A New Vintage Dining Room... With Painted Upholstery!!

I purchased a settee off Craigslist and probably spent a little more than I should have BUT considering the ones in the antique shop in Ocean Beach were well over $500 I got a steal of a deal.. I bought it more out of impulse since it was priced reasonably in comparison to the antique shops I sifted through and was somewhat happy with the purchase.. not quite what I was looking for but close. I was piecing together a dining area because all the generic ones I had seen at furniture stores I just wasn't into. Too cookie cutter for my anthropologie taste. I already had the table I also purchased off Craigslist.. So all I had was this settee and the table. Next up was purchasing the remaining chairs. I bought the other khaki button tufted chairs with super pretty nailhead trim off Overstock which I'm very pleased about. After many months of staring at the dining room section of the apartment, I just wasn't satisfied.. there was just something wrong and cluttery about it all. I researched how to reupholster furniture and for this piece was more money I wanted to spend and too hard to do myself. I then checked out painting fabric.. was this possible and something I could do?? I stumbled upon Hyphen Interior, a blog that featured a wingback chair that was painted!! I thought long and hard what colors I wanted and if I wanted to risk painting a potentially high-valued antique piece of furniture. I finally went to the craft store and purchased the materials listed on the blog (minus the latex satin paint - opting for only acrylic paint).

Check out the goods (I forgot to include the Metallic Krylon gold spray paint I used).. I also had to buy a second bottle of textile medium:


Here is the before picture of the settee..


I followed the directions on Hypen Interiors except I skipped the latex satin paint and only used acrylic for all coats.. My first coat of paint.. The settee came with a roll pillow which I started on first to get an idea how the paint was going to go on the fabric.. After that first coat I was excited to get started on the settee...




This little settee took five coats of paint.. I didn't get it quite white but more of a gray with white because of the texture on it... I like that you can still see the pattern through the paint. Pretty sure I developed some form of carpal tunnel in my right arm from all the coats of paint...


After the last coat of paint dried I taped up the edges where I was going to spray paint the wood... Hot pink for a nice touch...


Right after spray painting it and carefully removing the duck tape...


The finished product!! I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.. At first I thought to myself, crap, did I just mess up a perfectly good piece of furniture? But after putting it with the rest of the dining table, it matches so much better! Pretty sure Coconut likes the new piece as well.. She matches too!!



How does painted furniture feel?? Well after five coats of paint it feels like a canvas you paint on. It's still comfortable to sit on, just not super soft.. I did use the sander to try and soften the fabric a little.. As I've read other bloggers post, it's like outdoor furniture feeling, but not really..

...taking something old and making it new and beautiful again...