My Experience Painting Upholstery

A nice, if somewhat blah, chair

Around two years ago my craigslist search keywords were "french provincial chair", when I struck pay dirt in some long since forgotten part of New Jersey.  A nicely appointed home had greatly underestimated the cost of their beautiful carved fruitwood chair.  The quality upholstery was in a light blue that had no stains, although it did have some sun fading that made it dingy looking.  I bought it on the spot and then had to deal with the classic craigslist reality check-euphoria letdown: how to get it into my trunk to get it through Manhattan.  It has graced our living room ever since, and it was time to tie it into my "decor". 

My custom paint blend, with
my fabric medium (Golden)

There are many tutorials online that tout the fabulous results from painting upholstery.  I tried to paint my daughter's flatweave rug, with disasterous results.  Rug, meet garbage; garbage, rug.  The step that it seems I was missing was two very watered down primer layers.  Armed with a bit more knowledge learned, as is usually the case, from failure, I felt it was time to try it on my fateuil. 

There are oh-so-many photos of progress because there were oh-so-many stages of progress.  I thought it would never end.  This project came critically close to being called off; if my fourth coat didn't finally cover the original blue, I don't know that I would have tried coat five; thankfully, it mostly did, so I did. 

 

After first coat

After second coat

Ooooh, I am starting to see the
progress finally

The application makes it seem as if its
 covering more, but when
it dries it fades to "more like a stain".
Up side: great shot of my shapely leg.



And here it is in its finished glory.  It IS a bit
crunchy, but it goes better with the color scheme
of my living room.