We have seen many successes with people painting different surfaces such as leather and with recent articles both in The Sun and The Daily Mirror about people successfully painting their leather sofas, we wish to clarify the following:
Please remember that Frenchic Paint is formulated and marketed for wood type furniture and has to date not been tested on leather. Although we know customers use our paint on all kinds of surfaces with great success, we are not always able to offer definitive advice and are not able to guarantee the outcome.
There have been many success stories when painting leather with Frenchic but also a few not so successful - these are the things we suggest you take into consideration before deciding to paint your sofa or chair:
- Prep your leather by using Frenchic Sugar Soap, giving it a good clean, and rinse well leaving to dry thoroughly before applying paint. This will also 'key' to help the paint adhere;
- Engrained dirt and grease - older furniture can often build up a layer of dirt and grease where they have seen continuous use, in particular on head rests, arms and other areas in constant contact with their owners. Even with a clean of sugar soap, it can be very difficult to remove this layer of dirt, which, on an old piece of furniture, may not be apparent but in order to have a successful application it must be removed otherwise the paint will detach over a period of time;
- Treated leather - it is often difficult to understand the provenance of the leather as it may have had several owners in its lifetime. Quite often this means that it may have been treated with products such as Scotchguard etc in an effort to make it easier to clean and extend its longevity. These treatments can make painting of the surface very difficult as they are designed to make sure that other substances are easily removed and do not adhere. It is possible that when painting a pre-treated surface that initial results may be spectacular but after a relatively short period of time the product may self-detach.
- Cracked or worn surfaces - leather has an increasing tendency to crack with age. Whilst an application of Frenchic may initially cover over any cracks it may not do so indefinitely and the cracks may become prevalent again over a period of time;
- We suggest that if you're in any doubt about the suitability of the piece of leather furniture you intend to paint, to please paint an inconspicuous area first, although not fool proof it may help prevent larger problems.
Previous methods used are:
- Lazy Range on it’s own
- Lazy Range with a final layer of clear wax added
- Al Fresco on it’s own
- Al Fresco with a final layer of clear wax added
- Original range with wax added over the top to seal