Lessons Learned From Painting Fabric

You all know how I love painting anything and everything. So when I found out about fabric paint, my imagination started running wild!We have a king sized headboard that I had custom made about eight years ago. It is still in great shape, but I am so tired of the chocolate brown color:I looked into reupholstering the headboard myself but when I heard about the fabric paint and navy was available, I was excited to get started!So excited, I did not wait to even take the headboard off of the bed. I had to wait for my husband to help with that and he takes forever! :)Since I had no real directions, I found the best way was to squirt the paint directly onto the brush for the smoothest application:I was amazed that I only used four of the little 4 oz. bottles of paint to cover two coats for the entire headboard! Each bottle was only $3.79 at Michaels.It only took me a day to finish, waiting two hours in between coats to dry. Here is the headboard after painting:Lessons I learned from painting fabric:*   For best results, do not paint over dark fabric. It is extremely hard to cover the original color no matter how many coats you paint.*   If painting fabric with nap, (a fabric with nap is one what usually has a pile and will look different shades from different angles) such as velvet or velour, avoid painting large surfaces. Because of the nap, the brush strokes are very visible:*  Always to sure to paint in one direction so brush marks are minimized.*  The best fabric to paint for the best results is a light colored cotton or linen:Look how nice it came out after only two coats of navy paint:Would I have painted my headboard if I knew this information? Probably. I like to try things out myself. Plus, I can still re-cover if I decide.I hope this has helped you decide if painting your fabric will work well for you. If you have any other questions about it, please let me know!I am linking to  Serenity Now this weekend! Please join us for lots of great ideas!