Painted Upholstery with Chalk Paint and a Pearl Plaster Croc Top!

 We have had quite a few fun projects in the shop lately.

One was painting a set of 6 chairs for Kim.

They were sturdy and in nice condition but were dated 

with shiny gold jacquard fabric and a tired brown wood frame.

With the interesting top we decided to add a French motif

with a stencil to the back of each chair.

The fabric was painted in a 50/50 mix of French Linen and 

Old White Chalk Paint, and the stencil was 100% French Linen.

The wood frame was painted with Paris Grey Chalk Paint 

with both clear and dark wax for a nice antique look.

 After the fabric was painted it was waxed with 

Annie Sloan soft clear wax that was 

thinned out with mineral spirits and applied with a wax brush.

 The wood frame was buffed up to a 

nice lustre a day or so after waxing.

You can see the before fabric here.  We painted the frames

first. Then went onto the fabric.  We ended up doing three coats of

paint, each coat was applied using a wet brush (with water) so as

to lighten the weight of the paint.  That is why it needs 3 coats.

If you don't water it down, it could be too heavy for the fabric and 

you can get cracking.  We painted each coat a day apart.

Painting good solid chairs with decent upholstery is a nice option over 

needing to pay an upholsterer. Be warned that you will use quite a bit of 

paint, we used one quart per two chairs. Fabric soaks up the paint,

unlike painting wood, where Annie's paint goes a long way.

Still all in all, its a great value to repurpose your chairs using Chalk Paint.

This little chest has not sold, so when that happens, we tend to rethink it

and try something else out.  I thought about switching the hardware out,

but ended up giving it the Pearl Plaster treatment with that fabulous CROC stencil

we sell in the shop.  It is a very cool stencil! Push the Pearl Plaster through it

and you have the most amazing looking crococile top on your piece!

I think it will be finished tomorrow with the wax job in clear and dark.

To purchase Pearl Plaster or the CROC stencil CLICK HERE