Changing the colour of leather...

Several people asked me how we changed the colour of our leather wing chair.

This chair:

 

...started out a dusky pink colour. It also had a cut in the seat cushion that someone had mended but it could still be seen. Sorry, I can't find a photo of it in it's previous state.

This is a big chair and our bedrooms aren't spacious so it has to go in the living room. The pink just wasn't doing it for me, especially with our green suite!

We used a guy called Mike Browne from the Furniture Clinic who worked wonders. The cut in the leather is now invisible and the neutral colour of the chair works much better. I think it was between 2 and 3 hundred to do the work. He also tarted up the wooden legs.

My only regret is that he also painted over all the studs. I wasn't expecting this to happen. Perhaps if I'd asked him not to, the studs could have been masked off. It's not sooo bad, as I can go over them with metallic wax to bring their colour back.

At the time that we did this, these chairs were about £500  to buy new so we decided it was a worthwhile investment as the chair had only cost £30 from a junk shop.

We would  love to do the same with our green suite as it's the most comfortable sofa bed in existence and top quality. (Via ebay of course!) It would be more sensible to change the colour than buy an inferior one. This is our only spare bed. It has kept it's shape beautifully even though we bought it 7 years ago and it was second hand then. We paid a tenth of the cost of a new Ligne Roset suite. I would love it so much more in a dark chocolate brown.

At Furniture Clinic they can get rid of cuts, cracks and scratches. It looks like they also sell the products so that you can have a go at doing this yourself too?
(You might want to practise on a pair of shoes or a handbag before you tackle your 3 piece suite!)

Here's another link to a lady in the States who recently refurbished her sofa so you can see the miracles that can be worked. Lilacs and Longhorns: Repairing and Restoring Leather Furniture

Another idea for changing the look of furniture is to slip cover it. All over American blogs people are using drop cloths (purpose made painters cloths) which are sturdy canvas, huge and cheap, for upholstery purposes. I've had a look here in the UK and all I've seen are very poor quality mesh like dust sheets that you wouldn't even want to use to protect your floors let alone make a sturdy sofa cover with. If anyone has found a good supplier of canvas dust sheets here, please let me know!