Re-Dye of a Old Leather Chair

Last year my husband got this chair from one of his friends. It was left in his friends apartment when he moved in and he just wanted it out, so we took it. Jason thought it was just the greatest chair ever, and I HATED it. It was sooo stained and dirty and just plain ugly. I asked Jason if I could dye it, he said "whatever, but why would you want to do that, it is fine the way it is". So I took that as a "yes dear, that is a great idea". I began googling it to see how to do it. They wasn't much to go on, so I gathered the info I could, loaded up the chair and headed off to my dad's house (he was SUPER happy that he got asked to help-well maybe not at first, but I think he was happy to be apart of it in the end). This is what the chair looked like to begin with. Notice all the stains, watermarks and oily worn spots.

The first thing we did was to wash the chair down with some saddle soap to clean up the leather and get it ready for the water-based dye we used. I was very surprised and a little disappointed to see that not a lot of dirt came off the chair. We then started applying the dye by wiping it on with a rag (make sure you were gloves, this stuff NEVER comes off your skin). We put two coats on and discovered that were the leather was in good condition and didn't show any wear, the stain did not want to stick to that part. There was a kinda shiny finish on the leather that wanted to make the stain streak.


I thought about it all night and remembered that one of the sites I saw on the Internet said they cleaned there leather with 400 or 600 grit sandpaper. We decided to give that a try on a little area. It worked GREAT, but soon we found that was going to be a lot of work sanding the whole chair. If any of you know my dad, you know he LOVES his power tools and has one for every job. He got out his orbital sander and we got to sanding. We ended up using 180 grit, which worked great but if we did it again we would use something a little finer to be on the safer side, one spot almost turned into suede. We sanded it down to the bare leather in most places.

At first it made me sick to think that "we are using a power sander on this LEATHER chair", but then I thought that it was just plain funny. After we got done sanding it we vacuumed it off and wiped it down. The chair really soaked up the stain then. With two coats of stain on it looked great. Once you let the stain dry you are suppose to buff the leather with soft cloths to take off the extra dye or it will come off on your clothes when you sit in the chair. And once again my dad came through with his power tools. He got out his buffer and put a microfiber cloth on it and off he went again. (Now you can see why he started to get into this project).

With all the extra dye buffed off all that was left was to apply the hide rejuvenater to seal up the leather. And another final buffing. This is the finished project.

I have to say this was a very rewarding project, my dad and I learned a lot and had some fun doing it. Now we know what to expect for next time ;o)

After I got the chair home I realized that the stain was coming off on anyone that sat in the chair. We joked that that is how you would know if you had worn your welcome out. I ended up buying some Resolene (an acrylic sealer). I diluted it 1 part Resolene and 1 part water. I used a microfiber cloth and applied several coats of it, letting it dry between each. In all I believe I did 3 coats on the chair except fot the seat, backrest and armrests that all got 4. It really finished the chair off nicely.