A Cottage Chair Makeover Story: Yes, You *Can* Paint Fabric!

Edited to add: The discussion forum where I originally found the instructions for this project was on the HGTV website. The instructions have recently been brought up in the forum again and can be found here. I basically followed these instructions with the exception of using paste wax as the final step.

In your thrifting adventures, have you ever run across a perfectly well formed, good boned, sturdy upholstered piece at a great price...but you didn't buy it? Was it because you didn't like the upholstery and you thought you didn't have the skills to reupholster it yourself? Or maybe you knew it wasn't yet in your budget to higher a professional to do it for you?

Here is an alternative that can work for some low nap fabric: Paint it! Yes, you really can! And you don't have to purchase those expensive upholstery spray paints that come in limited colors, either. Just use a brush and a can of paint in whatever color you like.

I found four of the chairs above at Goodwill a couple of years ago. Obviously, they were from the 70's. (They came with the small, sturdy but beaten up dining room table that I turned into a large coffee table). I paid just $20 for the table and four chairs! I loved the form of the chairs but hated the color of the cushions. Originally, it didn't even occur to me to paint them and so I just stuck the chairs in the garage until I could figure out what to do. Then I came across a discussion in a decorating forum and someone there had actually painted their entire sofa. It looked great...it looked like leather! I was inspired and thought that if someone can paint their whole sofa, then I could try painting my chair cushions. If it didn't work out, I could always recover them down the road - and anything would be better than harvest gold, right?

The original fabric was velour, I do believe. (I am challenged when it comes to knowing fabric types so I apologize if there is another name for this.) As I mentioned, smooth, low nap fabrics work best for this project.



I made sure that the fabric was clean and dry before I began. Then, with a brush and a can of interior latex satin paint (Olympic Premium, "Dark Granite" is the name of the color I used), I started painting. I started with the edges, making sure I pulled back the decorative cording on the cushion so that I could paint in the the grooves. The first coat probably won't cover well and will look absolutely hideous. If you try this, you will want to throw out your furniture project at this point. Ah, but please don't! It gets better!

I let the first coat dry completely. It took a few days because the first coat really gets absorbed into the fabric. When it was completely dry, I sanded it well with fine sandpaper. This step is necessary because the paint raises the fibers in the fabric and it will feel rough to the touch. I sanded the fabric smooth, wiped it down, and then applied my second coat. It was the same process...I let it dry for a few days and then sanded and repeated. I believe I painted a total of four coats. The final coat did not require sanding because the fabric was completely sealed by the first layers of paint and no longer was rough to the touch.



The result was a chair cushion that looked like soft vinyl or leather. This "finish" can be cleaned easily. Just wipe it with a damp cloth!



Or you can bring it up a notch and even stencil something pretty on the seat. I didn't but I just might in the future. I think it would look great! The photo below shows the nice, soft sheen that a satin paint finish produces.



I painted the rest of the chair as well. I "distressed" it by gently brushing some of the edges of the chair with brown paint. Since this chair was photographed a few weeks ago, I've repainted the frame in a solid white as I decided I wanted it to look a little less distressed. I believe my reasoning behind brushing on the brown paint on the edges was to paint over it again with white and then sand back down lightly to the dark brown. But solid white looks just fine. This chair and another just like it will go in my craft studio.



While I don't think I'd be brave enough to paint an entire couch, I'm glad that attempted chair cushions at least. To me, they look a so much better! And we have more room in our garage now!

Sadly, my memory card for my camera just died yesterday. I had a camera full of "before" photos of various studio accessories. And the photos of my youngest child's first missing top tooth :( Hopefully we'll get a new card soon so that I can share the other projects I've been working on. Until then, I'll let you know that my farm style craft table is completed and ready to prime and paint - hubs did a fabulous job! The steps in the studio are also painted a deep chocolate brown and just need a little touch up work. I have another table that I need to start sanding in preparation for paint as well. Three more major pieces of furniture for my studio need to be built and/or made over: a large L-shaped unit, the shelving unit that will sit on top of it, and the makeover piece is a large cubby style system. So much to do, but I will be thrilled to finally have my own space to create!

Cottage Style Altered Art

Do you remember the sweet painting below that I bought at Goodwill last year? I liked it, I really did! But with my new found love of robin's egg blue, I just couldn't make the dark green and yellow background in the painting work for me. What to do?



