An inexpensive way to change leather chairs
gtcircus
6 years ago
I love ideas about how to repurpose things. In this instance I conditioned old red leather chairs and restained them to brown leather. Here are the photos of the before, during and after. One more chair to finish along with some touch ups. Do you have a trick to share with Houzzers?
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gtcircus
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Need decent inexpensive LR furniture
Comments (28)Can you sketch out the floor plan of your living room and cut a piece of paper to the size of your couch (scaled down)? That would let you see if the couch would work with the rest of your furniture or not. There are also some free floor plan programs out on the Web. The 84" sofa could work, but it would depend on the other furniture you have and how much wall space there is, where the traffic patterns in the room are, how many doorways you have to contend with, etc. For what it's worth, if you will be using the loveseat (or sofa) to sit on most of the time and the chairs will be for guests, it makes a lot of sense to put the bulk of your budget into the loveseat (or sofa). Get one that is comfortable for you. Use folding chairs for the other two seats for a year if you have to, while you save up the money to buy nicer ones. But I'd say it is better to have one comfortable piece that you really like (and it sounds as if you really like this sofa), than three pieces that look good, but aren't as comfortable. It may take a while, but you will eventually get the furniture you want. (Says the woman who has been looking for a dining room table for two years.)...See MoreLeather club chair and cottage decor.....could that happen?
Comments (28)Wow - thanks everyone for your comments, suggestions and pictures!! ttodd - this is a rental and I can't paint it :O( This has been a major pain in my butt. The entire apartment is the same color and although I appreciate the color in other people's rooms, it's not working in mine. I don't plan to stay here very long so I will have to try to ignore the wall color for now and keep thinking forward to my next home, which will be permanent, and in which I will be able to try out other colors. Wouldn't it be great, too, to do something about the FP. For now I have to stick to changes that aren't parmanent. I never noticed the dark furniture but you're right! Today I went looking for some dark pieces to add, and I found a gorgeous little round mahogany table, and I hummed and hawed and decided to walk away from it, because I wasn't sure. Tonight my (very) special friend (who had been shopping with me) rung my doorbell and handed it to me, wishing me a Happy Mother's Day. I just about cried. It's now beside the couch and it looks FABULOUS!!!! I took pictures but my camera battery died before I could download them so I will post pictures tommorrow. polkadots, pesky, frazoo, funkyart, and decorpas....LOL about the coffee table!! That's actually DS's physio table but I am guilty of throwing junk on it and using it as a coffee table. I am actually in the process of sanding down and priming an old wooden trunk for a coffee table. I am not sure what color to paint it, but I will prime it and then post that as a seperate question. pesky - I tried switching the chairs, and I took a pic of it (will post once my camera batteries are recharged). I wasn't crazy about it. I did, however, move the dresser down towards the couch and put the leather chair on the other side of the fireplace and I am liking that. frazoo - yes, I agree - more stuff! I just moved in a couple of months ago, so still getting stuff in place. I signed a lease that said that I wouldn't use any nails in the walls, so I haven't hung one single picture, but I have decided to hang pictures anyway, and just fix the holes before I leave. I can't live with blank walls! For the gel stain - would I have to sand down the shelf first, or just put it on as is? It's a cheapo laminate shelf. Thanks again everyone. I have to say that I am more used to it today and am actually excited about it now :O)...See MoreChange for the sake of CHANGE?
