Phil Mansfield/NY Times
Phil Mansfield/NY Times

A while back, the N.Y. Times reported on a stylish mom whose muslin-covered John Derian sofa became a canvas for her daughter and her seventh grade class to decorate with markers. The article didn’t say whether she’d intended the white muslin sofa to be painted on or whether the blank canvas she’d meant only to be chic and minimal inspired a fit of improvisation. No matter, I suppose. It IS a great idea, and was taken a step further by her son, who embellished two muslin-covered arm chairs with Fabric Paint clearly an incredibly fun thing for a kid to do.

It’s made me look at the white cotton slip covers on my living room sofa in a new way.   Why not use them as canvas for hand drawn art or design?

Ellen Silverman
Ellen Silverman

Here’s some info about painting fabric.

(While googling “fabric paint”, I came across fabric spray paint. Seems iffy to me: a messy and desperate way to change an ugly sofa fast. I’d love to know if anyone’s tried it.)

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3 replies on “blank-canvas furniture

  1. Hi, I have used the Upholstery Spray Paint on an old 1980’s pastel pink chair. It turned it into a very chic black, more modern looking chair. I also used it on pillows & a lamp shade. I had been looking & looking for orange but found it a very hard color to find (I live in NE). Finally I just made them from an Ikea lamp, that brown paper box color and two ivory pillows from HomeGoods. I have pics of my livingroom if you want to see it. I will email them to you.

    PS It wasn’t messy or desperate.

  2. Thank you for sharing your experiences. It’s been something we’ve been meaning to try for months, and this is a heartening report. And we love the final words “It wasn’t messy or desperate.”

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