The living room might look wonderful if that old leather chair from the 1990s was taken from its basement lair and returned to its rightful place in front of the television. The chair resided in the basement because everyone seemed to have forgotten about it. After close inspection, it is revealed the chair was not dismissed by the family's beloved cats. They used the chair as a glorified scratching post. Now, there are rips, cuts, tears, and all manner of imperfections found on the chair. Feeling despondent about throwing the chair away might be the first feeling that overtakes a homeowner. The second feeling would be to purchase one of those DIY leather repair kits. Do neither. Contact a specialty furniture restoration professional to bring back the chairs original look. Doing so definitely will avoid the horrific scenario of making the chair look worse.
The Restoration Kit Conundrum
Television advertisements for restoration kits make it look supremely easy to apply a special leather fix paste to any and all furniture. Mixing up a number of different colors allow for arriving at the perfect visual match. The paste then fills in all crevices and scratches. Just smooth things out for the perfect result. All of this is near fantasy.
Potential Patch Disasters
There are scores of things that can go wrong trying to apply a paste fix to an old, scratched up couch. Making the perfect color match is harder than what appears. Adding a non-matching paste to the old chair could lead a terrible look. Also, the scratches and tears may be deeper than what appears. Trying to fill them could create an uneven -- and undesirable -- look. Employing a patch kit for a very minor problem is dubious. Trying to fix up a seriously ripped apart chair would be even worse.
A Professional Assessment
A restoration professional is the one person most capable of determining whether or not a patchwork-type fix is worth doing. If the scratches are abundant and not too deep, maybe minor touch-up work could fix things. A professional also knows full well when a touch-up would be a total waste of time. Reupholstering work might be the better strategy to follow. Such work delivers, in essence, a whole new chair. Another benefit exists with a reupholstering job. The older chair could even be tweaked to present a more modern look.
Just be sure to also invest in a bottle of those sprays designed to keep cats off of furniture. One revamp of the leather chair is good enough.
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