Can You Dye a Leather Chair?

Leather Dye

• Leather dye is a product especially designed for use in dyeing leather. Leather dyes come in a variety of different shades, colors and consistencies. Some leather dyes are easier to use than others or perform better on specific types of leather or leather that has not already been treated with other leather products. Some dyes only need to be brushed onto the leather in order to work; others require the leather to be soaked in the dye for a specified length of time in order to gain the best results.

Deciding to Dye

• Successfully dyeing leather requires a certain amount of skill in order to achieve professional looking results. Before you attempt to dye your chair, you should consider the reasons why you want to dye the chair and what kind of results you expect to generate. There is a chance that you will damage the leather on the chair when you are trying to dye it. You should not attempt to dye your chair yourself if you are not okay with the possibility that you may significantly damage it or render the chair unusable (which may happen if the leather dye continues to bleed after the chair has been dyed).

Increasing Your Chances of Success

• Typically, the most successful leather dye jobs are those that make relatively minor changes to the leather. For example, you will have more success touching up a spot on the chair that has been bleached out by the sun or damaged by use than you will trying to change a light tan leather chair into a black leather chair. The larger the patch of leather is that you want to dye, the more likely you are to experience uneven, inconsistent or poor looking results. If you are unsure how the chair will take the dye, you need to test the dye on a small, easily concealed section of the chair's leather before attempting to dye the entire piece of furniture or any really visible areas on the chair.

How to Dye Leather

• Once you have made the decision to dye your chair, you should clean the leather thoroughly and use a leather stripper to remove all residual oils, conditioners and leather protecting products. Once the leather is clean and stripped of as many products as possible, apply the dye to the chair as directed by the instructions that came with your specific leather dye.