Have your chair cushions gotten a little dingy? Have your kids stained the seats of the dining chairs? Did you know you can PAINT the fabric? This easy tutorial shows you exactly what you need to help your chair cushions look like new again!
Kids and Messes
Remember analogies? They were always part of standardized testing. A simple one would be something like, dog: puppy :: cat: kitten (And you would read it like: “Dog is to puppy as cat is to kitten.”)
Well, when comparing kids and messes, they just go together it seems. Their anaology would be something like: kids: messes :: summer: mosquitos. You just expect it. They are inevitably (for better or for worse) intertwined.
Cha Cha Cha CHANGES
One thing in my house that gets a lot of abuse and wear and tear is the chair cushions on our kitchen chairs. (When I got these chairs, I didn’t have any children…I have 3 now. The chairs that I recently bought for our dining room are plastic (aka “wipeable”). Much more kid-friendly.
But these are the ones I have and they are perfectly usable. (Albeit not ones that I would pick now with 3 kiddos.) Art projects, snacks, food, juice, etc. These chairs have seen a lot (which says a lot since they never leave the kitchen-wink).
Change the Fabric
One of the easiest ways to change the look of your chairs is to change the fabric of the cushions. As you can see in the picture above, I’ve done this many time. (It looks like some sort of scrapbook with all of the layers of color, doesn’t it? It’s fun to look back and see what colors I was enjoying at different times.) The best part is that for less than $10, you can use a handy heavy duty stapler and change the look of four chairs in about 20 minutes. The only downside is that eventually you are going to run out of space to staple another layer of fabric. What do you do then? Well you could pry all of the staples up so you can add a new layer of fabric, but if you are like me (ahem…you are a lazy DIY-er and you like almost immediate gratification), you PAINT them!
Change the Cushion Color with PAINT
Yes, you read that right! You can PAINT your chair cushions. Now I wouldn’t steer you wrong on this. This is my second set of chairs I have done this with. In the interest of science (and my wonderful readers) I tested this painting method on a free pair of chairs I got. And it held up smashingly! I had those painted-chair-cushion-chairs for about 2 years and they were holding up swell.
So, I looked at my kitchen chairs the other day and thought, “why in the world am I living with stained, dingy fabric on these chairs? They need to be painted.” And whenever I get the urge to do something, I go with it. (Remember above? I’m a lazy DIY-er…I have to move when the urge calls! Ha!) Happily I had JUST what I needed in my stash of craft supplies to rectify my sad “stained chair cushion” situation.
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What you Need for Painting Chair Cushions
The secret for being able to paint your chair cushions is adding a fabric medium to your paint.
Materials Needed to Paint Cushions
How to Paint Your Chair Cushions
- Follow the directions on the textile medium. For the brand I was using there was a 1:2 ratio (1 part paint, 2 parts medium).
- evenly spread paint mixture onto fabric with brush
- allow to dry
- follow up with another coat of paint (you may need to do 3 coats)
Painting Tips
**I have used both latex wall paint and chalk paint on different chair cushions (mixed with the textile medium) and BOTH worked fine.
**Raising up your project (in this case, the cushions) to paint makes it easier to get a thorough and even coat. Nothing fancy needed- I just use plastic cups that I keep in my painting supply bin!
How About Clean Up?
Wondering how painted chair cushions clean up? My son got a dirty footprint on this chair (remember the kids to messes analogy?). All it took was a gentle scrub with a damp rag and it came right up (without removing any paint).
What Does is FEEL Like?
This is probably the one question that people are curious about. Sure, you can paint your chair cushions, but how does it FEEL to sit on them? Well, if you are looking for a velvety-soft surface, this isn’t it. I would equate it to maybe a canvas or burlap feel. Not rough, but not soft either. (I have heard about being able to lightly sand fabric that has been painted, but I have never tried this, so I’m not sure how well it would work.
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