Dried Out Leather Sofa Fix Up

I found this couch in the classifieds and snatched it up. I paid $350 for the couch and love seat. I love the lines of the couch, the nail heads and the wooden feet. But it had a problem. The seats were dry and in desperate need of some leather conditioner. 

Leather Love Seat before photo

Seat Cushion before photo

I went to a local furniture store that sells leather sofas and talked with a salesman about what to do when your leather dried out. He suggested using shoe polish first and the leather conditioner on top of that. I hadn't even thought about using shoe polish. So I purchased the leather conditioner that they sell and headed to Walmart for the shoe polish.

I started out using an old t-shirt rag to apply the shoe polish. The instructions say to apply the polish and then buff the leather till it shines. I used almost the whole can of shoe polish on these two seat cushions. It polished up nicely, but still felt pretty dry.

The instructions on the leather condition says you can either rub it on or paint it on with a paint brush. I put on some rubber gloves and started to rub it in using an old t-shirt rag. It was taking forever, so I just started to squeeze large amounts of the conditioner onto the cushion and spread it around with my hands, massaging it into the leather. The instructions say to let it sit for at least 2 hours (best if left overnight) and then wipe of the excess. After letting it sit for about 3 hours the conditioner on the seat part of the cushion had completely absorbed into the leather. I let it sit until morning and wiped it all down. 

Here is the result.

The cushion on the left hasn't been treated. The cushion on the right after the shoe polish and leather conditioner.

The shoe polish really filled in the cracks. I think it did a pretty good job. The leather conditioner cost $21.85 for the bottle and the shoe polish was under $4. 

This is how much of the leather conditioner I used. I was surprised because I thought I was using a ton! 

This photo is real dark, but shows that the color is a lot more even. That was my goal so I am super happy with the results.!