Fabric Paint Office Chair Makeover - A Cautionary Tale

So, I’m on the fence about this project but I promised myself that I would share both my DIY successes and my failures.

Back when I posted about my own makeover, I alluded to a project that would either be a success or an epic fail. It’s finished and in the end, it falls somewhere in the realm of “it’s alright.”

From far away it looks great, but I cannot say that I would recommend this method to anyone, nor would I do it again.

This makeover fought me every. step. of. the. way.

Nothing went according to plan.

I bought a $30 chair from Canadian Tire thinking that I could make it look pretty because my current office chair hurts my back. Mr. Mechanic likes to tell me it’s not the chair but the amount of time I spend in the chair now that I’m blogging. He’s probably right.

 

When I finally took it out of the box (almost a month later) I realized that I would not be able to cover it with fabric like I had been planning because of the bump on the backrest. I have never done upholstery before and I can’t sew. I was doubtful that fabric would conform to the shape of the chair cushions.

On to Plan B: Fabric paint or, more specifically, Martha Stewart’s Fabric Medium added to black acrylic paint (also Martha Stewart).

I had a 40% off Michaels coupon so that this $10 bottle would only be $6.00 + tax, but I got distracted when I was leaving the house and left it at home so I could only use the in-store coupon for 20% off.

I also bought 2 bottles of Beetle Black paint since I already had a bottle at home from my wooden signs and figured this would be enough.

Silly me!

After removing the plastic backing from the seat and backrest, I got ready to paint.

I mixed the paint and fabric medium according to the directions and applied it generously with a foam roller.

The chair fabric was a light gray colour originally and it felt a bit like burlap.

Three bottles of black paint later, you could still see the white batting through the fabric in some places.

As an added bonus, the somewhat scratchy fabric had become crunchy. Great.

A few days later I bought another bottle of paint. I figure I spent over $20 on the black paint and fabric medium. Note to self: stock up on black paint when it’s on sale.

Using every last drop from bottle #4, I was able to cover the light spots.

Then, I left it to dry for a really long time.

Partly because I was discouraged and partly because I did not want to sit down and end up with a black bottom!

Finally, it was time to stencil.

I already owned a Martha Stewart stencil and had seen it used for many blog projects. I decided to use two colours – Pollen and Gray Wolf because the accent colour in my office/craft room is yellow and the rug is gray.

Here’s where the “from far away it looks great” comes into play.

The stencil colours look great together and I love the design BUT the contours of the chair and my decision to use a foam brush to apply the paint made it blotchy in some places and very sparse in others.

Lesson learned.

The final chapter of my office chair debacle occurred during the assembly.

I was very proud of myself for putting it together without any help. I took photos of the finished chair and proceeded to bring it inside.

Then, I sat down on it and realized that the seat cushion was backwards. Geez!

Luckily it was a quick fix that made it {slightly} more comfortable.

The chair is now in my office, but I go back and forth between sitting on it and sitting on the old chair (I may or may not put a plastic bag on the seat).

Yes, it looks pretty but the seat is far from comfortable thanks to the crunchy fabric paint and the bump in the backrest sticks out in just the wrong place.

I will continue to keep my eye out for a stretchy fabric.

However, I might not need to worry about makeover number two since the reviews I read online say that the back of the chair snaps off after a few months!

I’m sure fabric paint is great, just not for this project!

Thanks for reading my cautionary tale :)

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