Last week I shared one of my favorite thrift store finds, a vintage retro dinette set, and a crazy-awesome-cheap-and-easy fix for removing rust from chrome …
…and I gave you a little peek at the seriously shart stained chairs that came with it.
Take a closer look.
I’ll give ya a dollar if you lick it.
The vinyl upholstery was in good shape, not counting the grime, so I figured with a really hardcore scrubbing, I could bring these babies back to life. Here’s one after two rounds of Tide Oxi, one round of Magic Eraser and another round with their combined goodness working together.
A decent improvement, but still not something I would want to put in my kitchen. I went ahead and scrubbed them all down and put them in the basement with the table and started searching everywhere for vintage retro dinette upholstery. I found some good options, but nothing that I couldn’t live without.
So I did something that would typically make me cringe – I painted the fabric.
Now, I’m not saying that painting fabric is wrong and I’m not slamming anyone who has done it, I’m just saying it’s not for me. The part about painted upholstery that bothers me is the stiffness it appears to give fabric, but vinyl is already pretty stiff since it’s made of plastic. I know that Rustoleum sticks to plastic with a good coat of Zinsser underneath so painting vinyl upholstery seemed like a good option.
I removed the seats and the seat backs,
(here’s the makers info for all of you retro fans)
and laid them out on a drop cloth and primed them with Zinsser 1-2-3.
Zinsser is awesome for so many reasons; it makes paint stick to almost anything, and it’s a primer and a sealer. I definitely needed the sealer because these seats look like they have molded in a few spots and I def don’t want that getting through.
After they were all primed, I went over them with Rustoleum in white semi-gloss so they kept a little bit of their sheen. Check out the test seat next to an unpainted, uncleaned chair:
Uhm, hello!
The fine spray of the spray paint also helped me to keep that wonderful, subtle texture in the vinyl, without filling it with paint.
Ready?
Here’s the whole set before:
And after:
|| Retro Diner Light || Vintage Inspired Diner Chalkboard ||
And of course I had to accessorize the table with some retro/diner inspired schtuff…
Right after I finished these I found out that Rustoleum makes a spray paint for vinyl. But it’s been about 7 months since this was completed and we’ve done plenty of sitting and squirming in these chairs and they’ve held up great; I couldn’t be happier with them. It was a super easy solution for a very dirty problem and now they look fresh and clean!
dena@heartsandsharts.com
Thank you for the post, I’m cleaning a set almost identical to yours. I was taking a break and thinking should I keep scrubbing?! I tried dawn, pinesol, Clorox bleach cleanup, scrubbing bubbles, cascade& greased lightning, none of them worked. So glad I found your article. I’m letting everything dry, and I’m off the the hardware store!
Stunning! What a find! DIY is the way to..thanks for the aluminum foil tip I always used “coke cola classic” and a SOS pad no scratches and great polish to it! On my truck’s chrome mirrors, same took pitting away!!
Looking forward to next project!
How did it hold up over time? I had no idea you could paint vinyl.
Pretty good! I do have one seat where the fabric is cracking in the middle but it doesn’t look terrible.
I have a set in my basement awaiting some elbow grease, you’ve inspired me! Probably will become basement game table and extra for holiday dinners. My chairs are a mustard yellow. What did you do about part of table missing linoleum? Fill it in with plywood painted white? I have a chip on table top I’m not sure what to do with.
Thanks for the article. Def giving this a go this weekend. How long did it take you to scrub the chrome with foil?
It def takes some elbow grease but it wasn’t as long as I expected. I did this several years so I can’t really say that I remember…
I saw your tutorial on Hometalk and I checked your blog the pictures here are wonderful the whole set looks brand new, thank you for posting and sharing your information 🙂
Thank YOU, Leslie!
“I’ll give ya a dollar if you lick it.” Cackled WAY too hard at that. Thank you, you little furniture wizard. 🙂 The chairs. Look. Fab.
Thank you, Bobbie! They were gross, right?!
dena i am beyond jealous looks wonderful you lucky dog xx
Hey Chris! Just a little elbow grease! Hope you’re doing well.