Can i dye upholstery

I briefly considered reupholstery. I would want a similar fabric to the original - a wool-blend knit that hugged the chair's curves.

I mused that it was really too bad that the color had faded, because the original scarlet is exactly the color I want now. In fact, I would want exactly the same fabric as the original if I could find it. It was this line of thinking that led me to consider painting the chair. I know, but people have done it! Kristy over at Hyphen Interiors had great success painting her velvet wingback with a mixture of fabric medium and acrylic paint. If you click on the "Chairs" link on her site, Kristy has assembled a library of before and afters from bloggers and readers, documenting successes and failures using the painting method.

One of the fails belongs to Sherry over at Young House Love. I've been following their blog for years, and I really appreciated Sherry's honest assessment with photos! I could tell from Sherry's photo that I would not like the paint texture, which looked stiff, like fake leather.

It was another photo on Kristy's Hyphen Interiors Chairs page that led me to Kara Paslay Designs and her post about dying a vintage chair using Rit dye.

First of all, don't you just love the lines of Kara's chair and the beautiful patina on the nails? I also love the fabric. And the color - both the faded blue original of the back and sides as well as the newly dyed purple front and seat. I applaud her decision to leave the chair two-toned.

The colors look great together. Of all the chairs that I have seen in my research, this one seems most like mine in terms of rounded shape and wool fabric. So I decided to give Rit dye a try.

If you are considering it too, a word of caution. Rit does not advise using their dye in this way :. If you would like to dye these items, we suggest testing the dye on a hidden area to see what color will be achieved. If you read the comments on Kara's blog, many readers ask her about color transfer.

Kara says that in her experience there was no color transfer and her chairs passed the "white t-shirt" challenge. So, it's a risk. But it's a risk I am willing to take. I reason that if this doesn't work, I can still move on to Plan D - reupholstery. My next step was to have the chair professionally shampooed. This faded the color a bit more, and it did not remove the wine stains. But at least I was now starting with a clean palette.

I then used my sweater de-fuzzer from Brookstones on the area that had cat-claw damage - and I have to say this gave very good results! This is what the chair looked like when I had finished one coat and it was still wet. At this point, it was not very encouraging. The drops of red wine stain stood out even more and looked very blue. I hoped that might change after it dried, so I carried on. Step 3: Apply heat.

I'm not sure how much this will actually help set the dye, but it can't hurt. I didn't attempt to dry the chair with the hair dryer. I just ran hot air over every inch - especially the areas that make the most contact when a person is seated. I then left the chair to completely air dry overnight before starting a second coat of Rit dye the next day. You will need a drop cloth of some sort - I used a flattened piece of cardboard. Drips that got on our hardwood floors did not stain if I wiped them immediately.

But I did get spatter on the white media center that I did not notice until after it had dried. It took a vigorous application of Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to get it off.

Tip 2 I gave my chair two coats of dye, drying overnight between coats. I wanted a deeper saturation of color and I wanted to see if one more coat would better camouflage the red wine stains. The second coat did both. The dye was doing a fairly good job of camouflaging the red wine stains.

The wine stain on the arm seems fainter after just one coat. If fabric has nap it will look darker when you brush your hand across it in one direction than the other.

Velvet is known for its nap. My fabric is a wool-blend knit, so I didn't think that I had to worry about nap. However, I discovered after the first coat dried that I do.

Rit Dye recommends this for large pieces of fabric. This requires reupholstering the piece of furniture after the fabric is dyed, a task better left to professionals. Spray and instant dyes are usually not a good choice, as they typically don't have a long life and can wear off quickly. According to experts at the Blue Bottle Tree , pigment-based dyes require a binder to dissolve them in water, which makes them usable for wall-hanging or other decorative textiles, but they may stain the clothing of people who sit on a couch or chair dyed with them.

Spray-on dyes are permanent and non-toxic but they may be difficult to apply evenly. Fabric paint is by far the easiest option; it doesn't require boiling or steaming the fabric to make it accept the new color, but you may have to iron the material after painting it, depending on the product used.

Choose the upholstery fabric paint for the type of upholstery you have, as some are made specifically for vinyl or special textures. Unlike dye, paint sits on the surface of the fabric, and it can be worn off with use. Pay attention to the ingredients as well, as some products contain chemicals you don't want to expose to your family. The type of fabric paint you buy - acrylic, textile or latex fabric - is available in transparent and opaque options that you can apply by spray, brush or sponge.

When you paint solid fabrics, you can use stencils to paint on specific designs using a stipple paintbrush, a brush with short, stiff bristles. Another technique involves painting the fabric and then masking certain areas of the fabric with cutout designs.