Alternate post title: “In A Minute, I Have To Hairdry The Chair”
Okay, I did something a little wild. We want to turn our $25 hotel-style dining chairs into a crisp, solid apple green (I’m planning patterned curtains, so the chairs should be a fun color without a pattern I’ll get tired of), so I decided to try painting them.
I knew it was a risk, but the backup plan was always to reupholster or slipcover them if the paint didn’t work out, so it felt worth experimenting. I followed a tutorial from a blogger I admire for a basic approach, adapting a few steps to match the instructions on the fabric medium I’d bought.
Here’s the short version of what I used and how I did it. Supplies were inexpensive: three tubes of fabric painting medium and three tubes of acrylic paint in a bright apple green from JoAnn, plus a quart of satin interior paint in a Granny Smith-style green. I mixed textile medium with latex paint and thinned the combo slightly with water so it would spread evenly over the fabric.
To keep the proportions consistent, I measured the fabric medium into a cup and matched the paint to it — about a third of a cup of each in my mix. I stirred everything together with a brush and then added roughly a quarter cup of water to loosen the mix, which helped it flow across the upholstery instead of soaking in unevenly.
I sprayed the chair lightly with water first so the paint wouldn’t get absorbed immediately, then brushed on a few even coats for better coverage. It took me more than an hour and a half to do a single chair — I wanted to build thin, consistent layers rather than slather it on, which meant this method would be time-consuming if you had several seats to paint.
Once the paint was on I planned to heat-set the textile medium with a hairdryer — a common technique when you can’t toss an item in the dryer — but I double-checked the instructions and realized the tube recommended waiting a day before heat-setting. So the painted chair sat and dried while we watched TV. John found the “wait a minute, I have to hairdry the chair” line pretty hilarious and insisted it should be the title of this post.
First impressions after it dried:
- Color: It looked more neon than the apple green I’d imagined — definitely brighter and not quite the tone I wanted, though that could be corrected with a different paint choice.
- Time: Painting was slow. At over an hour and a half per chair, doing all eight would be a major time investment.
- Texture and finish: The fabric’s weave and swirls still showed through, and the painted seams and folds looked rough and slightly artificial compared with smooth, reupholstered fabric.
After sleeping on it, we decided that slipcovering or reupholstering is the better route for our chairs. The painted fabric had a slightly rough, “crunchy” feel despite the fabric medium’s softening agent, and the seams retained a painted look that made them stand out in a way we didn’t love. For some chairs, painting can be amazing — there are inspiring transformations online — but this particular upholstery didn’t respond in the way we’d hoped.
That said, trying the method was valuable. The paint does set into the fabric and won’t rub off onto clothing once heat-set, and the fabric medium is designed to help the paint bond and feel less stiff. I didn’t finish the last acrylic coat on this test chair because we decided to change plans, but I did heat-set what was applied so it’s permanently bonded.
Right now the painted green chair is living in the cluttered playroom while the remaining seven chairs are waiting in the dining room for reupholstering or bright slipcovers. We learned a lot from the experiment — how the color reads, how texture shows through, and how long the process takes — so we’ll keep refining the plan and report back as the project continues. Our money’s on slipcovers for a quick, clean finish, but we’ll see.
Psst — We’re talking about how kids always want the one non-toy item within reach (the remote, your phone, the keys) and sharing Clara’s favorite offbeat “not-a-toy” picks over on BabyCenter.