Making Everything But Babies: Saving Dad's Man Cave Couch

Have you ever had a piece of furniture that you really liked, but that was looking about as good as Britney Spears circa 2007? Of course you have. Unless you're rich or really wasteful, you probably have at least one thing that looks like a bag of crap that you haven't gotten rid of for one reason or another. If that thing happens to be an upholstered piece of furniture, let me help you out! And by "help you out" I mean that I will tell you how to help yourself.

I'd been doing some projects using chalk paint, and when I showed my dad some chairs I'd painted (yes, PAINTED) with chalk paint, he was skeptical but willing to take a chance in order to save his beat up old couch that he didn't want to part with. I mean, the couch has built in cup holders, so it was going to be a tough one to replace. The couch was microfiber, and we didn't have any luck finding tutorials where microfiber had been painted, but he figured that thing couldn't look any worse, so we decided to give it a shot! We mixed up our own chalk paint, because if you're going to DIY to save money, then you should really get your cheap on if you have the option! Plus, it sounds impressive as long as whoever you tell doesn't see this ridiculously easy recipe (which I cannot take credit for).

Recipe found here:
http://too-much-time.com/2011/10/homemade-chalk-paint-not-bad.html

We used the recipe in the link above and diluted it with water until it was similar to the consistency of a wood stain. You want it to be drippy and liquidy. And you'll want to pretend "liquidy" is a word for now. Tape up any parts you don't want paint on if you haven't alrady. Then spritz your fabric lightly with water, grab a paintbrush, and just slap on that concoction you've made. There is no special technique. Just brush the stuff on and let it dry. One it's dried, give it a light sand. Then do anther coat of the liquidy chalk paint and let that dry. (Repeat the painting and sanding step until you have the coverage you want). Give it a final light sand. Grab some wax (Annie Sloan soft wax, Johnson's wax paste, or anything you've researched and found to be appropriate for use with chalk paint), and buff it on with a brush or lint free rag. It should give the look of a soft leather and feel kind of like that, too. Consider that my tutorial, since I wasn't there to take pictures of the whole process.