How to Paint an Upholstered Sofa

Hi everyone! It’s Leah from Leah Noell Design Co. Can you paint fabric?? Yes, yes you can!!!

I had an itch to paint an upholstered sofa last week and I couldn’t sleep until I tried it out! I have painted upholstery before, but that first attempt was done on a very simple bench. This time I wanted to test if the technique would also work on a more intricate piece, and I am glad to report that IT DID!

Honestly, the beauty of painting on fabric is that you do not have to prep, you just start painting your piece as it is. Let’s get started.

Materials List for Upholstery Painting:

• Evergreen Chalk Mineral Paint
• Palmetto Chalk Mineral Paint
• Cobalt Chalk Mineral Paint
• Easy Peasy Spray Wax
• BOSS (updated: our new and impoved Bonding BOSS!)

How To Paint Upholstery:

Step 1: Select or mix your color.

First, I mixed Dixie Belle Paint colors Evergreen, Palmetto, and Cobalt to get this rich emerald color. It took about 50 ounces of paint but it turned out fabulous! Remember that paint dries lighter, so use a testing sample first.

Step 2: Mist the fabric to gentle moisture

The secret to painting fabric is to mist it. This will open the pores and will let the fabric absorb the paint. Then you paint the fabric just like you would paint anything else. If your paint is thick, dilute it with some distilled water. Let the paint soak into the dampened fabric, being sure to get all the nooks and crannies, especially on tufted pieces.

Step 3: Dry and sand

Let the paint dry, and then sand it with a high grain (low grit) sandpaper. Be sure to clean off all the dust.

Dixie Belle Chalk Mineral paint is highly pigmented so it works like a dye! You are probably wondering, does it really work? Well, have you ever gotten paint on your clothes?? Does it come out in the wash? No, it does not!! I can guarantee you that it will not come out of your furniture either. You can see that the paint is not so thick as to be purely opaque. By using diluted layers on dampened material, it will avoid any stiff, cracked feel.

Step 4: Wax for softness

This sofa took 2 coats of paint, using the same process. However, after the 2nd coat, I only sanded the seating area off to soften it. I left the backrest un-sanded to keep a better color saturation. Then to seal it, I sprayed the entire sofa with Easy Peasy Spray wax.

To read more about this helpful tutorial, head on over to Leah Noell Design Co. here!