How to Paint Fabric with Chalk Paint - Chantel's Custom Creations

I am so happy to finally be writing about the dusty rose pink velvet chair I painted for our master bedroom! I love the way it turned out but the process was long and horrible but I now know what NOT to do when painting fabric! Honestly, my chair turned out crusty and hard but it looks beautiful in the bedroom and no I can’t sit on it! What did I learn from painting my chair? I will tell you the proper way to paint fabric with chalk paint.

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Supplies needed for a successful paint job on fabric are:

When I painted my chair, I did not take the time to properly research my project! Big mistake. I just bought Chalk Paint in large quantities and started painting! Ouch.

Tip 1

Firstly, you want to look at the type of fabric you are painting as the fabric is not all created equal. I couldn’t have picked a worse color or type of fabric to paint! My fabric was velvet. Velvet is very hard to paint, it sucks up a lot of paint! Ideally, you want to stay away from velvet if you can. It is just a very difficult type of fabric to work with. Any type of regular fabric would be best, if you can steer clear of velvet, I would do so!

Tip 2

The other big mistake I made from this project was going from a dark dusty rose color to a stark white color! Ouch. I didn’t at all consider using a white primer, which looking back now, I should have started with a primer of some sort to at least prepare the surface for my expensive chalk paint! If you are going to paint velvet, I would at least consider trying to paint it a similar color or if not, at least use a primer of some sort first.

I couldn’t even tell you how many coats of precious white chalk paint I ended up using, but let us just say, I probably could have re-upholstered the darn thing by the time I was finally done with it! Once you start a project like that, really you need to decide if you are going to finish it or if you are going to abandon it. By the time I realized the trouble I was in, I had used a lot of expensive chalk paint, so I decided to keep going, and I loved the chair and I figured no one will be sitting in it since it will be sitting in the corner of our master bedroom, for decoration purposes.

Starting All Over! Paint Fabric with Chalk Paint Success!

If I were to re-do this project and start all over again, these are the steps I would use to paint a dark-colored velvet fabric chair to light color:

If going from a dark color to a stark white, I would start with applying a primer (to be used with chalk paint); and I would mist my fabric very well to dampen it so that the primer has a chance to soak into the fabric well. Do this process in sections as well.
Let the primer completely dry, ideally overnight.
Then you want to take your sanding sponge and sand the whole chair.
Take half of your chosen chalk paint color and mix it with half of the fabric paint medium (I completely missed this step)! This is really important as in fact, you are painting fabric!
Take yourWater spray bottle and mist a section at a time, dampening your fabric and then take your chalk paint and fabric paint mixture and start painting your chair in broad, even strokes, the paint should be a thin consistency
You will want to let this coat dry for a few hours
Take your sanding sponge and sand lightly to take the fibers down on the fabric (this step I also completely skipped over and now my chair is hard as a rock and crunchy)!
Spray chair again and apply another coat of paint mixture, let dry, sand again, apply another coat.
Keep sanding and spraying and applying coats as necessary. The sanding step will ensure your fabric is smooth and by wetting the fabric, you are allowing the paint to seep into the fibers of the velvet.

I Have Learned From My Mistakes!

This process should give you much better results than it did for me!

The Results!

I have ended up just using this chair as a decorative piece in our master bedroom. I prop pillows on it and I love my chair, I just wouldn’t sit on it!