Name: doug

Message: I have a off white sofa. I want to dye it a medium brown and do not want to take it apart. What products are available??

You cannot dye upholstered furniture, except by removing the upholstery, dyeing it, and then reinstalling it on the furniture. Even that cannot be done if your sofa is covered in a difficult-to-dye material, such as Herculon (olefin), or polyester microfiber.

However, on many materials other than olefin, it is possible to use fabric paint, instead of dye. The results will show wear relatively quickly, because paint sticks to the outside of the fibers, instead of penetrating through them as dye dyes. You will get better-looking and longer-lasting results by buying new fabric and sewing a slipcover for your sofa, or by paying a professional to reupholster the sofa. 

You can use a good fabric paint such as Dye-na-Flow, which is so thin and liquid that it flows like a dye. It requires a considerably amount of fabric paint to cover a large sofa; fabric paint is not inexpensive, but you cannot use paint that is not design for fabric, because it will be too scratchy and will not adhere as well to the fabric.

You will need good instructions in order to use fabric paint to recolor your sofa; I recommend that you read "Can furniture be dyed successfully?", and Scarlet Zebra's Instructions for Painting Upholstered Furniture.

Another form of fabric paint which you can use to recolor your sofa is a fabric paint spray paint made by Simply Spray. As with other fabric paints, the results will not be as good-looking nor as durable as dye, but it's your only option for recoloring the existing upholstery, since it is impossible to do an acceptable job of dyeing the fabric on a sofa without first removing it from the sofa. Do not attempt to use any paint that is not labeled specifically for use on fabrics; only fabric paint, such as Simply Spray or Dye-na-Flow, will work at all well on fabric.

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