Yep. Another one of those things, like the butter bell, I had not heard of until recently. Fabric paint. Paint for your fabrics and furnishings. How this has passed me by, is beyond me, but here we are. Until I saw a post on Instagram, and started to investigate what I think I assumed was pretty much impossible. I mean – painting fabric! But it is a thing, and I am now a convert and my paintbrushes are ready and waiting, as soon as our furniture comes out of storage. It’s been an expensive business, renovating an old and neglected Andalucian townhouse, and we’re at the stage now where we need to keep an eye on the money pot. We’ve had to make some pretty high ticket purchases, because we sold a lot of our furniture with the house in Istria, so now we’re looking to be a bit more creative, and hopefully curb the spend, going forward.

So, Fabricoat came to my attention and I was intrigued sufficiently to order a 500ml bottle of Olive Green paint and have it sent over to Spain, so that I could experiment on a couple of small footstools, before deciding if I’d order more and transform some larger pieces of furniture.

Application is really easy. The recommendation is to brush down the fabric covering to be painted, spray lightly to dampen with water and apply your coats (it took a couple to achieve the colour of the footstools), brush lightly and let dry in between coats. The recommendation is also to use a darker colour than the original fabric, for best coverage. If the fabric has a pile, such as velvet, faux-suede, chenille, draylon or microfibre, it is advised that double the quantities of fabric paint are ordered, because there’s lots more surface area to cover on these types of fabric. And obviously, always test the fabric for water absorbency first. If it’s absorbent, Fabricoat will work.

Both stools have stood the test of time, without any kind of colour fading, so we’ve placed a bigger order for the fabric paint. We have an Eve mattress, bought a few years ago but still super comfy. It will sit proud of the new bed, which is green velvet – I know! – and the yellow edging of the deep mattress, will be seen. So, it’s going to be painted this beautiful olive green colour, which will hopefully complement the bed surround and the bedding. The next project will entail the refurbishment of a chaise longue, purchased from the storage people. It’s a bit bling at the moment, with swirls of gold velvet patterns, but we’re going chocolate brown on this, with the frame being painted a vanilla cream. And, if we like the brown, we also have a funky seventies swivel chair, currently resplendent in lime green, which will need a bit of tone down, to fit in with its new surroundings. At just short of £150 (including shipping and taxes, because it comes from the UK), for five and a half litres of paint, it’s sure less expensive than any kind of re-upholstery job. Results will be posted…

This is not a sponsored post and we get no kickback from the company. All paint is paid for by ourselves. It’s just a product we like and want to recommend.