I Made Over Our Loveseat Using RIT Dye, Paint And Decorative Glaze.

This little road side find was not only free but the perfect size for my sunroom. The man putting it on the curb was nice enough to hide it behind his truck until I could come back with my husband and get it home:)

At first glance it appeared to be in great shape and in fact the cushions and the body were. It was the fabric that was in need of work and reupholstering this piece wasn’t an option at this time. The fabric was intact though a bit worn in some spots. Otherwise the biggest problem was the amount of fading in some areas. There were also some stains here and there. The wood frame had been painted white, which I love, but this paint was flaking off in some spots and I didn’t know what kind of paint had been used.

After inspecting this piece further and finding it had a solid wood frame I knew I wanted to keep it for myself. I didn’t know what room I wanted to put it in or what I was going to do about the discoloration or the painted frame, so it sat for over a year, covered in my garage, until I got up the courage to pull it out and take a chance on updating it myself.

I started by thoroughly vacuuming and shampooing this piece using my Bissell Carpet and Upholstery cleaner.  After a lot of deliberation I decided to dye the fabric with RIT Fabric Dye instead of using chalk paint. I watched a ton of videos and though most chose to go with chalk paint, I couldn’t bring myself to put paint on fabric. Most videos made it clear that if you added enough water, the paint turns into a dye. Since RIT is a dye. it didn’t make sense to try to use a product like paint  for a job other then what it was originally intended for. Paint is paint and dye is dye. If the dye ended up not working, I could always go back and attempt the chalk paint.

To achieve the green color I wanted I mixed three different colors of the RIT; Sandstone, Khaki Green and Dark Green.  I mixed only two cups of color at a time. Making small batches was easier for me to make the color consistent each time. I combined the dye with very warm tap water and applied it to my couch with a stiff paint brush to really work the color into the fibers. I also put dye into a squirt bottle to spray the dye into the deep creases and onto the buttons on the back. I also used a bottle of plain water to prewet the fabric. It was easier to work the dye in and spread around when it was applied to wet fabric.

The above cushion has two applications of the green dye. Your able to see the blue color I was able to cover peaking out on the very bottom. After each application I allowed the wet dye to dry overnight using a fan to help the process along.

The back only needed one dye application. It was faded to such a light grey it was easily covered. The color of the cushions was much bluer so they needed two treatments. That is a blue tarp on the couch in the picture on the right NOT the cushions.

After each treatment has dried , you will notice the fabric is stiff. I did what I saw others do. I used a lower grit sanding block and going in circles, I roughed up the fabric. I works great! But remember, if you are doing multiple treatments, you need to do that between each treatment and before you apply the fixative.

Once all the fabric had been colored, I sprayed the whole couch twice with the RIT Fixative to prevent transfer of the color onto clothes and fading. I had a squirt bottle in my stash of supplies that was approximately the same size as the fixative bottle and the sprayer fit right onto the RIT bottle. This loveseat used 2 1/2 bottles of fixative spray.

Now I saw videos wear people took their dried piece of furniture out into their yard and sprayed it with the hose to get rid of any extra dye. I saw multiple videos saying this was a necessary step. I opted NOT to do this. The couch has been used for a couple weeks and I haven’t had any color transfer whatsoever. I will amend my blog if anything changes.

My next dilemma was how to deal with the painted frame. The white paint wasn’t in the best condition. I loved the white but it didn’t go with the other furniture in the room this piece was going in. Truth is striping paint isn’t my favorite thing to do. I especially didn’t want to do it around all the fabric surrounding the frame. I decided to sand the chipped parts and repaint the wood with a true brown. I applied two coats of Behr Paint in the color Outdoor Cafe and then used Rustoleum Decorative Glaze over the top. I applied two layers of glaze to achieve the look I was going for.  In the end it appears to be stained wood. The process is easy and far less messy then stripping.

I LOVE using this technique! Looks like wood to me:) This is also a nice representation of the green color I achieved with the dye. I left the blue tape on the fabric until I had the final coat of polyurethane applied to the frame. To do this I used a foam brush. They provide a smooth finish and the tips come to a point which makes it easy to get into the details carved into the wood.

Here are some final pictures:)

Thank you so much for stopping by. If you have any questions about the process I used please reach out:)

Roni♥