Leather upholstery

[chrisberry12]

Hi everyone.

I have a job involving two Holly Hunt barrel chairs. I upholstered in a very stiff leather a month ago. I always upholster leather dry. I got the leather on nice and tight, not a wrinkle which was very hard to accomplish. Since delivering the chairs the leather has stretched out a great deal and there are very big wrinkles on the inside backs and the outsides look terrible now. I believe from cleaning crews pressing their knees to move the very heavy chairs around. They want me to re uopholster again. I was thinking of steaming the leather and hoping for some shrinkage. Anyone out there with any suggestions. I really do not want to redo these chairs. The customer paid the designer $6000 each for these. They came in the wrong color new so that's why I reuped them.

Thanks, chris

[MinUph]

I have not found steaming leather to be of much help. But applying it wet will do the trick. What I do on special leather work is cut a section and soak in cool water. Then allow it to completely dry and compare it to the original for color and texture. If no change then I will apply the leather wet. It will shrink when dry so be aware of that or you may break a frame. But it works great. Just put it on snug (you can feel the stretch) work out the wrinkles and let it dry. It will conform nicely to the piece.
  Of course I provide no guarantees but its what I've done and it works.

[SteveA]

If  test soaking is OK - how long do you soak the leather before applying ?
I have two small side chairs with center panels for the back rest that need to be covered in leather.  I was just thinking to face staple dry-tight,  and reuse the old brass nails that were there to cover the staples. The nails are antique and the customer wants to reuse them - they match the seats. The seats are OK and the scrap leather I have from another job matches the old back rest.  Anyway from   behind the stapled leather  I will put back the horse hair with padding and force the cushion to crown.
Now you got me wondering if I should wet this leather -  Do I need to wet it and if so - how long should I soak it  ?  

Thanks

 

[MinUph]

Steve,
  From your picture I wouldn't think wetting the leather would be needed. It when there are odd shapes and curves that wetting helps. If you do ever find the need to soak some it doesn't take long maybe 2-3 minutes under the water. You can tell when its wet. Again be very careful how tight you put wet leather on as it shrinks and is very powerful when it does.

[SteveA]

 Paul,
The chairs are Art Nouveau and belonged to the customers Grandparents.  They want as little changes as possible.  I'm retying the seat springs + new webbing - not touching the seat leather, and re-glued the back rails where they connect to the seat. 
New leather on the backrest from my scrap stock - will require a bit of dying and antiquing to age the new leather to match the seat leather.  Thanks for the help - hate pulling out old brass nails to be reused - hardest part of the labor !

Thanks,
SA

[Lo]

Interesting Paul, I have actually had luck steaming leather cushions where the foam failed and the leather stretched due to it.

Steaming from the underside not the facing side and then allowed to dry. Sometimes it takes a couple rounds to shrink it back up but most often much improved compared to when the cushion arrives . . . and of course new foam cores go in to prevent recurrence right away.

Not the same same as your problem Chris as I can at least turn a cushion inside out . . . but thought I would share anyway since you were asking  ;)

[SteveA]

Thanks for the advice -

[kodydog]

I've had luck steaming leather but there was this one time...

A repair job for a local furniture store. It was a fitted arm with the panel sewn to the front. A 3" slit occurred during shipping. It took weeks to get the replacement from Broyhill. When I finished I noticed some puckers on the panel. It probably would have been good enough but I decided to lay a little steam on it. To my surprise when I finished a white haze appeared. Something to do with the finish. I flipped out. I tried several methods to remove it with no luck. Then I found a bottle of leather conditioner and rubbed it in. This solved the problem but I was sweating it for a while. This taught me an important lesson to always test a small area before steaming.