Name: Lauren

Message: I know you spoke about dying natural fiber canvas. Is there any way natural fiber canvas can be dyed with a latex household paint and used for upholstery? Let me know--Thanks!

Paint cannot be used to dye anything. Paint and dye are completely different concepts. Dye is a chemical that bonds directly to the fiber, while paint is a pigment combined with a glue.

The best dye for cotton canvas is fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye. If your canvas is made of cotton, linen, or hemp, you can use fiber reactive dye on it. Fiber reactive dye can be painted directly on the fabric, with soda ash, or the dye can be applied to canvas as a solid color in the washing machine. Canvas tends to repel water to some extent, so it is difficult to get dye to penetrate it; overnight soaking in water with a drop of detergent can be very helpful, before dyeing.

However, yes, certainly, latex paint can be used on fabric. It should be applied only to dry fabric. Some pigments can be bad for fabric, especially the mineral-based pigments, which is why artists traditional pretreat their canvas with white gesso or white latex paint. The layer of white protects the fiber from degradation by the pigments in the paint that is applied on top.

Latex paint tends to be quite stiff and is usually used only on canvas that has been stretched flat. It may crack when you bend it around the upholstery frame, if the paint has been applied thickly. It would be better to use diluted artists' acrylics that have been mixed with Textile Medium to make them more suitable for use as fabric paint. Or, you might want to just start right out with a high quality fabric paint, such as Setacolor or Dye-Na-Flow.

Any form of paint will wear off of fabric much more quickly than dye, since dye penetrates further into the fiber. When people sit on furniture, they inevitably wear off the top layer of fabric. For better results, you might want to set your base color by dyeing your canvas with Procion MX dye, then after this dye has been set, washed out and dried, adding fabric paint on top to get more complex results.

(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)

[Updated June 8, 2008.]