Painted chairs

Quote from HGTV forum from Magnaverde:
"Of course you can paint a sofa. Forget all that nonsense about teensy bottles of expensive paint medium from the crafts store. You don't need anything more than regular latex semi-gloss paint and a lot of guts. I found a beautiful Baker Chippendale camelback sofa, with cool curved arms and a fat down cushion, but it was covered in a hideous glazed chintz in the ugliest colors I ever saw. I found some great yellow wool damask to reupholster with, but it would have cost me $3OOO for the fabric alone, and I was in a hurry anyway--people coming in 2 weeks--so as a temporary fix I painted my sofa instead. Everyone freaked out when I told then the plan, but it worked. I was planning on painting my living room dark green, so I decided to go with red leather. First, I painted the whole thing with bubblegum pink semigloss latex paint, using the widest foam brush I could find, and brushing it on in long strokes front-to-back and up + down. Think of that as the primer coat. I let it dry 2 days, then sanded it super lightly with fine-grade sandpaper to get rid of the burrs--and there were a lot of them. When I couldn't feel any more sharp things, another coat of paint, spread thin. Dried & sanded again. Then spread--with my hands--a thin coat of raspberry red semi-gloss paint I had deadened a little with brown to make it less vivid. Because it was a deep color, there wasn't much white filler in the paint, so it was almost like a glaze or stain, instead of paint, which is just what I wanted, anyway. I just smoothed it on, like suntan oil, and worked it into the pink paint. I let it build a little thicker on the back, on the inside of the arms and at the back edge of the loose cushion, so that the paler, thinner red took on an air of wear at the high points. I let it dry 2 days, then CAREFULLY sanded the few new sharp things, and touched up those spots with my fingers. I let it dry 2 days, then waxed the whole thing with regular paste wax. After it was dry, I polished it with a soft cloth, then dusted it with talcum, and vacuumed it all off. It was a little stiff the first few days, but now it not only looks like red leather, it feels like it.This worked great on my ugly glazed chintz, and probably would work on any smooth fabric, except that some may have more burrs and therefore require more sanding, but I wouldn't try it on anything with a heavy texture. And no, the paint doesn't peel off. And no, it's not stiff, either. Think about it--it's latex and essentially, that's what's in those little bottles of fabric medium." Regards, MAGNAVERDE.

This was a post that was made by MAGNAVERDE on HGTV decorating forum. I used his directions to paint my chairs.
A few other people have done the same since.

The only thing I would change now is that there are fabric or textile additives to add to paint which I would use. Then you really need to wait between coats long enough for each to dry thoroughly. The textile medium can be purchased at a craft store for less than $2 because you only need a small amount, and they do sell them in small craft paint sized bottles.

The WAX coating on top can be furniture polish (creamy kind) or any clear Carnauba wax (I used BriWax brand)  then after about 10 minutes, I buffed it.  I only did this once.

The feeling is that of vinyl though now with its worn areas mine do 'look' more like leather. I shock people by lifting the pillow up (not painted underneath) and they react!

Good luck and please feel free to ask questions!

I have added these two current photos to this post to show how the chairs are holding up in 2009!