How To Paint Leather Furniture

Have you ever made a purchase, loving it at the time, and then later wondered what on earth you were thinking? I have, and I looked at it several hours each day, it was my own office chair. I loved the style of this chair from the day I laid eyes on it. Had to have it. But… I bought it in red. By the time I started decorating my ofice, my colors were turquiose and coral and lots of natural colors and driftwood.
I loved the chair, just not the color.
So I decided to paint it. I used Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan and mixed 3 colors to make my own blend of coral to match my office.
I mixed 2 parts Pure White, 1/2 part Emperor’s Silk, 1 part plus a few teaspoons Barcelona Orange to make y color. If you want it a little more berry, add more red. If you want the color a little paler add more white. It's easy.
Prepping the chair was easy. I rubbed the leather lightly with 100 grit sandpaper all over. Just enough to take the light shine off of the grain. Next, I wiped down the leather with a TSP solution. This took all of 10 minutes. Protect areas you don't want to paint with painters tape.
Paint two coats of paint letting dry completely in between coats. Use a good quality brush and apply the paint thinly!
The next day I applied the first coat of wax. I put two coats of wax on over two days and buffed on the third day.
The finish is perfect. It looks like it came from the store in this color! Not a brush stroke anywhere.
Best of all it finally matches my office!
Wendi @ H2OBungalow
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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  • Hervoline Pearson Hervoline Pearson on Feb 18, 2016
    What is a TSP Solution? What is the name of the wax that you used? The chair is beautiful.
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  • Wandamurline Wandamurline on Dec 06, 2020

    I painted a section of my leather sofa where the top leather delaminated....got an acrylic paint matched at Lowe's and added fabric softner....it looks great and moves just like it is the real leather. I got this idea from this web site.

  • JR JR on Jun 25, 2021

    I used leather shoe dye to change the colour of a leather chair. (You can only go darker with dye.)

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