Dangerous To Your Health

Smoking, alcohol, drugs, speeding, and guns are all dangerous to your health.  Best done in moderation, if at all.  However, I have found that the Internet, along with television's HGTV and DIY programs, will be the death of me. 

If you can read and follow directions, you can cook...key words being "follow directions." There are manuals and instructions for just about anything.  I tend to shy away from any projects which require me to install electrical wires or plumbing.  I don't need to short circuit anything, electrocute myself, burn down the house, or flood it out. Stick with what you know. But give me a paint brush, saw, duct tape, and a glue gun and I am ready to go to work.

Cruising among the many sites that I subscribe to, I found an interesting post on painting furniture. Just about everyone has refinished a piece, either stripping it down to the bare wood or painting it, so what was fascinating about this post?  It dealt with painting upholstered furniture.  That's right...fabric.  Oh, my!

My first reaction was that I was not brave enough to tackle painting my upholstered pieces.  I read Kristy Swain's blog carefully, inspecting the before and after photographs, rereading the instructions. You know where this is going, right?  The light bulb had finally gone off.  My living room furniture is white...I can paint it white (since no one will clean it) and no one will ever know that I made a mistake.  YES!

But did I really want to follow all those steps?  Some of the comments made mention of fabric paint. Back to the Internet.  Well, looky here!  You can order online or buy from the auto supply stores.  Get out!  The color selection is limited but there is...white!  After scrounging through Michael's, Hobby Lobby, and Hancock Fabrics (none of which carry the fabric paint but you can get paint to write on t-shirts, etc.), I made the rounds of auto supply stores.  Yep, red, white, black, and brown are in stock...the same colors available online.  Well, I'm only repainting the white set, white, right? 

Trusty can in hand, I came home to try it out.  Chose to do the back of a chair just to see the results.  The fumes were overwhelming!  OMG!  Thankfully, I only did a small sample because the fumes were still present the next day. Good grief, if I'd tried to do the entire piece, I would have died of asphyxiation. This is definitely an outside, spring-time job. With an aspirator. 

While reading Hyphen Interiors' tutorial, a second light bulb went on. My kitchen set with the mauve/lavender/pinkish vinyl seats had truly served their purpose but I like the set and didn't want to get rid of it. Well, if you can paint fabric, surely you can paint vinyl, right?  Posed the question in the comments section.  Why did they come back and tell me...yes.  The same fabric paint can be used on vinyl or...I could use Krylon's Fusion for Plastic spray paint.  GET OUT!

I'm on it. Time for a change. I already knew the color selection in the auto supply stores. Let's see what my employer has in stock.  Ooo, lots of pretty colors.  What shall it be?  The kitchen cabinets are buttercup yellow with bronze handles and rosewood trim.  The back splash is a white and tan design; the appliances are white; the walls knotted pine (which the yellow cabinets enhance...bringing out the yellow tones in the wood).  Oh, my! Dashing or conservative?  I went conservative.  Decided that I didn't trust painting the backs and the seats...the seats might crack.  But I do know how to cover the seats in fabric.

I've had my eye on a bolt of fabric at the Ripley store ever since they brought back the fabric department. But surely Dyersburg's Walmart would have a larger selection to choose from.  NOT! At least, not as far as my conservative choice went. Blues and pinks just wouldn't fit the bill.  Made the purchase and home again, home again, jiggity jog!

Took the set apart.  Painted the frames and left them out to dry.  It rained.  Cleaned the vinyl, per instructions, so that the paint would adhere.  Set up outside.  Heeere we go!  The backs are curved so the paint puddled.  Pulled out a foam brush to even up the puddles...what a mess!  Thankfully, reason set in and said "just let it puddle...it will even itself out."  Covered the seats with the help of the heavy duty staple gun.  Man did I go through some staples.  Double row...taking no chances that the fabric will give way. 

The backs are still tacky.  It's been three days since they were painted...what's up with that?  Maybe that is just the way they will feel. Time to reassemble them.  The one that I'd already messed up had the nerve to smear???  Give me a break.  Why won't you dry?  It was kindly explained to me that all of the moisture in the air probably had an effect on the drying time.  "The can said...dry in 15 minutes. It's been three days!"

Well, boys and girls, the job is done.  Are you ready for the great reveal?  

What a difference a can of paint and a piece of fabric made!  Thank you, Kristy Swain, for showing me another way to "make do and use up."  The slightly smeared chair is positioned where the back is not immediately noticeable. And, don't come looking for the mistake.  I'll be highly upset, if you do.

Be Safe! Be Blessed!  GO RAVENS!