Big deal.

I’ve painted a lot of chairs.

NO WAIT!! I painted the upholstery of a chair!!!!!!

This one! This chair!

My sweet friend called me over a year ago and said his mom was getting rid of this rocking chair. It went way back in the family but there was no room for it. Did I want it? Yes of course.

At the time, there was not even a baby blueberry in the picture but now? This baby is headed up to the nursery today.

But not before it got a little makeover. 

I could have recovered the upholstery but that takes a lot of time and more money than I wanted to spend. It’s also hard work and I want to spend my time elsewhere.

I had always wanted to try painting the upholstery on something and never had the opportunity. Well the opportunity showed itself. Let’s paint a chair.

You tube after You tube videos were watched. 

What kind of paint?

What’s the process? 

Oh my word. Just do it already.

Here’s the cast of characters :

1 mixed up version of chalk paint using Naval Blue from the nursery.

1 spray bottle of water.

A sanding block 

Liquid wax. I found at Wal-Mart

Spray the upholstery till wet. Yes wet. Every section must be sprayed wet before painting.

You aren’t really painting the upholstery, you are staining it using the paint. 

Dip your brush in the paint and smear it on. Sometimes you will need to rub the brush around to get the paint into the weave of the fabric.

Here is the chair after painting the first coat. It covered pretty good. 

Here is coat #2. 

Still a little transparent but it’s getting there. I like that the flower detail in the fabric design is still showing through.

I repeated 4 times. 

When it was completely dry. I put a fan on it so it would dry faster, I grabbed a low grit sanding block and sanded the upholstery.

Why you ask?

The upholstery felt a little crunchy.

The sanding block took away the crunchiness and left the upholstery feeling more like outdoor fabric. A little stiffer than normal but not too bad.

The last step was to was to wax the upholstery. It gave the fabric a little sheen and made it super smooth.

She’s done. 

Now don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t feel like velvet but it does have a water repellent feel to it. I’m thinking it might come in handy while rocking a baby. Lots of liquids. You get my drift. 

I love the bones of this old chair.

I’m not touching the wood. Just a little polish and she’s good to go. 

I love that this old rocking chair will continue it’s story in our nursery. It wil rock babies. Yes it will, and very soon,

Much love,

Charma