Anyone have any experience with dying furniture with Rit's Dye and/or pointers on using it? I bought a chair for $15 that I loved the styling on, but not the color scheme. I've read where people use different paints on fabric, but I can only imagine how crispy that ends up feeling. Going to give it a shot on this chair to see how it turns out.
I've never heard of being able to dye fabric that's already on an upholstered piece of furniture. Do you plan to remove the fabric, dye it and then reupholster?
Bakers, they're even painting upholstery with latex these days! http://www.thekimsixfix.com/2014/05/how-to-paint-upholstery-latex-paint-and.html
I'll be darned! I went over to the Rit site and sure enough. Went through the step by step (with pictures) of this woman who dyed the velvet fabric of a luscious tufted headboard. Amazing!
Hi, I used spray Rit dye to dye a white badly stained Queen Anne chair. I sprayed it navy blue and it came out lovely. HOWEVER my FIL tried it on a sofa and the can exploded everywhere well not explode but the dye sprayed everywhere including him, the dog, the grass and the cement patio. greg
A new wave of artists are using this stuff to do street paintings, then varnish like crazy and coats of weather-proofing. Indoor murals on huge tarps or hanging canvasses the size of a wall. Also, just funky paint-jobs on furniture and lampshades. I keep meaning to try it.
Always thought about trying latext on fabric, but feel like the texture at the end will not be what I would like. I found a similar page where a wing back chair was dyed and was pretty amazed as well. Process is very simple. My guess is you can't really predict what the final color will shade out to be, but I am fine with that. This chair is striped, so I will really get a good test on how it reacts to different colors.
Very cool. Ill post some before and after pics of the chair sometime next week once I get the dye in get a chance to do it.
Follow up post: I dyed per the instructions from the link and it really only slightly deepened the blue. The chair was polyester which is why it really didn't take. No experience dying and did not realize synthetics don't take dye well. I have an orange futon with a cotton fabric with some faded spots that I will eventually try it on and post my experience there.
I'll jump to this first thread; think I'll try RIT dark green on this recent find - just don't like the embroidered light yellow/green over coffee colors it has. Just want to tone it way down. Taking a chance ? sure, but a change is necessary !
RIT dyes are good for simple natural fiber projects. It's really important to apply heat, so nothing that you can't put in a pot on the stove & boil will dye evenly & well. In general the liquid dyes are better than the powder, but always use 2x or even 3x more than the label recommends. I once dyed an entire 5 piece sofa set for my sister - one of those horrible heavy wood frame faux velvet cushioned situations with like a wagon wheel/country scene print in earth tones - but the covers were removable & they went in huge pots. We used dark green & it looked a lot better but you could still see the print peeking through. Synthetics are tough & need specially formulated dyes, which I'm sure you're aware of now. Used to dye a ton of all types of fabric & have always used Dharma Trading for supplies - check their poly dyes here: https://www.dharmatrading.com/dyes/industrial-polyester-dyes.html Their Fabric Reactive dyes for natural fibers are awesome by the way but there's a learning curve there to get things right. Drew - your fabric looks like natural fiber but try a burn test to be sure - http://www.ditzyprints.com/dpburnchart.html If so, use the liquid rit (you may be an exception from boiling; the fabric looks pretty absorbent) & try to use a sprayer to apply. I would do several coats, drying between each, & then set in the hot sun for a few hours. You may still see the print but I believe it will look great.
Fun Fact : Kool-Aid dyes old nylon slips/lingerie & actually works amazingly well. Google for instructions
Hi, I used the fabric spray dye. It is pre mixed and you can chose to darken even more. It was safe with natural and synthetics. It was made by Rit. I used it to cover a white back ground with a navy blue, green, red and brown print. I sprayed it with shaving cream first to clean it. When the shaving cream was dry about two hours I vacuumed it and then sprayed it. Let it dry for 24 hours and sprayed it again to darken it a bit more. After two days I Scotchguarded it and let it dry. Used it everyday for 9 or 10 years and then sold it. greg
One further question on the chair itself . . where is it likely to have been made? Current upholstery seems to be 50's - 60's, but chair feels older. It's walnut, fully pegged & decent quality. I know this Jacobean/Flemish/joint turned revival started in the mid 19th c.
