Ideas to Decorate a Rocking Chair

Rocking chairs beckon you to sit and sway comfortably back and forth, whether they are on the front porch or inside your home. Decorate a rocking chair with colorful backgrounds, whimsical designs and customized imagery to accent any living space. The easiest way to paint a rocking chair is with spray paint, but you can also use small rollers and small paint brushes.

Painted Flowering Vines

Decorate the wide slats on the back of a rocking chair, the arm rests and the seat.

Decorate a rocking chair with painted flowering vines that follow the natural lines of the chair's design. Paint the chair a background color to complement the green of the vines and the bright colors of the flowers. A bright white, soft yellow, pale blue or light pink are all appropriate background colors to showcase flowering vines. Acrylic paints work over latex or spray paint for the decorative aspects of the rocking chair. Tape stencils or templates onto the chair to help create the garden-style art.

Vinyl Rub-On Designs

If hand painting designs onto a rocking chair seems like too much trouble, create a similar effect using vinyl rub-on designs. These embellishments are like permanent stickers, with artistic designs that include flowers, birds, insects, letters and geometric shapes. Paint the rocking chair in a solid background color, and then transfer the rub-on designs. The images are transferred to the painted background surface of the chair using a stylus. You can protect the images and the paint on the rocking chair with a coat or two of polyurethane.

Chalkboard Rocking Chair

Decorate a rocking chair for a child's room or a family room with colorful chalkboard paint. Paint the entire rocking chair with the chalkboard paint to create an acceptable background for your kid's creativity. Chalkboard paint goes on as easily as regular latex paint. Select a color that coordinates with your room's décor. Now your children can draw on the chair with chalk, which can then be easily erased.

Nursery Rocking Chair

Customize a rocking chair to fit in with a baby's nursery through paint colors, images, and lettering. Paint the rocking chair to coordinate with the nursery décor, and then decorate it with an inspirational verse, painted designs, or rub-on transfers. Stenciled lettering and transfer designs are available to help create wording. Transfers and stencils are also available in a variety of baby-friendly patterns to suit a baby's nursery.

Decoupage Rocking Chair

Cover parts of the rocking chair frame with old family photos to create a commemorative work of art. Stain the wooden chair to coordinate with your décor. Decoupage the photos onto the wide slats on the rocking chair, back and front. Spread a thin layer of decoupage medium onto the stained wood surface. Press images cut from the photos into the glue and then use a paint sponge to spread the decoupage medium over the images. If the arm rails are wide enough, you can also decorate them with old photos.