I spray painted upholstered chairs. Yes, upholstered chairs. It sounds odd, and I’ll admit it’s not the usual approach. But when you’re determined and have nothing to lose, unconventional solutions start to look a lot more appealing.
These are the Craigslist chairs we found last March — former hotel pieces with faded, stained eighties fabric — purchased for $25 each. I initially tried painting one chair a soft apple green after following a tutorial, but that experiment didn’t turn out as planned.
We stuck with green for a while, but realized a whole set of bright chairs would overwhelm the room and compete with our patterned curtains and boldly painted built-ins. To tone things down, I bought inexpensive off-white slipcovers from World Market, then dyed them brown to better coordinate with the room. The slipcovers helped, but they quickly became a bit loose and baggy after washing, which made the chairs look messy between washes.
Since I had already painted one chair and confirmed it was indistinguishable under a slipcover, I felt comfortable trying to paint the rest. Instead of craft paint and textile medium — which hadn’t worked well before — I opted to spray paint with Rust-Oleum Universal Metallic in Oil-Rubbed Bronze. I decided to use light, even coats to avoid drips and maintain the fabric’s feel and texture.
The result surprised me. After a few light coats the chairs looked unified and much less dated. The embossed pattern in the upholstery is still visible because paint can’t change texture, but the busy, stained eighties swirls are gone and everything reads as a cohesive gunmetal charcoal color. Interestingly, the oil-rubbed bronze spray produced a subtle metallic sheen in certain lighting, but most of the time the chairs appear as charcoal gray fabric rather than metallic or flashy.
I also spray painted the worn, reddish legs. On the legs the finish read more like traditional oil-rubbed bronze — a dark chocolate shade with a slight sheen — and they became our favorite detail. Even if we decide to reupholster or slipcover the chairs again down the road, those updated legs will remain.
For anyone curious about technique, I used very light, repeated passes, keeping the can moving to prevent heavy buildup and drips. The thinner application of spray paint seems to sit on the fabric rather than soak in, which may explain why the chairs didn’t feel crunchy or stiff after painting. A reader later suggested the hotel fabric could be a Crypton finish, meaning it’s treated to prevent penetration and allowed the paint to stay on the surface — that could certainly explain the favorable result.
After painting, we left the chairs outside to cure for several days. Once fully dry and cured, the finish didn’t transfer or rub off onto clothing, even when exposed to a wet cloth — likely because the paint is oil-based. They no longer smelled of spray paint, and normal use didn’t cause color transfer.
Would I recommend this for every upholstered piece? No. These chairs had heavy-duty upholstery fabric to begin with, so they handled the treatment well. Delicate fabrics like velvet or silk would probably react poorly and could become stiff or damaged. If you’re considering a similar project, test on a small, inconspicuous swatch or removable piece of fabric first, applying several light coats to see how the material responds.
Why did I take this route? Two reasons: I’d already successfully painted one chair and confirmed that it could be hidden with a slipcover if needed, and I had slipcovers on hand to cover any mistakes. With eight chairs, reupholstering would be a big job, so spray painting felt like a practical interim solution that improved the room without a huge investment.
Overall, we’re pleased with the change. The charcoal finish is a clear improvement over the green experiment and looks better than the sagging slipcovers alone. We still have the brown slipcovers, so if we decide to switch back temporarily or tailor them later, that’s an option. Someday we might reupholster or replace the chairs, but for now this fix is “good enough” and gives the room a more cohesive, balanced look.
Final thoughts: Cheap Craigslist pieces don’t always match off-the-shelf slipcovers easily, but with a bit of creativity you can extend their life and make them work for your space. If you’ve ever reached a creative breaking point and tried something unconventional in your home, you’re not alone — I painted, slipcovered, dyed, and re-painted these chairs, and they’ve served us well while we figure out the next step.
- Paint one chair and test how it looks under a slipcover.
- Keep slipcovers on hand so you can hide or protect any experiments that don’t go as planned.