4 Tips for Leather Seat Repair

When there’s a cut or scratch on your leather furniture, it’s cheaper to undertake the seat leather repair yourself. There are many kinds of leather seat repair you can carry out perfectly well at home without spending too much money. For more serious problems, you will need to have a professional undertake the repair, but there is plenty you can do yourself in terms of leather seat repair using items you already have in the house. There are kits available but you will usually achieve better results with other methods.

Tip 1 - Scratches

Leather furniture becomes scratched for many different reasons and can look unsightly. In most cases, repairing the scratch is quite and easy job. Some people recommend rubbing orange oil into the scratch and the area around it while using a buffing motion. Others suggest using olive oil applied with a damp cloth. These methods also have the effect of conditioning the leather.

Another method is to rub neutral-colored shoes polish into the area and follow up with an application of vegetable-based oil soap. Where the leather is dark brown, the scratch can be masked by a very careful application of dark brown furniture polish.

Some professionals advocate using just warm water which can be applied to the scratch with a damp soft cloth to achieve the same result.

Tip 2 - Cuts

When you’re repairing a cut in leather, use a circular under patch for the leather seat repair. This makes it easier to slide under the cut and your job will be made simpler if you use a patch that is coated with heat-activated glue on one side.

If you’re using low-cure leather repair compound, you should smooth it over the cut and use a heat gun on it to cure it off. Be sure to hold the heat gun a fair distance away from the area you’re repairing. This lets you cure the compound, but also means you won’t shrink the leather or burn it.

To finish, you’ll need to match the dye of the leather, applying it on top of a little amount of grip base and blending the dye and the repair into the rest of the seat so it becomes invisible. Use a hairdryer on the dye to dry it. When using glue and dye, wear protective gloves to keep the substances off your hands.

Tip 3 - Abrasions

Small abrasions on your leather furniture can easily be repaired. Spray the area with water and take a small piece of 1000 grit sandpaper and place it over the abrasion. Sand very lightly, checking the surface of the leather frequently until the entire area feels smooth. Note that in some cases, especially with larger abrasions, the area might need to be re-dyed.

Tip 4 - Cracks

Over time, leather furniture will crack if it’s not maintained. The only way to make a complete repair to cracked leather is to replace the affected area. However, you can undertake a leather seat repair of your own by cleaning the leather thoroughly and re-coloring it. This isn’t going to eliminate the cracks, but it will have the effect of hiding them. This is not a long-term repair, but will be fine for a short period of time before you have to finally replace the leather.