With a little paint and a lot of nerve, I tackled the background myself. I also painted the frame a dark, chocolate brown.



I'm no artist but I know that it lacks the same depth, shadow, blending, and texture the original painting had, and I may continue tweaking in future...you know...as I save up a little more creative nerve:) For now, I'm just going to enjoy my new cottage style "altered art"!

Cottage Studio Ceiling Makeover Completed

First I'd like to thank all of you who stopped in and supported my blog sale last week! Your items have either already arrived or are due to arrive any day now. You may not realize it, but you've helped me take another step in accomplishing my business goals. Thank you so much!

Now, about that studio... We've actually been finished with the ceiling and walls for a little while now. We painted the walls a nice robin's egg blue and added additional trimwork to the steps. I still have a bunch of junk that I need to move out of the space before I can get some good photos of the entire studio so far, but I did snap a few shots of the ceiling. If you remember, we once had old skylights that were removed when we replaced our roof. This left four ugly plywood holes in the ceiling and I wasn't sure how I could make them look attractive until we could afford to redo the entire ceiling someday down the road. We also had a very ugly (and dusty!) ceiling fan and a couple of equally ugly lights that needed to be addressed. Replacing them was not an option because as usual, our budget is so tiny it's practically nonexistent:)

So here is the studio ceilng "BEFORE"....






And here it is "AFTER"....

(Click photos below to enlarge)






Despite the challenges and limitations, I think the ceiling makeover turned out pretty well! Hubs did a great job turning those plywood holes into "windows", didn't he? I painted a subtle sky background and used a stencil to add my sparrow. As for the light and fan makeover, thank goodness for my trusty brown camouflage paint! With a matte clear coat, they look like oil rubbed bronze fixtures! I did another fan makeover in my living room about three years ago with a different type of oil based paint, and let me tell you, what I used this time around was MUCH easier and faster! (I have a little bird - my Ginger - on my shoulder right now or else I'd go to the garage and check the spray can, but I believe it's either Rustoleum or Krylon brown camouflage paint. I got mine at Wal-Mart.)

Hubs has already built one of my craft tables. It just needs a few pieces of trim and it's ready to paint. It's got a tongue and groove pine top and is very farmhouse in style. Here is a shot of the table top before he put it all together. He cut the "tongue" part off and will add trim around the perimeter side edge of the tabletop. I thought about some kind of rope moulding but I think I'll probably just stick with plain, flat trim to keep the look simple. I have a glass top to go right on top for easy cleanup as I'm a very messy crafter. I look forward to being able to see our dining room table again because that's where all of my stuff has been for weeks!



I hope everyone is staying warm! We started using our fireplace this week and it's never been more welcomed!

Cottage Studio Before Photos

I know everyone has probably seen photos of my sunroom / office / future craft studio a million times, but for the sake of comparison later, I wanted to share some photos of my "studio in progress". We're coming up on the second weekend of work in here and I was able to get a head start on it last night and today.

By the way, if you'd like to see the *BEFORE* before photos (that is, what the space looked like months ago when I was just dreaming of a studio), just click here.

I took out the banister and carpet on the steps quite a while back, but last weekend we patched the walls as well as insulated the ceiling where the old sky lights use to be. We removed the poorly installed skylights years ago when we replaced the roof and will someday even remove the current old ceiling. The beadboard is ok (I love beadboard!) but it's the thin imitation beadboard and wasn't exactly installed with the greatest of care. So for now, we are left with recessed "patches" on the ceiling, as I call them. My solution to the eyesores was to paint a sky mural within each of the square holes to give the effect of skylights. I painted the murals today but will show them to you later:) I still have one sweet detail to add, plus this weekend hubs will be adding a nice wide moulding around the perimeter of each skylight. When the moulding is up, caulked, and painted, I'll take some photos. But I will tell you that I LOVE how the murals have turned out so far. I didn't know what I was going to do with those big ugly plywood holes, but I really think the murals were just the right solution.

So this is what the studio looked like last night. I apologize for the dark photos - I rarely photograph at night for this reason. It is a small space for sure, but I think the tall ceilings and lots of natural light will make the studio feel less cramped.





(Has anyone seen my ladder?)





What is really exciting for me is that I've finally figured out a color scheme! The walls are *not* going to be the same as kitchen and living room as I thought I would probably choose. I'm going to keep it a little secret until after they are painted, but if you have any good guesses or opinions, I'd love to hear them! I will say that the accent colors I'll be using are white, off-white, and chocolate brown (neutrals that go with just about any color, I think). Choosing paint colors is soooo hard - there are too many options!

