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Leather Insider
Independent reporting on leather care
Faded Leather? 7 Things Every Owner Should Know Before You Replace It
The armrests go first, then the cushion you always sit on. One day you see it in proper daylight and realize the color has been walking off it for years. Most people start pricing a replacement at about that point. A lot of them are now opening a jar instead and putting the color back themselves.
Celebrating30% OFF
Color lossSunlight, oils and friction, a shade at a time
Prevention
1 It Starts Long Before You Notice It
Nobody wakes up one morning to a faded couch. It goes a shade at a time, and because you sit on it every day, you miss it. Sunlight bleaches whatever panel sits near the window. The oils off hands and hair work into the headrest and the armrests until they go dull and slightly sticky. In a car it is the driver's bolster, the one you slide across every morning, that gives out first. So by the time the color finally looks wrong to you, it has been wearing off for years, and what you are looking at is the end of a slow process rather than the start of one.
How It Works
2 It Soaks In Instead of Sitting On Top
Most color products for leather dry into a film that lies on the surface, and a film on something you sit on every day will crack at the creases and start peeling. This balm works the other way round. It goes down into the pores and colors the hide itself, so it bends when the hide bends and there is nothing sitting on top to flake off. That only works on absorbent leather, though, so check yours before you order anything. Put a few drops of water on a worn spot. If they sink in and the leather darkens where they landed, you are absorbent and ready to go. If they bead up and just sit there, the factory finish is still sealing the surface, and you want Clyde's Leather Prep and Deglaze to take that off first.
The Proof
3 It Is Not Just Me Saying It
Be skeptical, I would be. So instead of talking you round, here are two numbers you can go and check for yourself.
Counted, not claimed.
100,000
restorations finished by customers, the milestone Clyde's is marking at the moment
Clyde's Leather Company
4.8 / 5
the average score across 591 reviews left by people who bought the balm
591 verified reviews
Damage and Wear
4 It Handles the Damage You Assume Is Permanent
The panel nearest the window that went pale two summers ago. The scratch down the side that an animal put there. Armrests and seat bolsters rubbed gray by elbows, by kids climbing over them, by years of getting in and out of the car. Most people write all of that off as permanent, and I understand why, because nothing on a supermarket shelf touches it. This does. It settles down into a scratch on the way on, so an old gouge fills in at the same time as it takes color.
The Trade Secret
5 It Is What Restoration Shops Charge Hundreds For
This is the job I used to write quotes for. A sofa gets picked up by a van, sits in a workshop for two weeks, comes back with an invoice in the hundreds. The work itself is not difficult. The trade just kept quiet about how little material it takes. A mid-size couch needs 100 mL, which is the $39.95 jar. A car seat is 25 mL per seat and a jacket or a purse is 25 mL as well, so the $29.95 jar does both front seats with some left in the bottom. Forty dollars of balm against a restoration quote is not a close call, and whatever is left over goes on the next thing you own.
Safe and Easy
6 Nothing Toxic In It, Nothing to Learn
Most things that put color back into leather want a window open and the kids out of the house. There are no solvents in this one. Nothing in it is flammable or corrosive, it is all natural, and I have worked on a couch with a toddler asleep in the next room and a cat on the arm of it. The method is thin coats with about five minutes between them, and that is the only rule that really matters, because the jobs that go wrong are the ones laid on thick. It takes 24 to 36 hours to cure and you leave the leather alone for the first 24 of those. A horse hair brush and three lint-free towels come in the box, so there is nothing else to go out and buy.
The Payoff
7 The Point Is Keeping What You Already Own
Nobody is promising a miracle here. You paid for a couch once, or a jacket, or a pair of boots you have had resoled twice. The leather under the faded part is usually still sound. Only the color left. Throwing the whole thing out over a color problem is how a perfectly good sofa ends up on the curb, and the thing you already own is nearly always worth keeping. Clyde's says the finish holds for up to 10 years. Even if you got half that, you are miles ahead of shopping for a replacement.
Bottom Line
Replacing something you already like is an expensive way to fix a color problem. Clyde's Leather Recoloring Balm sinks into absorbent leather instead of sitting on it, brings the color back and fills in the old scratches on the way. More than twenty shades, and the same jar works on a couch, a car seat, boots, a jacket, a saddle or a bag.
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Celebrating 100,000 Restorations: 30% OFF
Orders go out in 1 to 2 business days and reach you in 2 to 5. Order in the next 02:14:52.
Every jar ships from Asheville, North Carolina, and shipping is free on orders over $50.
Orders go out in 1 to 2 business days and reach you in 2 to 5. Order in the next 02:14:52.
Every jar ships from Asheville, North Carolina, and shipping is free on orders over $50.
LIFETIME
Lifetime Guarantee. Ask for a return whenever you like and your money comes back, and if the shade turns out wrong the exchange is free. The one condition is that you followed the 4-step process the way it is written.
What Customers Are Saying
★★★★★
We are a busy household, and our dog did most of the wear and tear. After applying the recoloring balm - our couches look brand new! I highly recommend this product.
Deanna T.
Verified Buyer
★★★★★
I have used this on a leather sofa for the first time, results are excellent. The sofa was heavily sun damaged, but by now it has been brought back to its original color!
Martin P.
Verified Buyer
★★★★★
The driver's seat in my truck had gone gray along the bolster where I slide in and out. Two thin coats and it matches the passenger side again. One afternoon of work.
Rachel S.
Verified Buyer
★★★★★
Brown boots I had nearly given up on. The toes had gone light from scuffing against everything. Color is even again and nothing has rubbed off on my socks.
Greg H.
Verified Buyer
★★★★★
My handbag had a worn spot on the corner where it rides against my hip. I did the whole side so it would blend, and now I cannot pick out the part I fixed.
Priya N.
Verified Buyer
★★★★★
The seat of my saddle was dry and faded. It went on easily with the brush, and once it had cured a day the color was back to what I remember buying.
Tom R.
Verified Buyer
This is an advertorial produced in partnership with Clyde's Leather Company. Marcus Ellery is a leather restorer who has worked on furniture and car interiors for about twenty years. Clyde's Leather Recoloring Balm is made for absorbent leather only. Put a drop of water on a hidden spot to find out what you have: if it soaks in and darkens the leather, the balm will take. If it sits on the surface, the factory finish is still on and has to come off first. Results vary with the condition of the leather, the shade you pick and how closely you follow the steps.
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