Despite our best efforts, which included UV film on all the windows and skylights, the dark red leather chairs in the living-room have faded to a sort of awful brownish-orangish mud. My husband suggested using Cordovan shoe polish on them, but I’m afraid it will dye the leather a darker color than it was originally, and I’m not sure we can buff it out enough to ensure that it doesn’t leach onto fabrics.
Does anyone know how to restore leather color, short of sending them back to the mfr?
Is it possible that I’ve hit on the unanswerable question???
You sound like a perfectionist and only a professional and $$$$ can guarantee a near perfect restoration. It can be done but it is a hassle and it isn’t cheap. Shoe polish is a good solution to try. You don’t have to do a big area to see how it will work. Just pick a small area and try it there first. Bleed over and staining is a concern if you use a lot of it but not so much if you are careful. You may just have a drying problem as well that is affecting the color. A good quality leather conditioner may help a great deal. Brightly died leather fades over time and some people even find that desirable. You can either do the best you can with off the shelf products to make it more attractive to you or spend the cash to have it professionally restored. This is a big reason to only buy leather products that are a shade of brown. They age well. Other colors don’t.
I’m about as far from being a perfectionist as you can get! I just loved the “dried-blood” deep dark red they were originally, and dislike the icky fade they are now. I bought them to go with a beautiful Turkish rug, and they no longer do. I’m afraid professional dying isn’t in the budget. So I’ll try the shoe polish - thanks.
Well, you can always buy another rug…
I can see this being a significant concern. It can be buffed enough to prevent that, but I don’t know how much buffing is required. I’d use a “white glove” type test before letting anyone sit in a shoe-polished chair while wearing light-colored clothing.
ETA: Oxblood shoe polish might be a better color choice than cordovan.
I don’t need any encouragement in that department!
I meant oxblood, but the last few times I used that term, no one knew what I was talking about; Cordovan seems to be the new term. But oxblood is darker, and that’s actually what I want.
I don’t know how people are using the terms these days, but 40 years ago when I was shining shoes, cordovan (purplish brown) and oxblood (reddish brown) were two distinct colors. In my recollection, cordovan was darker, oxblood was redder.
Is there a leather store near you? How about a cleaners that specializes in leather cleaning? I’d ask them for advice.
To continue…
It gets a little tricky, as cordovan can mean a type of leather rather than just a color.
Cordovan, not as purplish as I remember, and oxblood, redder than I remember, according to these folks (but this is fabric, not leather).
Leather dye chart, showing about the same as above.
Another leather dye chart, showing cordovan (#078) with perhaps the slightest tinge of purple and dark cordovan burgundy (#164) which is how I remember cordovan. Unfortunately no oxblood here.
Photo of actual leather, with oxblood as I remember it and “Color #8” being what I would call cordovan.
Check here: Scroll down to Kiwi Wax Shoe Polish (small size) and under “Color” you’ll see they list both oxblood and cordovan. So Kiwi still offers them as distinct colors, so I would say folks who don’t know what “oxblood” means in this context still have some ignorance to be fought. (This site also has the second color chart linked to above but easier to see – scroll further down.)
This leather is a clear, dark red, no purple. I’ve looked all over for Kiwi oxblood but haven’t found it where I live. Google, here I come…
