Kmart shopper divides with her ‘bizarre’ $7 furniture hack: ‘This is the weirdest I’ve ever seen’
- An Aussie woman restored her old arm chair by repainting it with chalk paint
- She bought the $7 paint from a local Kmart and finished the job with sandpaper
A Kmart shopper has divided popular opinion after revealing how she ‘upcycles’ run-down furniture.
The Aussie woman was tired of seeing an old arm chair with worn fabric bring down the ambience of her living room when she decided to make a change.
She purchased two bottles of chalk paint ($7 each) from her local Kmart and got to work on the piece of furniture.
The woman simply sprayed some water on her chair in sections to dampen the fabric before applying a thin layer of paint before sanding it down.
It took her two layers of paint to cover up the fabric’s previous floral look.
A woman simply sprayed some water on her chair in sections to dampen the fabric before applying thin layers of Kmart’s chalk paint before sanding it down
As the shopper wasn’t in a hurry to get the job done, her thrifty fix took her a week to accomplish.
‘I updated an old rocking armchair that I was given ages ago using Kmart chalk paint, I’m really happy with how it turned out,’ she wrote in a popular Facebook group.
Her post was accompanied by a few photos of ‘before’ and ‘after’ looks of the chair.
She used blue paint as the first layer and then sanded the fabric over before applying another layer of white.
‘I didn’t water down the blue but did a light coat on the whole chair,’ she explained.
‘I sanded it with fine sandpaper between each layer of paint, and then dry brushed the white over the blue to help the pattern come through.’
People in the comments were confused by the woman’s desire to ‘ruin’ her arm chair with chalk paint.
‘It looks nice but you could have achieved the same thing with a grey slip-on cover, which would’ve been softer, too,’ one said.
‘I just can’t get around painting lounges,’ another added. ‘Wouldn’t it be stiff? Or wear onto your clothes? It’s all so confusing.’
‘I wouldn’t have thought you’d be able to sit on it without it showing on your clothes. Love to be proven wrong though.’
An Aussie woman was tired of seeing an old rocking arm chair with worn floral fabric bring down the ambience of her living room when she decided to make a change
But some spoke from bad experience with ‘restored’ items.
A woman shared, ‘I have done this, and the paint is so hard, it’s disgusting to sit on. I ended up chucking the chair out.’
‘I bought a padded footstool that had been ‘restored’ – but I didn’t realise it had been fabric painted until she delivered it,’ a man wrote.
He added, ‘It looks cheap, nasty, and crunchy, Awful.’
However, the Kmart shopper assured commenters that her arm chair was thriving and better than ever.
‘I sanded it between paint layers, so it’s not hard, and no paint has rubbed off onto my clothes,’ she said.
The Kmart shopper bought two different colours of the brand’s chalk paint for her restoration
Several Kmart fans jumped to her defence – while many pointed out that it was common to use paint to restore furniture.
‘My mum has been doing this for years to furniture. I was sceptical at first, but all her pieces have held up so well and no paint transfer!’ a woman shared.
‘I think you’ve done a great job – and what a cool idea!’
‘You have inspired me to save my leather ottoman instead of tossing it out.’
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