Best way to dye these chairs?

[technominds]

I ordered some chairs and they are a fairly vile colour... I want to make all the material black. I cant work out what method would be best... does anyone have any history with dying fabrics and is this a possible job?

Ive attatched a picture of the chair so you can understand the true disgrace that I have to put up with, this should urge you to help me

 

[notbradsohner]

i would just re-apholster the chairs. Thats what I did, mine were that office purple color. See if the pieces come off, then head to a fabric store and pick up some black fabric. With fabric and a staple gun, you should be set.

 

[technominds]

Is it simple or am I gonna ruin these chairs? Could i just put the black fabric over the orange fabric and and then put it back on? Atleast that way im playing it safe?

 

[gullfo]

check with a sewing materials shop - they'll probably have a variety of cloth dyes and instructions on how to do it.

 

[chris-from-ky]

My wife and I watch TLC's Trading Spaces and we've seen one of the interior designers spray paint chairs and couches in an effort to hide the unwanted pattern or color. I think they make fabric paint for that purpose. Check into it. You may be able to paint them and be done with it.

 

[blackdiscoball]

My wife and I watch TLC's Trading Spaces or just you?

 

[frederic]

You can wrap the seat/back with fabric of your choosing, and staple to the cheap wood that's underneath (usually plywood, or composite).

Or, you can do what car guys have been doing for years... use automotive upholstery dye. There are two kinds - the spray on kind which looks great for the short term (cheap, and good for selling a car), and the brush in kind, which is more expensive but lasts essentially forever. And, it's moisture, temperature, and stain resistance. It has the consistancy of shoe polish.

 

[technominds]

How much we talking to paint these chairs with the expensive stuff then frederic?

ps: had a peak at your webcam last night, you were only using 1 of your 4 monitors.. tut tut...

 

[frederic]

All four monitors are part of the XP desktop. I generally don't bother powering on the outer two unless I have Sonar or Premiere running. Don't need 7200x1280 desktop most of the time

The spray stuff (at an automotive store) typically is about $10-12 a can, and the brush-in dye you'll have to google for an automotive upholstery place, and a pint (which is more than enough to do your two chairs, back and seats) will be about $25 or so for the basic colors, and black. If you want something mixed, obviously that's going to cost a bit more.

Glad you enjoy the webcam, that's what it's there for.

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

I would paint them. I've torn apart these type of chairs, and the hidden fasteners are under the abs backs, and are molded in. I broke two trying to get them apart. One I literally broke the plastic back trying to get it off. Maybe yours are different, maybe not. But sense the fabric is new, and not frayed, I'd paint them with fabric paint. MUCH easier.
fitZ

 

[technominds]

Thanks for the replies, il look around and see what I can find.... should be an easy job!

frederic: Ive also got 4 screens as my desktop, but as they are kind of surrounding me it makes life easy to have certain apps in certain windows. I can understand why you wouldnt want them all on when they are all side-by-side.

 

[frederic]

Yeah, the outer two are off unless I need to use them. I save electricity this way as they stay on if the video card is active, which obviously it always is.

I decided about a week ago to swap things around and take two of the monitors off the shelf, and only use two monitors at 1600x1280. I use all four so rare anyway. That will give me a slot in my 2-slot PC for something more useful, should I find something more useful LMAO.

 

[technominds]

You can always do with extra card space! Im using up near to 8 PCI slots shared between two machines, and I can imagine adding more... i couldnt bare only having two!

As for your desktop, which screen has the taskbar or do you just span it across them all?

I used to have all 4 screens attatched to one machine, but now ive gone for 2 main screens and an extra screen to my left. The 2 screens infront of me usually display my main PC's dual screen, but the right screen is also on a switchbox for the second dual output of my other computer. Kind of had to do it because now ive got a laptop and 5 screens would be way too much of an eye full. What to do with my spare screen... might just mount it somewhere to watch DVD's on.... talk about screen junkie...

 

[Dani Pace]

Rit Dye (about $3) mix according to dirrections, sit chair on plastic sheet(around $1, a dropcloth works great), apply dye with a cheap paint brush (another $1). Let dry 24 hours then reapply. Let dry again (24 to 48 hours) then spray with Scotchguard (about $2.50 for a small can.) Less than $8 and you got black stain resistant chairs.

 

[Tim Brown]

What are you talking about?!?!

Those chairs look great! Studios are always so drab looking. Leave them, so they'll add a little color to your studio.



Tim

 

[Tim Brown]

My wife and I watch TLC's Trading Spaces or just you?

Dude, Trading Spaces rules. I wish I had BBC so I could watch the Original. I like Laurence Llewelen-Bowen from Changing Rooms on BBC; he's a killer designer. I really miss Alex McLeod - I thought she was quite attractive, Paige Davis was too "cutesie" for me.


http://www.alexmcleod.net/


I watch Trading Spaces because I know that when I can finally buy a house, I'm going to snag some of these designs for myself. Plus, I did a lot of this type of work myself.



Tim

 

[technominds]

What are you talking about?!?!

Those chairs look great! Studios are always so drab looking. Leave them, so they'll add a little color to your studio.



Tim

A little colour is fine, but when its red/slightly orange it looks ugly... If i was going for a 70's look for my studio, these things would fit right in... but with grey,charcoal, and black as my main colours... they look out of place and fairly digusting.....

Thanks for idea though...