Has anyone ever "skinned" a leather sofa before?

[kodydog]

This question was asked on a web site called Quora. I had to look the term up on google and was surprised to learn I had actually skinned a sofa before. Pretty much recycling the leather. My response was;

"My first thought is why not, leather ages gracefully with developed patina and wrinkles and stretch marks. The leather in your pictures has all of this and more. The number one question you need to find out is, is it really leather? There are some vinyls out there that even a seasoned professional can not tell the difference. And many times the sales person at the furniture store is so eager to make a sale they will tell the customer anything they want to hear. The only way to find out is to take part of it apart and look at the back of the leather. If it has a rough, suede look and feel it is most likely real leather. If it has a cloth like backing it may be vinyl. Or it may be composition leather which is inferior to leather hides.

But if it is genuine leather and still soft to the hand you could make some really cool toss pillows or dining seats. Any items bigger than this may be a problem. You can see from your pictures the way the manufacturer pieced the seat cushions and back together. They did this to make better use of the leather hides. It looks like they did the same to the arms also. And I'm guessing they did the same to the outside's. (speaking of outsides, many manufactures will use leather on the insides and vinyl on the outsides to save money). This means once the whole thing is stripped from the frame and the seams are all picked apart all that will be left are pieces big enough for something small. That is unless you can find someone willing to take all those small pieces and sew them together to make a piece-work type project. Then you must also consider the time it will take an upholsterer or seamstress to do the work of picking it all apart and figuring out some kind of a pattern that will look nice on a larger piece, like a chair.

Your best bet would be to run this by your local upholsterer and see what he thinks."

I don't know what part of the country shes from but if she stops by your shop you can thank old Ed for the reference. He he :)