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Sun faded side of red leather couch - help!

14 years ago

My daughter found a great leather couch on CL - turned out to be a neighbor around the corner. The couch is in beautful condition. It even smells good! yea! So, can you tell us what leather dye or conditioner she could use to darken the side of her couch that had sat near the sunny window? The sun turned it a lighter shade and looks oranger as compared to a deep dark red. THanks! Rachel

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Comments (7)

Happyladi
14 years ago
I use shoe polish on my leather sofa. Can you try some red shoe polish?
dcclerk
14 years ago
I've recently looked into entirely changing the color of some chairs and I've found a few companies that have been very informative and helpful. I've talked to both of these either on the phone or by e-mail and have been impressed. Both of them do color-matching

http://www.advleather.com/
http://www.leatherique.com/

You can also hire a leather restorer to do it for you. I was able to get a good recommendation in the Los Angeles area, if you happen to be around here.

I'm actually pretty excited about my project and I hope that your daughter's project works well.
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I think there are some exposures where the sunlight is so intense that nothing but a shade will protect furnishing. Prior to my remodel I had nothing on my windows - no film and no shades and everything that the morning sun hit was faded - furniture was faded to the extent that one could see exactly where the beams hit and fabric too was faded and the material also was "cracked" as the fibers were weakened. I think Northern exposures are the best as one has light all the time without the issues of direct sunlight. Eastern at least only has the sunlight in the morning and so having the shades down for that period of time isn't claustrophobic especially with the ones that preserve some form of view. Western exposure is the absolute worst - I lived in a condo with Western exposure and one had to keep the shades down for an extended period of time and even with them down the heating impact was intense. No way to enjoy the sunsets - at least with an eastern exposure I can enjoy sunrise until the beams start pouring in for an hour or so.
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We have stayed in many vacation rentals and never choose places with dated, trashed looking furniture. That couch would cause me to scroll on by if I were looking online. We are willing to pay a premium for nicely furnished places and treat them respectfully. If you invested a bit in new furnishings, you could charge more and I’ll bet the place wouldn’t be as likely to get trashed. Don’t forget about the great leverage that a security deposit provides as well.
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organic_rach
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you DC and happi! I looked at the websites and they both look great. The results on the sites are perfect, so I hope this will help her. The couch is in perfect condition and is very nice, well made. She lives in Montana, so her local resources for refurbishing are limited. These websites are helpful.

Has anyone out there tried either place? or tried shoe polish?
will_work_for_roses
14 years ago
I have a red leather chair that turned pink on the back and arms from sun fading. I took happiladi's advice and tried shoe polish. The color was cordovan which is a reddish brown, but it turned out great. I did it to the whole chair and was done before breakfast. 30 minutes tops. I went over all of it with the shoe polish, the kind in a bottle, rubbing each area immediately after putting on the color to eliminate streaking. My DH had some cordovan paste wax for shoes that he then used and that really evened out all the color. Only took half a bottle of polish, surprisingly.

I figured I would try this for $2 and if it didn't work then I could try the professional companies that want over $100. There's nothing to lose because those companies say they can even make the leather another color.
organic_rach
Original Author
14 years ago
Thank you Roses! We will try the shoe polish. I hadn't thought of using the bottles of dye first, then finishing with the wax. Cordovan is the perfect color for her couch too. Rachel
2ajsmama
14 years ago
Does the shoe polish come off on your clothes when you sit on/touch the sofa? Or is there some way to seal it?

My sofa doesn't need it yet (I *have* to get blinds up in LR!) but that's the thing I'd worry about using shoe polish. Thanks
will_work_for_roses
14 years ago
I was having company coming, so I took an old towel and rubbed it all over until nothing else rubbed off to be sure the polish didn't "transfer".

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