We are looking at buying 2 antique couches that appear to be velvet. They would be very expensive to reupholster, so we would have to dye them a bold red to work in our project. Which dye would you recommend for them?

Name: Mickie

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Message: Hi there.
Thank you for your helpful link here on dyeing:). We are looking at buying 2 antique couches that appear to be velvet. They would be very expensive to reupholster, so we would have to dye them a bold red to work in our project. Im not sure how to tell if they are synthetic or whatnot, I was thinking since they are probably about 100 years old that the type of fabric they used would probably be natural. ??? If so, which dye would you recommend for them?
Thank you so much for your time.

I don't recommend using any dye on upholstered furniture, unless you are able to remove the fabric completely from the furniture in order to dye it. (See "Can furniture be dyed successfully?", in my FAQ list.) Dyeing requires a lot of washing to remove the excess unattached dye, which is impossible to do well if you don't remove the fabric. (See this post in my dye blog for a cautionary tale of what happens if you don't rinse out the excess dye!)

It is, however, possible to use fabric paint on upholstered furniture, especially if the fabric is made from natural fibers. The results will not last as long as new upholstery would, because fabric paint sits on the surface of the fabric and eventually wears off. Also, it can take a large quantity of fabric paint to cover a couch, which can drive up the cost to the point where it would make more sense to get a book on doing your own upholstery and try to reupholster it yourself.

What color are the couches now? Whenever you use dye or thin fabric paint to recolor anything, the new color will combine with the old color as though you mixed them together. You cannot use fabric paint to substantially lighten the color of fabric. Choose your color of fabric paint so that it is able to cover what you have now. A bold red is a good choice for light beige or pale yellow couches, but won't work on a brown or a green couch.

Don't try to buy your fabric paint at the local crafts store; they sell only tiny jars, so the price is much higher. Instead, order gallons of fabric paint online from Dharma Trading Company, PRO Chemical & Dye, or Jacquard Products. Although a 2.25 ounce jar of, say, Dye-Na-Flow fabric paint will run you over $4 at the local crafts store, totaling an extravagant $249 per gallon of fabric paint if you buy enough of the little jars, you can buy a full gallon of the identical product in a gallon jug from Dharma for only $56, one-tenth the price. This makes a huge difference in the practicality of this project for someone who can't afford reupholstery.

Don't consider using any other kind of paint besides fabric paint, such as house paint or ordinary artists' acrylics, because it will be horribly stiff and scratchy. Fabric paint is formulated to be softer and stick to the fabric better. You can turn artists' acrylics into fabric paint by mixing them with fabric medium, but I recommend buy a good thin fabric paint in bulk, instead, such as Setacolor or Dye-Na-Flow. You can follow Deborah P. Harowitz's excellent "Instructions for Painting Upholstered Furniture". Read through these instructions now to get a better idea of what is involved.

For similar results, consider a product called Simply Spray Upholstery paint. The spray fabric paint concept is a clever one. You might try spraying with both bright red and burgundy upholstery fabric paint. One can of Simply Spray Upholstery paint should cover up to 17 square feet, or an area roughly four feet by four feet, so you'll need many cans. Of course any non-fabric elements in the couch design must be very carefully covered to protect them from splatters or smears of either sort of fabric paint.

Do keep in mind, however, that many do-it-yourselfers have succeeded in home reupholstery or making well-fitted custom slipcovers. These are certainly options you should consider as alternatives to painting your couches.

For more blog entries on the subject of dyeing couches, please see:

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Posted: Wednesday - May 23, 2012 at 09:52 AM

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We are looking at buying 2 antique couches that appear to be velvet. They would be very expensive to reupholster, so we would have to dye them a bold red to work in our project. Which dye would you recommend for them?

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