Ottoman Makeover: Part 2

My painted fabric ottoman is finished!

For a refresher, I bought the ottoman here for $25 and then in Part 1 of this makeover I re-attached the lining and re-stained the legs here. For part 2, I opted to paint the fabric.

It's hard to capture the difference, but in person this ottoman went from a dingy and faded blue to a super-saturated bold blue (it isn't as purple as it looks above). 

When I first saw this ottoman hiding in a dingy corner of a thrift shop I knew it had major potential but I sat on it for a few weeks because I was unsure of how to make it over. I considered re-upholstering it but then a friend suggested I paint it. Which reminded me that a year ago I pinned a fabric painting tutorial (here), but I hadn't thought much about it since. Then I saw that it was time for the Spring Pinterest Challenge and I knew it was the perfect time to just go for it!

via YHL

Here are the materials and the steps I took to paint my fabric ottoman:

Materials:
1 Quart Latex Satin Paint
1 Spray Bottle for Water
2"-3" Paint Brush
Fabric Medium (I used 4 - 2 oz bottles)

1) Prepare the paint mixture. I found different 'recipes' online but the one I chose to use was:

1 part fabric medium + 1 part latex paint + 1 part water

I found that two 2 oz bottles of fabric medium are exactly a 1/2 cup so I went with that as my starting point and then added 1/2 cup latex paint and a 1/2 cup of water. It doesn't look like a lot of paint (it's only 1 & 1/2 cups of liquid) so I wasn't sure it would be enough but I went with it and figured I could mix up more if I needed to.

To show you how 'soupy' it is here is a visual aid: 

The top is the mixture of water+fabric medium+latex paint and the bottom is just latex paint. I'm showing you this to explain that painting fabric like this doesn't cover up major flaws or stains in the fabric. So if you are trying to decide if you want to paint that chair with the huge stain on the seat, this won't cover it up. If anything, I found that this process was more like tinting the fabric not painting it. Thankfully I was just going from dingy light blue to a more saturated dark blue so it worked for me. The point is this: You need to start with a fabric that is lighter and that doesn't have major blemishes. 

2) Wet the fabric.

I used this large industrial sprayer that I have and it worked great. The wetter the fabric the better the paint goes on so don't be shy with the amount of water you spray on. See how I have newspaper down? That was a very bad idea, don't use newspaper! I didn't realize how much water I would be using and the newspaper just got soggy, for the second coat I used a garbage bag and it worked much better.

I wet the ottoman in sections (about a foot in diameter). And then brushed on a small amount of the paint mixture. 

It was pretty simple and it went super fast. I wasn't sure I would have enough paint to cover the whole thing but the 1 & 1/2 cups of liquid did a whole coat on this ottoman (it's about 2'x4'x1' for reference).

I was nervous about how hard it would be to paint all those tufts, but it was really pretty easy. I just jammed my brush into all the crevices (there's a dirty joke in there) and I tried not to let too much paint and water/paint gather in the holes and folds.

Though it's slightly blurry, you can see from left to right it's dry, wet, and painted.

After the first coat:

It only took me 45 minutes to do the first coat! I thought it would be a much longer project. I let it dry overnight and then repeated the whole process. The second coat didn't use nearly as much paint so I actually ended up doing a third coat right after the second just because I had the paint already mixed. 

After two coats: 

Cost Breakdown:

Ottoman: $25

Latex Paint: $14 (I only used 1 cup of this so there are lots more projects left in this quart)

Fabric Medium: $10 ( 4 - 2oz bottles at $1.99 each)

Sanding blocks, foam paint brush, regular paint brush, spray bottle, stain: $0 (I had all these times already)

Total: $49 

Considering that similar ottomans sell for well over $250, I am completely satisfied with this price. And amazingly, I sold my old glass coffee table on craigslist for $50 so I basically broke even!

I highly recommend painting fabric, it was easy, quick, and it looks great! My only caution is that you pick the right piece to paint. You want a piece that is fairly light in color (or at least a simliar color to what you want to paint it) with no major stains or blemishes on the fabric.

I'm crazy in love with this ottoman! 

Sad Sheep, Happy Me.

Sheepskins are super trendy and I'm happy to jump on any bandwagon for free so last week when I found a sheepskin rug in my parent's garage that was not being used I jumped on it.

I knew exactly where I wanted it to go - on the side of the bed in front of my nightstand. The reason I wanted it there because the zig zag rug in there isn't big enough to cover the whole floor.

I made a floor plan of my bedroom to help illustrate my point. Here you can see how small the 8'x5' rug looks in my 14'x11' room.

Ignore the weird colors and patterns, the idea is for you to see the basic shapes. Originally I place the rug this way because it is the most logical but it didn't look great. Only about a foot of the rug was showing on the sides and foot of the bed which is not the best way to maximize rug coverage so I tried position two:

With the rug this way when people walk by or into the room it looks like the rug covers the whole floor. Most people don't walk over to the other side of the room, so the rug this way actually works. But, since I walk on the other side all the time I really wanted something soft over there and I knew an animal skin would look great. IKEA sells sheep skins for $30 so I thought next time I go I'll buy one, but then my parent's garage sheepskin came into my life unexpectedly - Yay!

I said ignore the colors and patterns of these floor plans but can we talk about how freakin' adorable that mini cow rug is???? I mean, if it were real that would be sad because it would be from a baby cow, but you know me and miniatures.

Now both sides of the room have happy rug love!

Blue, Baby Blue.

I did a crazy thing the other day. I painted my room super blue. Not just regular blue, it is seriously super blue. When I moved in my room was a creamy white. The walls were clean and the paint job was pretty new so I didn't touch it for the first seven months. In fact, for those seven months I tried to convince myself that I liked white walls. Why you ask? Because white walls are so artsy and cool. See proof: --

Source: https://www.ikeafamilylive.com/en/room/uncluttered-bedroom-779 --

Source: http://www.countryliving.com/homes/decor-ideas/bedroom-designs-gallery#slide-49 --

Source: http://ticktockclock.tumblr.com/post/5934694451/uydurrukcu -- I mean seriously, so fresh, bright, and classic. Here is my attempt at white walls: --

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-- ...eh...kind of depressing, right? Somehow my 'white' didn't translate as cool, hip white. It was more like 'I'm a renter white' which is silly since I own the home and can do whatever I want. So after months of convincing myself I liked it, I changed my mind and decided to just go crazy. I'm really drawn to super saturated colors. Like these: --

Source: http://www.mixandchic.com/2012/04/home-tour-stylish-victorian-rowhouse-in.html#comment-form --

Source: http://prettystuff.tumblr.com/page/9 -- I was especially inspired by designer Emily Henderson's office space. I loved this blue.

Source: http://www.stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/?currentPage=2 -- That isn't the best image but from other photos I could tell I really like the color. And since one doesn't want to mess around with shades that extreme, I color matched the exact color she used. It is Loyal Blue by Sherwin Williams and I had it color matched from Behr. It was only slightly scary because, hey, it's paint so it's an easy fix if I don't like it.

What do you think? I really like it! Is it crazy bold? Absolutely. But I lived with "tranquil" white for a while and it just wasn't me. I'm no photographer so the color reads weirdly in some of these photos but the truest likeness is the photo of my bed. It's very royal blue. It's deep and my art and furniture really stand out now. In the future I'll add some lighter curtains or Roman shades to lighten it up a bit. I also may switch out that black bookcase for something lighter, but for now to darkness doesn't bother me. In fact, I feel like I'm in a warm cocoon of blue.