My second attempt? Not so much….Pinterest fail

My Pinterest Fail

Have you seen the amazing Pin of the Painted chair? No? Well, it’s AMAZING. The concept is amazing, the color is amazing, the whole idea is just… amazing. I totally wanted a chair JUST like that one….yea. That’s what started it. She makes it sound fantastic and SO easy.

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In theory, it is. In practice… it needs to be a perfect storm coming together I think. At least that is what I have deduced so far. This is how I got my first Pinterest Fail.

Here’s my version:

Don’t laugh…. ok, go ahead. It’s not “quite” as transparent as in the photo, but it’s horrid. Amusing really. I’m still working on what to do with it exactly, and I’ll get to that later.

How did we get here?

First thing’s first- This is the chair before:

Ugly, right? As it sat in my kitchen for nearly a week, it kind of grew on me. Yes, it was ugly..though I was a little sad to cover it all up.

I finally decided to dig in. I L.O.V.E.D. the Teal color used on the “other” chair, so why not? Let’s just use that color.

I then did HOURS of research on paint, trying to find a fabric paint to brush on instead of spray like a hairspray bottle (it seemed like it would hurt my finger in not too long). Did I mention I over think just about everything?

I fell in love with Simply Spray– a really cool spray paint like fabric paint that is easy to apply, and the fabric feels amazing. You can’t even tell there is paint on it- not kidding. I found what looks promising in an opaque fabric paint made by Jacquard called Neopaque. (In hindsight, this probably would have been my best option) I found more tutorials than you can imagine about adding fabric medium to acrylic paints and even just using regular spray paint, right out of the can. Totally overwhelming.

In the end, I decided experimentation was the best way to start. So I pull the bottom cushion from a slipcovered chair in my bedroom (with a print so bad I had totally forgotten how ugly it was) and went to town.

On the right is the Simply Spray- Probably two coats. Not opaque enough to cover the pattern, so it was off the list. In the middle (brighter blue) was the fabric medium- It was too stiff and crunchy so cross that off. Bottom right was the Tulip fabric spray paint. Probably 3 maybe 4 layers to cover the print. I also tried the Tulip Soft Fabric Paint under the spray to see if it would help cover some of the pattern. Maybe… but it was too bright white and messed with the Teal color too much. The Tulip Spray was a little stiff but I figured with a little sanding it would be fine. That was the color I really wanted so I decided on that one.

Now I took a good look at that chair:

Can you see it? Yep, those lovely “pills” all over. Ok, time to get out the razor. I gave it a shave:

It started to look like this:

when I was done, I had a pile of fuzz:

I started on the bottom cushion. I went outside and laid out newspapers, I sprayed and sprayed. I used a tool I found (No idea what it is) to hold back the piping so I could really get in there:

I kept spraying… when I was done, it looked like this:

Well, that was only the first layer I told myself. It would look so much better tomorrow after I let it dry and sink in then spray it again… Right.

2 more coats later- it looks like what you see above. It sits in the middle of my living room. It is SO much more green than it looks in the picture, almost neon and it sort of glows… I’m serious. I am not upset about it. I mean, I don’t like to waste money and I wish it would have been so awesome the first time out of the gate, but looking at this Pinterest Fail makes me giggle…a LOT.

I haven’t figured out what to do with it yet. I might try the purple Simply Spray over it. I might bite the bullet and buy the Neopaque I probably should have invested in to start with. Either way, I’ll do something. I’ll certainly update when I decide. Any ideas you may have would certainly be welcomed as well.

Update:

my oldest daughter loves the Pinterest Fail Chair. She took it and refuses to let me fix it or do anything else to it. I have no idea why… though if it makes her happy, she’s welcome to it. All these years later, she has her own home and still has that ugly chair right in the middle of her living room… she’s nuts.

If you enjoy this, you might like this: button art, faux shiplap bathroom.