How To Properly Paint Cloth Furniture
Sam Lutz • July 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Upholstered furniture that is old, stained or out of date can bring down the overall appearance of your home.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!
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