Paint your fabric upholstery to look just like leather with this easy step-by-step. We found inspiration for this project from Annie Sloan's blog and the amazing project first done by: Jonathan Marc Mendes.
What you need:
1) Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in the colours:
Arles & Primer Red
2) Annie Sloan Soft Wax in the colours: Clear & Dark
3) 320 grit sandpaper
4) Paint brush
5) Water
STEP 1)
Make sure to wet the fabric you are painting thoroughly. This helps the paint absorb into the fabric, almost like a dye, you don't want a thick layer of paint on your upholstery because it will just crack and flake off.
STEP 2)
Paint the first coat of Arles in Annie Sloan's amazing Chalk Paint. The fabric should still be wet with water, this will help the paint absorb into the fabric and you should be able to paint very easily.
Paint one solid coat of paint and let it dry. After the paint has dried you can sand it lightly with a 320grit sandpaper if it feels hard (or like canvas), the sandpaper will soften the paint. Paint another coat of Arles if you see too much of the original fabric peeping through. * Remember to follow the same steps as above by wetting the painted fabric first with water, then to paint a solid layer of Arles.
STEP 3)
After the chair has been covered with Arles you can start with bringing in some more colour to the chair to make it look more like leather.
Use Annie Sloan in the colour: Primer Red and start painting the edges of the chair's upholstery and work your way towards in, while the Primer Red is still wet, start painting with Arles again and work Arles into the Primer Red to give a mottled ombre effect. The mottled ombre will be the perfect base for your leather look!
After you are happy with the colour let the paint dry. After it has dried you can sand it lightly with a 320grit sandpaper if it feels hard (or like canvas), the sandpaper will soften the paint but by this time you shouldn't see too much of the original fabric peeping through.
STEP 4)
You are halfway there with the leather look, now we just need to apply some Annie Sloan Soft wax for the final steps. The wax seals the paint but also gives a wonderful leather-like finish.
* Make sure the paint is COMPLETELY dry, you can even wait a day before applying the wax to the painted upholstery. Use the Clear Soft Wax first, apply this with an Annie Sloan wax brush or a firm fibreglass brush and smooth the wax into the fabric with a mutton cloth. Take care not to rub too hard as this might take some of the paint off due to friction.
Start applying Dark wax over the clear wax to add to the leather look, work it in sections and remember to think about the character of leather - it is not even all over so leave some parts darker than others. Use clear wax over the dark wax again to clean up some of the intensity of the dark wax but also to help blend the colours into each other.
And there you have it! You have just created a beautiful leather look by simply applying your wonderful creativity and Annie Sloan paint!
Please mail of phone us for any help:
colourcollectors@paintdecordiy.co.za