Comments (14)Yep, Yaya (have you read the Yaya Sisterhood book?) you are right, and when he lashes out it really frustrates me. I understand his reasons for it, but it still is unsettling. The fact he is hard of hearing, has bad knees and cannot do much construction work anymore, also depresses him. I've tried to get as much into this remodel to keep him from even trying to do the work himself. His poor knees cannot take hours on ladders, or hours putting in flooring. He once did ALL the work for additions or improvements but these days no way. I think that is part of his problem too. Of course, he wants to do it the OLD way, which is not up to the stringent code now in place for hurricane zones. So our disagreements about the ways they do things NOW contrary to the OLD FASHIONED way, or the way they did things up in MA which has different requirements (no worry for carrying heavy snow loads here, at all), puts him out of his element. We are not cutting many corners at all, with quality of flooring or roofing or strength of lumber and such as that. Even though we are OLDER PEOPLE, and should not worry too much about definition of "lifetime warranty" that is something he expects. I suppose that is why he insisted the cabinets be custom and wood, instead of the IKEA much less expensive kitchens. I figured that even 10-15 years from now, or not long thereafter, this kitchen would seem OLD to a buyer (more than likely a buyer would consider this a starter home) and they'd want to do some "updating" of the kitchen anyway. I know we updated appliances in our river house that Katrina destroyed, and that kitchen had been redone 10 years before. Steph, I think you make many good points, I like light floors too, which is why we have the ash hardwood going in. And, the new lighting fixtures will be super easy to deal with. I'm not going to keep big closets filled with anything stuck back for a rainy day if I can help it. Or shopworn chairs either--although he has 4 windsor chairs, and he takes pride in those. Somehow I'll have to find a place for them....and NOT at the dining table or in the living room! Right now I'm thinking about the Shaker style of hanging chairs on the wall out of the way. They would do okay in my Teahouse, up about 10 feet on a traditional Shaker "chair rail." with pegs for securing them up high. Hmmm, sort of lends new meaning to the term "chair rail" doesn't it! When I painted and decorated his MA cape, I took great delight in the house. I thought I was making it a traditional and pretty place like other capes. However, everybody who saw it said, "Oh, it is so SOUTHERN." I guess they were right. I believe the structure a lot similar to the cajun style and raised creole cottages of the south and the bayou. Both are charming homes to live in. Anyway, I must add that today he is more amenable to the work in progress. We've had a few days of respite from the work. The old roof, which is so bad it was crumbling beneath the feet of the carpenters, is to be removed tomorrow and the stickyback underlayment is to be laid down. The chimney will be refurbished with copper cap and flashing, new vents and turbines. He was much concerned about the dilapidated state of those crumbling shingles. As soon as GAF delivers our ultra high definition architectural shingles, maybe Thursday or Friday, we shall present a new face to the street. Namely a color called SLATE which has some green in it, and dark enough not to stain easily. The imminent install of the new roof has brightened his outlook considerably. And now I'm going to go read the last 150 pages of COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO. What a book!...See Moreneed help with leather chair
Comments (8)I just finished up recoloring the cushions last weekend so I cannot attest to the durability, but my gut feeling is that should hold up. My sofa is 17 years old and the leather was aniline dyed, so it had really faded. I had it in our library, pretty much unused for the past 7 years. We finally decided that the tthis sofa was way more comfortable so switched them out. While trying to find a sofa brand similar to our faded one I somehow ended up with the idea of trying to re-dye it. I sent the company a scrap of leather from under the cushions and ordered aniline recoloring dye (2 kits) along with a description of the sofa's condition. They ended up sending me the normal recoloring kit, but I figured they knew more about re-dying than I did (nothing) and that is what I used. My sofa's leather really soaked up the dye. The kit came with a sprayer thingie, but I just used a foam brush and spread and rubbed the dye around with a paper towel so it wouldn't look streaky. Most of the sofa took two to three thin coats. The dye is water based. According to the instructions, after about 48 hours, the dye is pretty much set. I did clean up a couple of small spots with rubbing alcohol about 24 hours later, and the coloring did come off that way. I rubbed and buffed with the conditioner after about 4 days and did not have any coloring come off. I have not spilled anything on it yet :) although water does bead up on it now rather than soaking in. The leather is still quite soft and while it feels different, it does not feel like it is stiff or coated, if that makes any sense. This photo is an in progress picture...the arm has been colored, the cushions have not...See Moregtcircus
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4 years agoHere is an update of that entry with the new upcycled chandelier. AND the before!
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