How To Paint Your Old Couch + Paint That Acts Like Faux Leather!

Lily Ardor
by Lily Ardor
9 Materials
$40
4 Days
Easy

Hi Everyone, today I want to share how I transformed my old microfiber futon. I also share my special secret paint recipe that rubberizes paint to make it feel like faux leather.

First off here's a photo of the futon before. It was donated to us by a friend and wasn't in the best condition. It looked like it was rained on and the color was faded and blotchy. We used it as patio furniture for a while. Eventually decided to give it an upgrade. Thus this DIY came to life.

I should mention I've tried every fabric paint I could put my hands on. Doing thin layers and thinning out with water. Sanding in between layers. I even tried the martha stewart fabric additive and my paint still felt hard and crusty. I really wanted a soft feel to the paint so I kept experimenting. It took more than a few attempts and I finally stumbled on this DIY fabric recipe by total accident.


The Recipe Is :

Add 3 tablepoons of fabric softener to 1/2 cup of paint and stir for about 15 seconds


If you want to double the recipe. I would read the full tutorial on my blog ( link below) because the paint does eventually rubberize and is harder to work with. I've picked up a few tricks to work around this.


YEP! That's it.


CAUTION : I should mention that different fabric softeners react differently with some paints. I would recommend using the same exact products I used. I say this because I've heard feedback from people that have tried different products and had poor results.


Here's more photos of the products used as well as paint colors - https://www.lilyardor.com/paint-your-couch/

To paint my couch I applied three coats of paint and let it dry completely before applying my vintage leather effect.

For my vintage leather effect I applied a dab of darker paint to a moist sponge and rubbed it on. This gave the faux leather depth and contrast.



Here it is complete. I've had a lot of requests for an update on how it held up. The couch was painted August 2018 and it's still holding up really well. There's no signs of cracking or peeling AT ALL! I'm super impressed with it.

Here's a close up on the vintage leather effect.

I've never tried this on faux leather so I'm not sure. You can always give your old faux leather furniture a try before painting the whole thing. An area that's not so visible maybe.


How to Protect it BETTER ??

I did not add any clear coat to my couch however I did try a bunch of swatches to see how they held up on the paint. Whatever you do DO NOT WAX the couch. For some reason wax makes the paint crack almost instantly. There are a few other options I came accross that I really loved. For more info on this and any questions, you can visit my blog for a more thorough tutorial + Video -

Here's the link

https://www.lilyardor.com/paint-your-couch/



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Lily Ardor
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  • Marnidarr Marnidarr on Dec 27, 2021

    If you need to clean it, what should you use and what should you avoid? Beautiful effect, btw!

  • Monica Bradshaw Monica Bradshaw on Apr 01, 2022

    Does this work with furniture that is not microfiber? I have a fabric loveseat that I would love to transform using this paint method. Slipcovers are annoying.

  • Katrina Katrina on Aug 03, 2023

    Will this work on other fabrics and does it hold up to pet traffic?

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  • Judabugger Judabugger on Aug 04, 2023

    I wanted new cushions for a dinette I pulled out of an RV, but didn't want to put a lot of money into it (think 1990's RV upholstery). I had plenty of latex eggshell paint left over, but no access to fabric medium or fabric paint, so I experimented with what I had and that was fabric softener. I used 2 parts paint, 2 parts fabric softener and 1 part water, mixing it thoroughly. Also instead of dampening the fabric with just water before painting, I used a solution of equal parts water and fabric softener to spray the fabric prior to painting each section. This was done only on the first coat. Waiting for it to dry enough between each coat was the hardest part, I was in Mexico on the coast and it was very humid, so it took about 24 hrs for each coat to dry. I did sand between each coat and after the final coat to get the fuzzies off. It took 2 coats and some touch up. The fabric was very textured and it came out really nice, much like outdoor fabric or a soft leather that's water resistant, I could rinse it off, dew, rain and spills wipe up. It had no cracking or peeling, wiped clean and it got softer as time went on. I did not use any sealer or wax on it. Wish I had pictures, but I moved about 14 months later and did not take the cushions with me.


  • I used Angelus leather paint on a leather ottoman to turn from a brown leather to white. It worked great and is holding up also after 3 yrs!

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