So what colors would you choose for this space?

Studio Work Begins!

We started on my studio last weekend, and boy, what a lot of work! I'll be sure to post photos when there is something interesting to photograph:) For now, we've mainly been working on patching the walls and insulating the parts of the ceiling that weren't completely insulated. Work continues this weekend:) There were once sky lights in the studio room...and now there are just plywood "patches" that are quite the eyesores! We removed the skylights when we added a new roof a few years back and have been waiting to deal with the interior holes when we redo the ceiling. We're not ready for that, so I've had to come up with a creative way to make those square patches look like they belong. I finally decided that I would (try to) paint a pretty cloudy sky mural within each of the four squares and trim it out in a nice crisp white moulding. Hopefully the effect will realistic - we shall see! I hope to tackle that soon (this weekend or next) so I'll be sure to post some before and afters! I'm so anxious to have the studio finished because my materials and creations are taking over the rest of the house!

Hubs was also able to get around to mudding the seams of the new drywall in the hallway. Still lots of sanding, reapplying mud, sanding, etc., to go, but it looks sooo much better already! I can't believe we can walk down the hall now without seeing a single stud!

I've been experimenting with my faux creations and wanted to share one of them - a chocolate cupcake - with you...You can read more about it on my faux dessert blog if you like.











Thanks for dropping in! I hope everyone is doing well!

Another Cottage Project: Raising the Hallway Ceiling

We had a very productive (albeit messy, hot, and exhausting ) weekend here at our Twice Remembered Cottage. We got started with our hallway project! Our hall is very long and what made it very unappealing to me was it's extremely low ceiling. I'm only about 5'5" and I could literally touch the ceiling without much effort. It has long been our goal to someday raise the ceiling there, which I hoped would visually open up the narrow space a bit. This weekend, we did just that.

So here is where we started - our very gloomy and sometimes scary hallway. We've gone ahead and replaced all the hollow core doors with solid pine doors except for that one there on the right...we're working in that particular room (expanding a closet) and have waited to put up the door there until we're ready to also put up the new closet door. Anyway, can you see how close the ceiling is to the top of doors? There is absolutely no room for the beefy 5 inch wide door trim I want to add around the doors - and no room for crown moulding and a pine plank ceiling either. Clearly, the ceiling needed to be raised.



The first cut... Who knew cutting through popcorn could be so easy and exciting?




There's no going back now!




This photo reveals the air conditioning duct work! This would have been a problem, but don't worry... this is unused duct work from the old original air conditioning system installed 30 years ago. A new system (with duct work under our floor) was added several years back and the old one remained to fossilize in our ceiling, I suppose. But this explains why the ceiling was so low to begin with. Fortunately hubby had crawled into the attic to investigate well before we decided to tackle this project:)



I thought I'd take a photo of the "big mess" being created already. But compared to what was to come, this was nothing!



Within minutes, the old drywall was completely removed from the ceiling and we could get a good view of the old metal monster that was hiding above.... I had to help hubs remove the duct work and I was so afraid it was going to fall on my head! I had to hold one end as I stood on a ladder while hubs unscrewed it from the center and other end. Talk about scary!





Our first good view of our new ceiling height! Whew, it sure was dirty up there!



Another whole foot added to the ceiling height - from 7 feet to 8 feet just like that!





The metal monster wasn't so intimidating when it wasn't hanging by a few screws above my head.



Now to begin ripping out the hall walls...




See what I meant about it getting messier?



A good friend came by and helped hubs hang the drywall for the new ceiling. I tried but have absolutely no upper body strength and proved to be a pretty puny and clumsy helper. Hubs forgot to cut the hole for the light but he can go back and do that. I'm thinking about hanging an old fashioned baby chandelier, but hubs isn't thrilled. I think it will grow on him;)



I love the results so far - the hall really feels so much more spacious now! I really can't wait to add our plank ceilings and crown moulding, tall white beadboard, wide door trim (with maybe a nifty antique metal number above each door..."Where is your bathroom?" ...."Oh, it's down the hall, Room 2."), and of course, our long awaited wood flooring. But this is where we leave of for now because today, Monday, it's business as usual for hubs and his real job. We'll save the walls for another free weekend. I hope you enjoyed this little tour of our most recent cottage transformation project!