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Question:

Can I dye my chair fabric with coffee?

My chair is a bright yellow linen fabric and I need it to look vintage.Will the coffee eventually cause mold? Thanks in advance.

Answer:

I wouldn't attempt it. Aside from the mold problem, it will almost assuredly come out splotchy. Since you can't submerge the chair, there' no way to control just how much stain is going to any one area, and if the chair has been in use at all, it's going to have unseen areas of dirt and/or oil that will prevent uneven color absorption. If it has any man made material content at all it won't color evenly either, as that tends to not absorb dye well. Maybe you can find a slipcover to fit the chair, or if not too complicated, recover it yourself.
If you are going to 'dye' your chair fabric, it needs to be exposed to very hot water or the dye won't take. Mold won't form unless the fabric or the chair are not dried all the way through. You can't know that until you have mold in the chair! Besides, hot water will make the fabric shrink. Why don't you find the perfect upholstery fabric and have the chair re-covered. That would work 100%.
Don't sugar the coffee. Elmyr de Hory, the greatest art forger of all time, used coffee to antique paper and canvas. Not all of them have come to light yet, but a linen chair is not an art canvas...Have you thought of spray tan?
Very difficult to dye anything in situ. Do you have a sunny window you can leave it in? it should fade and give the vintage look

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