Recently I was asked by one of my trusted producers if I could turn a gray sofa to green in a few days. When she called and I asked I said, "YES"!
As we all know furniture can take weeks to months to have delivered. In the film business we don't usually have these kinds of lead times.
Below is the light green/gray sofa we were able to buy locally.
Our client was really set on having the sofa be their brand color of green. Luckily, had recently done hours of research on this very subject for our RV remodel. I had done a few small ottomans with this process.
I made my way to Ace Hardware and bought Magnolia Chalk Paint by Joanna Gaines. The gentleman at the paint center helped me mix up the color based one of the Ace colors based on the Pantone color.
The key to this process is to spray the sofa fabric with water so that it is saturated.
I used a high volume spray bottle. I diluted the chalk paint with water. I poured a little water in with the paint each time I poured paint into my little cup. I applied the paint with a stipple brush or stain brush. I did not brush on the paint I stippled or pushed the paint into the fabric.
This is the first coat. It was uneven, I totally expected that.
I took the cushions off and set them in the sun with a fan blowing on them. Again I had very little time to make this happen.
This is after 2 solid coats of diluted chalk paint being pushed into the fabric.
I did not brush the paint onto the fabric.
Because the paint is diluted and pushed into a damp sofa it dyes it more than surface paints it.
The fabric does feel a little stiff but not as stiff as you would think.
There are other wax products that you can apply onto the fabric to give longevity.
I didn't apply wax to this. I know I would have talent sitting on it in a few days.
I wanted to make sure that was very dry.
Here it is!!
It was all finished and looked amazing!
This is what the sofa looked like on camera on the sound stage. Thank you to our camera operator, Julius for sitting in!