Name: Pat
Message: I work for a church. We have about 200 chairs with really ugly orange fabric seats and backs. I'm sure it is some type of synthetic fabric. Is there any dye that you can think of that might work to recolor these?

Fabric paint would be probably a better idea than any dye. Covering the upholstered parts with new fabric would be far better than paint, however. Unfortunately, dye is not a cheap or easy answer to the problem of ugly chairs. In contrast, dyeing cotton clothing or yardage is much easier, cheaper, and more satisfactory.

The first problem is that you need to know what sort of synthetic you have there. Polyester can be dyed by boiling it for an hour with disperse dye and a special carrier chemical. Nylon is easy to dye with acid dye, which requires hot water but not boiling. Acrylic calls for a type of dye called basic dye, which I recommend against, as it is relatively hazardous. (I used some basic dyes to break DNA and kill cells for my Ph.D. thesis.) Polypropylene cannot be dyed at all. Even cotton or silk, normally among the easiest of fibers to dye, are probably coated with a stain-resistant coating such as Scotchgard fabric spray; such treatments resist dye for the same reason that they resist stains.

If it turns out to be possible to dye or paint your chairs, keep in mind that the orange color will show through. You cannot go lighter in color; instead, chose a color that the orange can become a part of, such as dark brown. (A good way to mix brown paint or dye is by mixing navy blue with orange, anyway.)

Dyeing furniture requires that the fabric be rinsed very thoroughly, as otherwise the people who sit in the chairs will find the excess dye transferring to their clothing, perhaps permanently. This is not possible without removing the fabric from the chair. Even fabric paint should be rinsed well. The best way to put hand-dyed fabric on chairs is to dye the fabric yardage and then sew it into slipcovers. If only the seat pads are covered, it should be fairly easy to remove them and staple on a new layer of fabric. Find a book at the library on how to reupholster furniture.

For more information on dyeing and painting furniture, see my page at http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/furniture.shtml, and, even better, Scarlet Zebra's more detailed page at http://www.scarlet-zebra.com/Instructions/Upholstery-painting.htm.