Spray painting upholstery? I must be CRAZY!

I have been researching this concept for quite a while and finally decided to give it a preliminary go-round - kind of like an NFL exhibition game - just to see what works and to get the kinks worked out.

Here are my Craigslist dining room chairs:  Bombay Company and I love them!  The problem is that they are really a dingy yellowish ivory but they don't show that in the pictures.  If they REALLY looked like this I would be thrilled!  :-)

The look I'm after:

Source:   Decorpad

It seems that SIMPLY SPRAY is what most people who are crazy enough to try this prefer, but the problem is that they do not make any shade even close to grey or silver.  Just my luck.  So, I came across a few alternatives and one being Dupli-Color Vinyl and Fabric Spray Paint.  I found it at Pep Boys for $6.49 a can (YIKES) and bought one to try it out.

I have a bench cushion that I am going to recover that has a pretty high grade fabric.  This is my guinea pig.  I wasn't so much concerned about the color as the "crunch factor"!

Here is the side by side result with just a little bit of spray:

It really covered the colors well and it wasn't stiff at all.  The smoothness of the material was gone but it was soft and pliable and I was very pleasantly surprised.  Then I decided to go for it!

BEFORE

I pulled out a dining room chair and chose to only paint the back "just to see".  It went on pretty well although I can see the spray lines which will have to be fixed.  I did not saturate the fabric and I was excited to see the change in color.  This is the MEDIUM GRAY and they have a darker grey which I may use over this.  I will have to see how it looks with a second coat.

It went on pretty well and the texture of the fabric was not lost.  The sheen on the fabric is gone but that is fine because it still looks very elegant.  It is does not look like stiff ugly fabric at all and it is soft, just rough it you can understand that.

AFTER

It will take a lot of time and effort but I am excited for the transformation.  I think it is going to give me the exact look I was going for without compromising the integrity of the chair.  Hopefully by this time next week, they will be finished and I can post the results!