Guest Blogger - Keeping It Simple - How To Dye Leather Furniture

Hello all of you Someday Crafts readers! I so excited to be guest posting today. I love Michelle's blog. It is one of my favorites!

Let me introduce myself, I'm Kaysi from Keeping It Simple

Like the name of my blog, I like all things simple! I'm a simple person and I wouldn't want it any other way! I love to do all things crafty! I have a bit of everything at my blog.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Easy reversible skirt

Seasonal decor

Today I wanted to show you how I turned this:

into this:

I got this chair at a garage sale for $5. It was super dirty, but the chair itself wasn't in bad shape. The cushion was beyond repair though, I had to just reupholster it. I didn't even know you could dye leather until I googled it and found out how. So now I'm going to show you how to dye leather.

What you will need:

-Leather Dye

-Acetone

-Spray bottle

-Gloves

-Cloths (or an old sock :D)
-Leather finisher

You can actually combine dyes if you need to. The brown that I got wasn't dark enough, so I combined it with a black dye to get the dark brown.

1) First you will need to clean the leather with acetone and a cloth. Using a sock, I went all over the chair. (I did clean it with soap and water to get all the dust off)

This is how it looked after the acetone.

Notice the different in color, it really cleans it!

Now it's time to dye the leather!!

2) With water, I sprayed the chair to make it damp. Because I had such a big area, I would spray a little area at a time and then dye it and then spray another area.

3) Put the dye onto the cloth and wipe it all over the chair. (Wear gloves!! I made this mistake and was cleaning dye off my hands for a week). Dye the whole area trying to make it as even as possible

4) After each coat, take a dry cloth and rub off the excess dye

Do as many coats that you need. This is what mine looked like after 6 coats of dye. I let it dry about 1 1/2 hours between coats

Now you have to use a finisher to protect the leather and dye.

5) Using the spray bottle, I sprayed the finisher on the chair. Like the water, I did a little at a time.

6) Then with a damp cloth, I spread the finish evenly. I used long strokes to do this.

The finish leaves a nice gloss!

Because the cushion was ripped and not in good shape, I just put fabric over it. I used a thick ribbon for the edge in the front of the cushion. It looks so much better now though and I love just looking at it!!

I wanted to use a flowery fabric but my husband didn't care for it, so I made a pillow to add a little girly touch :)

This is actually a really easy process! You can dye shoes, belts, purses and furniture!

Thanks Michelle for having me on your blog today!!

You should stop by Keeping It Simple and see what else I have!

Kaysi, that is a great tip and technique! I never knew you could dye leather, but now that I think about it, of course you have to be able to dye leather. I love the idea of being about to change the colors of shoes, belts and furniture! Head over to Keep It Simple for more inspiring tutorials. Kaysi is great and you would love having Keep It Simple in your blog roll. Become a followers today!

Linking to Finding Fabulous, Romantic Home -Show and Tell Friday, Miss Mustard Seed -Furniture Feature Friday, Lit and Laundry - Finished For Friday, The Inspired Room, Remodelaholics Anonymous, Poppies At Play - Creative Cats , Crafts In Bloom, Kojo Designs - Friday Fun Finds, Fingerprints on the Fridge - Feature Yourself Friday. The Girl Creative - New Friend Friday, That's So Cuegly - Craft Concoction, Sweet Charli