Blog Layout
How To Properly Paint Cloth Furniture
Sam Lutz • Jul 19, 2016
Upholstered furniture that is old, stained or out of date can bring down the overall appearance of your home. Fortunately, there’s an efficient and inexpensive way to make your old upholstered furniture look like new: paint it! In this post, we’ll talk about the right way to paint your upholstered furniture.
This method ensures the cloth stays soft and pleasant to touch. The secret is to sand the furniture after applying the paint. Sanding will help soften the surface and prevent the stiffness that can occur when you apply acrylic paint to cloth.
Gather Your Materials
- Tarp
- Painter’s tape
- Plastic sheeting
- Latex Paint
- Water
- Fabric medium
- Measuring cup
- Stirring stick
- Empty paint can
- Spray bottle
- Paintbrushes (various sizes)
- 200 grit sandpaper
Paint the Cloth Furniture
- Set up your work space. Choose a well-ventilated, dry space to paint your chair and lay a tarp down on the floor. Do this project in a place with low humidity, as the fabric will get wet during this process and thus will have to dry.
- Cover any parts of the chair that you don’t wish to be covered in paint. Use painter’s tape to mask off any wooden legs or arms, then use plastic sheeting to protect larger areas. Check the plastic sheeting for any holes that might allow paint to penetrate.
- Mix the paint. In the empty paint can, mix together the paint, water and medium in a ratio of 1 part paint to 1 part medium to 2 parts water. Stir the mixture with the stirring stick.
- Spray the furniture with a mist of water from a spray bottle. The water should dampen the furniture, but not soak it. Dampening the fabric will help the paint soak in.
- Paint the fabric with the paintbrushes. It helps to have a variety of paintbrushes to use at this stage, as small paintbrushes will more easily fit into small spaces, and large paintbrushes will quickly cover broad areas of flat cloth.
- Allow the paint to dry. To prevent the development of mold or mildew, it’s important for your furniture to dry as quickly as possible. Set up a fan and point it at the piece that you just painted. Allow the furniture to dry overnight, or longer if necessary.
- Sand the paint. Use the sandpaper to sand down the paint on the upholstery. Sand until the paint feels soft. The upholstery may have developed some pills during the painting process. Sanding will help remove them.
- Repeat steps 5 through 7. Once this is done, the paint should be evenly applied and the furniture you’re painting should look and feel finished. If the coat of paint still looks uneven or splotchy, repeat steps 5 through 7 again, until the furniture is covered.
Note:
we recommend trying the paint on a piece of test fabric before painting your furniture, to ensure that you like the way the paint looks and feels.
Stop In at Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture
At Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture, we sell supplies like paint, tarps and more. Before starting on your furniture painting project, stop in at one of our stores for the proper materials. We’ll be happy to help you pick out what you need to get started!
There are all kinds of wooden furniture: modern, antique and everything in between. We’ve talked about style differences, but what about how it’s made and what it’s made of? Is there a large difference between the wood furniture of today and yesterday?
Colors are so fascinating. They make us feel, they help us express how we feel. The right colors can really set the mood in a room, or on an outfit. There’s a lot to color theory and what each of the colors mean. This St. Patrick’s Day we thought it’d be fun to explore a little about green.
One of the wonderful things about good wood furniture is that it doesn’t have to be merely functional. It can be beautiful as well. We’ve seen some amazing pieces made with wood stains that are more than just furniture, they’re works of art. So if you’ve got an old table, desk or other piece of wood furniture that needs jazzed up, why don’t you consider using some of our great stains to try one of these ideas.
What's your furniture style? Here’s a few of the more popular styles and the kind of look they give your home.
Wood is our most basic raw material used for creating furniture. Wood furniture is timeless, and the aesthetic options are endless. Let’s talk about a few today, shall we?
The 2010s saw an uptick in modern interiors, bringing in clean lines to decor and furniture, so what does the new decade have in store? Restyle your home for the new year with the latest trends.
Are they bright and bold? Wild and wacky? It’s a thrill for our industry to learn what the latest “in” colors will be each year, and they never disappoint. The color trends for 2020 include shades of green, blue and pink, and each have an inherent welcoming quality.
Holiday parties are part of the magic of the season, but the cleanup is a pain—especially when furniture is involved. Prevent disasters with a few tips on how to protect your furniture during holiday parties.
The holiday season has arrived, and soon every corner will be decked out in red and green. But have you ever stopped to think about what holiday colors mean?
Restaining an old piece of furniture with a new varnish color can go a long way, but first you need to remove the old stain color.