DIY Painted Fabric Bench

I see some pretty bad looking pieces at garage sales. It's funny how some fabric can take you back to a certain time period. Pastel florals? Yep, definitely the late 80's and early 90's. It's taken some training, but I have been doing my best to try to see past the current state of a furniture piece and think about what it really could look like with a coat of paint or a nice sanding job. Usually it doesn't take more than a little TLC, and while I have been able to look at some solid wood pieces and think all they needed was a coat of paint, I haven't tried it yet with any upholstered pieces. That is...until now!

I picked up this solid floral bench for just a few bucks. My daughter had been looking for some similar benches to put at the end of her bed {a bed she made with her grandpa last summer-you can find the tutorial here}, with no luck in our budget. When I spotted this one, I thought I would give it a try.

It was so easy and I love the after! You can still see the subtle hint of the pattern through the paint, but it's not the obnoxious floral pattern that every shoulder-padded vest was made out of in the 90's. Come check out how I did it!

DIY Painted Fabric Bench

I do love me my HomeRight Finish Max Paint Sprayer. I actually super duper hate to paint, but I love how things look after they get a good fresh coat. Having the paint sprayer means that I don't hate painting anymore. I get the job done in a fraction of the time and it's so much cleaner and covers far better and less sloppier than I could do the job otherwise.

I mixed some regular old paint I had sitting around in a gallon bucket in my garage with water. Nothing fancy. Probably about half paint and half water. You want to add a bottle {6 oz} or two {I would suggest a 1:1 ratio of paint/water to fabric medium} of this Martha Stewart fabric medium to keep your fabric from getting stiff.

I found that the best way to spray paint furniture is to turn it over and start with it upside down. That gets all the hard angles and spots you might miss if it were right side up. And it leaves the easy part to do at the end, which is always far more rewarding to see it come together quickly.

I sprayed on thin coats of paint, and used about two coats to cover the bench. I let it dry over night.

I love how it turned out and it's held up great. My husband was worried that if you sat on it you would get paint on you or it would turn your backside all grey, it doesn't. So no worries there. Now my friends, the painting possibilities are endless! Nothing is safe from me...not even upholstery!

I think this was a pretty sweet transformation from a super 90's looking bench that was destined for the trash bin, into something fun and sophisticated that looks like a million bucks in this teen girls glam bedroom.

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