Cat Scratch Leather Repair

10 Materials
$30
1 Hour
Medium
Cat Scratches on leather and vinyl furniture is a quick way to have your home looking shabby. And not in the good kind of way! We're going to show you a quick fix for the repair and then we're going to paint both the leather seat and fabric back of this chair with Finish All Paint by Heirloom Traditions. The one paint that covers it all!
Here's what we're starting with. For this live, we'll just be painting the leather and upholstered back. Isn't it amazing that one product can paint both types of upholstery! The best part is that you can also paint the wood frame with the same paint if you want. For this demo, we'll be leaving the frame as is because the wood tones match Paula's other furniture.
This is pretty extreme. Can you tell Paula's cats really like these chairs?!? You'll want to clip off any pieces that are really standing up, sand down the rest with a 220 grit sanding block. If that's not enough, you can always use a repair method. Here's one that we did on bonded leather that would work for this genuine leather: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxytu7UKaJY&t=6s


Next, we'll remove the surface oils with a degreasing agent from the leather seat. We'll vacuum to remove all debris from the fabric portion. (Tip, a sanding block works great to remove cat hair!) If you are also painting the wooden frame of your chair, you'll want to degrease that surface as well to ensure you've removed all pledge and grease.
Here's an example of the cracked bonded leather Paula repaired in a previous Hometalk Live.
Here's the final results after the bonded leather was repaired and painted with Finish All Paint in the color Galvanized. Isn't that amazing?!


Once your repair is completed, painting with Finish All is super easy. Give your paint a good stir and put a liberal coat on your surface. Most surfaces take 2 coats. Allow the paint to dry 24-48 hours and then you're ready for use. No top coat is required with this paint for your painted upholstery or wooden frames.
Here's your 8 colors of Finish All Paint to choose from. These are very on trend colors for painting leather, vinyl, fabric and wood! We're using a pint for these two chairs, but we likely won't use more than 8oz.
Suggested materials:
  • Sanding Block   (https://www.amazon.com/3M-Precision-Flexible-Sanding-220-Grit/dp/B00OB1LUY4/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1508768106&sr=1-1&keywords=220+grit+sanding+block)
  • Or Additional Color Options
  • Finish All Paint, Farmhouse (off-white w/ taupe undertones)   (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076ZM3FDS)
See all materials
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  2 questions
  • Mae Sizemore Mae Sizemore on Apr 01, 2022

    Is there a way you can keep the cat from scratching leather couch

  • Paula Paula on Jul 09, 2023

    Does the leather have the same feel as before?

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 5 comments
  • Greyni Greyni on Jul 25, 2020

    Yes

    • Elaine Elaine on Jul 11, 2021

      I am very interested in this book but your links do not work! Where might I purchase it?


      Sincerely, Judy

  • Laura Engdahl Laura Engdahl on Aug 10, 2023

    Hi. I don’t understand your pictures for this process. The original pic is showing how bad the seat of a wood arm chair is from cat scratches. But the “final” pic is a completely different piece of furniture. I’m curious how the seat of the original chair turned out, as that is how my leather furniture looks from cat scratches.

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