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...

Crafty Sunday...

Over the weekend I spotted this dilapidated chair outside my building where people typically throw away their bulk items. The chair caught my eye with its vintage curves and white paint job. I debated picking it up (I had never actually picked up a piece of furniture off the curb, but here in Hawaii it's totally normal - at least that's what I kept telling myself).. I left it at first and put it in the back of my mind that it was probably more work than I wanted to put into it... I went out later that night and upon returning saw the chair was still there.. at this point it was dark, nobody was really outside and got the nerve to grab it real quick.. As I'm picking it up, someone from my building starts walking towards the elevator.. Now I have this chair on my arm that could quite possibly belonged to this neighbor.. We share the awkward elevator ride and he turns to me and says "there was a cool desk out there too".. my response, "that's ok, I just liked this vintage chair, I'm going to refurbish it and make it look cool".. End convo.. Yup, after trying to sneakily grab the chair, still was caught red-handed. Oh well. Then came Sunday which turned into my crafty little day..

Before I actually thought about documenting the process, I had already cleaned it up a bit.. I removed the top cover seat layer that resembled some sort of sun drenched tropical pattern (you could tell it had been outside for awhile), leaving a green embroidered fabric underneath which actually wasn't too bad. I wiped it clean with some 409 and hammered the top back rest into place (it was coming apart from the chair) then glued together this huge crack on the seat that went down the leg of the chair. I left it for a few hours to adhere together.. that's when the documenting started:



Armed with materials I had purchased from Walmart and Ben Franklin (craft store) were one yard of pretty white slightly textured fabric, a staple gun, staples, a handheld sand paper cube, white paint, and a matte finishing coat. Also note I had never refurbished anything before..


I removed the seat with a hammer and sprayed down the green seat cover with cleaning supplies and put it aside to dry.. I used my sandpaper all over in hopes the paint would stick to it better and clean it up a bit more.. I then began the painting process.. It didn't have to be perfect because I wanted it to have this old fashioned vintage feel where it looked "lived in" but modern at the same time. I put two fresh coats followed by the matte finishing topper (I didn't want glossy because I felt like that would take away from the rustic appearance..)


I let it dry while I worked on the seat cover. I loaded the staple gun and placed the layered fabric perfectly square around the seat base and started folding it while stapling.. It was quite fun actually and I probably got carried away with the number of staples I actually used, but at least that fabric isn't going anywhere!



So this is where I didn't completely finish the job.. since I layered the fabric so much (I didn't cut any of the yardage), it was super thick, which meant two things, it was going to be super comfy to sit on, but that I somehow had to fit it back into the chair. I removed the old nails that were screwed into the seat to the chair because they were rusty and I didn't want to break the bottom of the seat. SOOOOO, I hammered the seat back into place on the corners which worked out that because it was so thick, it wasn't going to move out of place.. I also didn't really intend on people sitting in the chair unless it was necessary.. But I completed this look by placing it with my antlers I purchased off Etsy.. I think I just pulled off my first refurbished piece of furniture!!


Hmmmmmm, what new piece can I find now to restore?!