Tips for Painting Dining Chairs With Oil Paint

by Mimzy lombardo

2 Materials

$10

3 Hours

Easy

These chairs were an an undesired green when I bought them from someone on craigslist. I knew that I would eventually repaint them, but I thought I would have to strip off the upholstery to do it. Well, I finally decided to just give it a try and paint around the upholstery because I really like the beige velvet fabric currently on the chair. Lo and behold it was a much easier job than expected.

tips for painting dining chairs with oil paint

tip #1 ...move chairs to a well ventilated area...preferably outside. If not outside then use a ventilator as the oil paint is very stinky.

#2 Use a decent artist brush...either a filbert or a round artist brush. This makes all the difference. A cheap brush will drop bristles and will fold and bend making it very difficult to get into the tight space between the welt and the wood.

#3 Select your oil paint.

I bought this off the shelf Rustoleum oil paint from Home Depot. One can of black gloss and one can of flat white and mixed them together to get a lovely velvety finish grey.

#4 manipulate the fabric and paint, paint, paint.

I used a mud knife to hold the fabric away from the wood to keep the paint off the fabric. I also used my fingernails to pull the welt away from the wood just enough to paint behind it.

Don't be tempted to apply too much paint in the first coat. The oil paint will sag and drip if you apply too much at once , so use two thinner coats of paint.

oil paint creates such a beautiful buttery finish that will last for a lifetime. It'll stick to anything with little to no prep work and is really fun to work with.