Chair Makeover Using Fabric Paint

I bought this pink vintage chair ten years ago. After all this time, I finally gave this chair a makeover with fabric paint. 

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This project is part of this month’s ‘Do It Over’ Designers Challenge.  BE sure to check out the other blogger’s links below.

The plan has always been to upholster and make over this little pink vintage chair.  

The chair fabric was a faded shade of pink in a thick cotton blend similar to denim. Which is not my favorite or my daughter’s favorite color, but she used it in her room anyway.  And scribbled on it while watching TV of course. 

However, since I only spent about $20 on the chair at a vintage/retro-themed thrift store so long ago, I could never bring myself to spend a few hundred dollars reupholstering it. I won’t even attempt to upholster the chair myself!

So the chair became lost in my daughter’s room, covered in blankets and throws, and forgotten until she moved out last year. It has been scribbled on and marked up over the years and is basically lost in a teenager’s room. 

Now with just two bottles of fabric paint, I was able to repurpose and makeover this pink vintage chair for our new sunroom (coming soon)

Upholstery is a talent I wish I had, but I don’t, and I am not inclined to learn it now.   In my career, I have had to hire someone to reupholster furniture more times than I can remember, so I know it takes some work and effort. I am fine leaving it to a professional I will hire when needed.

A makeover for this little vintage and inexpensive chair is not one of those times for me, at least not yet. 

Last year, I started researching upholstery painting on Pinterest. You can find so many ideas for projects and techniques on Pinterest for painting with many different types of paint, additives, and all types of fabric. 

One option for painting upholstery fabric is chalk paint, but I wasn’t inclined to try that just yet. Chalk paint is dry and stiff to the touch.

I wanted an easy-to-do option and paint that wouldn’t be stiff and uncomfortable. Surprisingly, this little vintage chair is very comfortable to sit in, and I wanted to keep it that way.

In my research, I found a couple of bloggers who had used Tulip Soft Fabric Paint in a Velveteen finish on their projects. So, I kept reading and ended up on Amazon to order a few bottles of the paint based on their success stories. Since then, I have noticed several bloggers who have used a spray paint version of Tulip Fabric Paint, and I want to try that out next. 

A word of caution: On Amazon, there are many different colors of Tulip Soft Fabric paint, but look carefully to see if it is the Velveteen Finish and not the Matte Finish. You will get a different result with the Matte Finish.  

So, on to my own experience with this paint.

I ordered this paint last summer with plans to update this chair, but that didn’t happen, and the whole project got lost in the busyness of my daughter’s wedding and then the holidays.  Thankfully, this challenge has motivated me to get this project done!

Unfortunately, the Tulip Fabric Paint in the Velveteen finish is only available in 6 colors, which I could find online. It doesn’t seem to be available in most stores.  The colors available are red, green, blue, yellow, black, and white.  I chose blue because it would go with my décor the best, and I needed to hide the ink scribbles on the fabric, so white and yellow were out.  Out of the darker colors, let’s say, blue won out for my new chair color.

The first step in my vintage chair makeover was to clean the upholstery as much as possible. I couldn’t get the ink out or some of the stains, so I was glad I went with the blue color after all.

The plan was to follow the instructions on the bottle of paint as closely as possible to achieve a velvet texture on the fabric of my chair after it was done.

Using a couple of foam sponge brushes, I applied the fabric paint to the chair and worked the color into the texture of the fabric as best as I could. Surprisingly, it went on very smoothly since it is a very thick paint. 

Thankfully, this fabric didn’t soak up a lot of the paint, and the first coat covered most of the chair. Since I only had two bottles of the paint, I didn’t apply a second coat but instead just applied paint to the spots or areas of the chairs that needed it. I used most of the two bottles I had to cover this small chair. 

For the areas around the welting and the buttons, I used a couple of cotton swabs to get deep into the chair’s folds and grooves. This process worked very well. 

Once the chair was painted, I let it dry overnight. The instructions on the bottle say to let it dry for four hours, but it was late at night, so I just let it dry overnight.

The next step in the instructions on the bottle was to iron the paint on the fabric to give the paint that velvet-like feel it was intended for. 

Well, I couldn’t flat-iron this chair.  Instead, I set the iron to a steam setting for cotton fabric, held it upright over the chair, and pressed the steam button to let the heat and steam soften it.  

Holding the iron upright did cause it to leak a bit, but the hot steam worked, and the fabric was much softer to the touch afterwards—exactly like I hoped it would be.

Now I have what looks like a new vintage shaped chair to put in my sunroom when it is finished.  With the initial cost of $20 for the chair and the two bottles of Tulip Velveteen paint, I have less than $40 total in this chair makeover.

This is a fabulous budget-friendly makeover until I decide to have the chair professionally reupholstered. 

Pin It For Later!

Please be sure to visit all of the other talented and creative bloggers who are participating in this month’s ‘Do It Over’ Challenge. 

The Apple Street Cottage

Birdz of a Feather

Chas’ Crazy Creations

Cloches & Lavender

Doodle Buddies

Little Vintage Cottage

Modern on Monticello

Pandora’s Box

Purple Hues & Me

Unique Creations by Anita

Hugs,