Direct sunlight is a great enemy for our leather furniture, shoes, bags, and literally anything made of leather. The UV rays from sunlight slowly fade the color of your leather. So, try to keep your leather materials indoors and away from the sun.
However, if your leather material is exposed to the sunlight for a while, and you will notice the color of the leather is fading away.
In this article, I will try to teach you how you can fix the color of any sun-damaged leather, whether it is a piece of furniture or a bag that is made of leather. Let’s get started, shall we?
Here is a step-by-step process to explain:
- Clean the Leather
- Check if your Leather is Water Absorbent
- Dip the Cloth into the Balm and Keep Rubbing
- Be patient and Wait for it to Dry
- Wipeout Excess Balm from the Surface
The process sounds simple enough. However, there is a lot of effort that goes into each of these steps. Carefully read every step and pay attention to the tips that are provided to make your sun damaged leather as good as new.
Required Materials:
- A Leather Cleaner or Vinegar solution: You can buy any water-based leather cleaner. If you do not want to do that, there is an alternative way. You can prepare a water and vinegar solution by mixing equal amounts of water and vinegar for cleaning your leather.
- A Sponge: A sponge will be required to help you in the cleaning process of your leather. If you can not find a sponge, try a soft piece of cloth.
- Leather Recoloring Balm: Buy a leather recoloring balm that matches the color of your leather. It does not have to be an exact match. Make sure the color of the balm is almost similar to the color of your leather. You can check out my favorite leather recoloring balm on amazon by clicking here. The most amazing thing about this balm is that, you will get 16 different colors to choose from. Get the color of balm, that best matches the color of your leather material.
- Pieces of Cloth: You will need two pieces of clothes to complete the process. Make sure the clothes are clean.
Step 1: Clean the Leather
Before fixing your sun-damaged leather, it is essential to clean if first. Otherwise, the process will not be that effective. Get rid of any dirt on the surface of the leather.
You can use a water-based leather cleaner to effectively clean leather.
You can clean your leather with a leather cleaner; simply follow the process below:
- Take a clean sponge and dampen it with some leather cleaner. You can also use a vinegar solution instead of a leather cleaner. For that, mix equal amounts of water and vinegar and prepare a solution beforehand.
- Then squeeze the sponge for a while and rub it on the leather in a circular motion. Remove all the dirt with the sponge and then rub the leather with a clean cloth. You will see that all the dirt is gone, and now your leather is ready for a fix.
Check out the video if you want to see how you can clean your leather easily:
Step 2: Check if your Leather is Water Absorbent
After the leather is cleaned and it dried, put on a few drops of water to see if your leather absorbs water.
The recolouring balm that we are going to use on your sun-damaged leather works better if your leather is water absorbent.
Actually, the leather recolouring balm has to be soaked into your leather. So, it is going to be better if your leather is water absorbent.
First, check if your leather is water absorbent.
The balm soaks into leather, so before purchasing, check if your leather is water absorbent.
Buy a leather good quality recoloring Balm. Leather recolour balm can fix sun-damaged leather and scratches very easily.
Step 3: Dip the Cloth into the Balm and Keep Rubbing
After you are done with cleaning, now you have to dip a piece of cloth in the balm and start rubbing it on the leather in a circular motion.
Make sure you have cleaned the leather before moving into this step, as cleaning is an important step. Cleaning will help the leather to absorb the color of the balm as it will penetrate better.
You will see that the balm is instantly getting soaked into your leather. The more balm you apply, the darker the color becomes. Keep that in mind.
If you only apply the balm only in the damaged area, there might be a little color mismatch. So, it is better if you can apply the balm to the whole area of your leather.
The balm will recolor the leather and also make it softer.
Step 4: Be patient and Wait for it to Dry
Now, after you are done applying the balm on the whole surface of your leather material, it is time for you to patiently wait for ten minutes and let the leather absorb the balm properly.
During this time, the leather will absorb the color of the balm slowly and the balm’s color will become permanent. This color usually lasts for years, if you do not expose it to sunlight again and take good care of the leather in the future.
Step 5: Wipeout Excess Balm from the Surface:
After waiting for ten minutes, the color of the balm will be perfectly soaked into your leather, and you will notice that the color of your sun-damaged leather is fixed. The faded color is gone, and the leather looks brand new.
Now, all you have to do is get a clean cloth and gently wipe off if there is any excess balm on the surface of the leather.
You can also watch this video if you like:
After you follow these steps, I can assure you that you will no longer see any faded color that happened because of the sun. Your sun damaged leather is now fixed. If you keep the leather material away from the sun, it will retain the new color and look really great! Just like this:
Frequently Asked Question:
Can Sun Damaged Leather be Repaired?
Yes! Sun damaged leather can be repaired by simply recolouring it with a leather recolouring balm.
Don’t buy new leather furniture or shoes or bags just because your leather got faded because of long exposure to sunlight. Just get a leather recolouring balm and fix it using the steps that I have mentioned.
Conclusion:
There you go! If you have read the whole article, now you know exactly how you can fix your sun damaged leather very easily.
Now, you don’t need to buy new leather furniture just because its color faded away because of sunlight. I hope this article was helpful. Thanks for reading!
