bottle and then i also sometimes just dipped my paintbrush into a container of water and rubbed it on that way and that really helped to make it wetter more quickly now areas where it was vertical versus like a seat but like the back in the front sometimes especially on the back where there's no padding and it's just fabric stretched out over wood it would run off and not absorb in as quickly whenever i use the dipping method and so i relied on my spray bottle because it helped it to actually absorb in so you'll just find what works the key of this and i've seen so many different tutorials and different methods some people actually water down the paint beforehand but the key is to keep the paint wet whatever you do you will notice that if you come back the next day and there was a certain spot that you didn't wet it down enough it'll be crunchy and hard like paint but the other areas will feel like fabric i went to a store recently that actually had done this i got to feel the couch in real life and i actually messaged her and asked her what method that she used and she said she did the spray bottle method where she sprayed a little bit paint a little area sprayed more so she didn't dilute the paint she just went ahead with her spray bottle and then work the paint in slowly i needed three coats of paint for my projects depending on your color of the upholstery before and the color you're going with will determine how many coats you need to do if you have a dark fabric and you're going over it with the light of course it's going to take a lot of coats i watched a lady on here i believe her name is debbie and she did black paint over a light color and i think she only did one coat some people also do finish it with a top coat like a wax or something and say that it feels like leather i haven't personally tried that i am going to leave it as is and then if it gets stained up too easily with the kids i will go over it with one more coat of paint and then add a top coat but for now this is what i'm gonna do now another tip is on the first chair that i did i didn't use any painters tape i just used a small paintbrush like a kids art paintbrush and got around the edges for the piping on the second time around on the loveseat i actually did tape off all of the wood and it made it significantly easier a lot quicker of course and so i would recommend doing that even though it took a long time to tape it off it was totally worth it and i feel like the trim around the outside actually looks a lot better since i taped it off i was able to get the paint in a little bit better another thing i learned on my second piece is to separate out around the tufting and get my paintbrush and they're really good on the first one i kind of just went over and then i found that when you sit on the chair a little bit of the yellow will peek out so you'll notice here where i pull out around the buttons and work my paintbrush in on that first coat now i didn't worry about that as much on the second and third coat because i figure it's not going to be seen much if it does peek out at least it's blue ish now that bothers me later i do have some leftover paint and i can of course put another coat on as soon as you go to put another coat on after something has dried a while because i actually did this with my small chair weeks after i did the first uh round and had it sitting in our living room while i noticed there was a few spots that were a little bit too yellow for me as soon as you hit it with water it softens up and you can put in another coat of paint no problem another tip i learned is i really prefer to work on this outside and let it dry in the hot sun this particular chair i left in our dining room the entire time i worked on it this love seat and it took almost 48 hours in between coats of paint for it to dry fully for me to do another coat because i got it so wet whereas the chair i left it out while i was working on it and then i would just put it on the porch at night to avoid getting dew on it it would dry really within hours of being out in the hot sun i don't know if that's good or bad i mean it it worked it is just as flexible as this so if you're doing this project in the summer i would recommend doing it outside it'll just take you less time because if you need a lot of coats of paint it's going to be a weeks-long project we're going to have your dining room taken up by a love seat if it's going to dry that slowly as far as the amount of paint my love seat and chair took two and a half cans of this 31 ounce paint so it does take a lot of paint because you are letting it soak in a lot of the paint is now inside the fabric so if you want this to be a really budget friendly project which if you're painting furniture you probably do i would recommend maybe doing a latex paint and making it into a chalk paint or if you can find inexpensive chalk paint somehow there is tutorials for on how to actually make your own chalk paint i did not go super budget friendly on this i actually did go with the magnolia home line so the chairs were cheap but the paint was probably about a hundred dollars which is expensive but i figured that if i spent all this time doing this i wanted to make sure that it was the color i really like and i don't regret that because i think that these are going to look perfect with the living room style that we are going for i've also heard from other people who've done this project that their chairs have lasted years i've seen people do all different kinds of furniture with upholstery on them and they have two year later reviews and say that it works really great so we'll see i will update you later i have also heard that it gets a little bit softer over time as you sit on it and so if it is a little bit crunchy it won't be after a while something i've seen that's a cool idea people buying these vintage couches and then doing this technique and using them as a photography prop so painting them some really bright color and using them just as photography and not for their living room furniture so that's an idea as well if you keep your eyes peeled i've been looking for these now for a while and you actually can find couches and chairs like this in abundance on facebook marketplace normally they're not nearly this cheap but they're still way less expensive than brand new furniture now i decided to not put all three pieces in my living room so i don't yet have the couch done and i'm not sure if i'll do it the same color or where i'm gonna put it i might actually just leave it in our little cottage as we make it over but i thought that it would look a little bit too matchy-matchy in our living room to have all three pieces the exact same and so i actually ordered a different couch for this space and i'll be doing the victorian couch later right well be sure to follow along we're going to be doing a full living room makeover this is just one piece i have so many diys planned and i'm excited to share all of that with you if you are brand new to my channel please hit that subscribe button i make two videos every week on food from scratch natural living and a handmade home thank you so much for stopping by the farmhouse

Channel: Farmhouse on Boone

Views: 169,461

Rating: 4.9402423 out of 5

Keywords: chalk painted couch, chalk painted couch before and after, chalk painted upholstery, chalk painted upholstered chairs, couch painting, can you paint couch fabric, can you paint couch cushions, can you paint couches, painting couches with chalk paint, painting couches, painting a couch with fabric paint, painting couch fabric with chalk paint, how to paint a sofa, how to paint a couch, how to paint upholstery, how to paint fabric, farmhouse on boone, farmhouse decor

Id: 96RBo76O2aw

Length: 12min 41sec (761 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2020