Leather is an excellent material that is quite useful in the crafting of various items. These leather items often have an excellent appearance, and they can be quite fashionable. Many leather owners want to learn how to lighten leather and make their leather products more attractive.
When it comes to leather, constant use can subject the leather item to a lightning process, and as such, you would find them having a tan that appears lighter. However, you may decide to lighten your favorite leather shoes, bags, wallets, and other items. Are you concerned about the dark color of those leather boots you would love to purchase? You can get it and dye it at a convenient time.
Perhaps you must have taken some steps to darken the leather and want to tan the leather item lighter. Whether you are lightening your leather to match the color of other leather pieces or experimenting on that for fun, it would be best to do so with the right techniques.
Preparation of Lighten Leather
Before embarking on lightening leather, you must prepare the leather’s surface to ensure it accepts the solutions that would make it lighter. Here are excellent ways of how to prepare your leather item for this purpose.
Remove the Dirt on the Leather
The accumulation of dirt on the leather item can remain trapped on the surface of your leather item after the conclusion of the lightning process. Take a vacuum cleaner, take off all dust on the leather, or use a brush to remove dirt quickly. Ensure you make use of a suitable brush that wouldn’t damage the leather.
Deep Cleaning the Leather Item
You can go further by removing the dirt residue by cleaning the leather with a damp cloth or rag. Saturating the piece of rag or cloth with a mild liquid soap or saddle soap would thoroughly clean the leather.
A suitable leather cleaner would work correctly, as they come formulated to clean leather effectively and care for the leather piece. Thus, you can get a leather shoe and boot cleaner to wipe clean the leather footwear you want to lighten.
The Chamberlains’ leather milk is a recommended leather cleaner and leather conditioner for furniture, bags, jackets, and other leather items. It is a natural solution for removing dirt, spots, and oil from leather surfaces. This solution can make soften the leather and prepare it effectively for the leather lightening process. After running the damp sponge or rag across the leather item, then clean dry using another cloth.
Drying the Leather
After wiping the moist leather, allow it to air dry and keep it away from sunlight, as this can make the leather item crack and tear. Once the leather is dried, you can move on with the process to lighten the leather.
How to Lighten Leather Step-By-Step Guide
Are you looking for how to lighten leather shoe color or how to lighten leather cowboy boots? The steps below can help make the process easy. However, you can lighten leather by either dye the leather, remove the finishing on top of the leather, or bleach the leather.
01. How to Lighten Leather with Dye
Dying your leather with a similar color that is some shades lighter than your leather item is one method of how to lighten leather sofa, shoes, pants, and other products. Dyes are available in many craft stores and online stores.
There are various options of dyes available in the fashion market; you can find both oil-based and water-based dyes for leather. Oil-based dyes are long-lasting and can retain your leather item’s new color for a long while.
However, the water-based dye is usually suitable for persons who would like to further change the leather items’ color after a short while. These water-based dyes come mixed with dye reducers. Get an applicator or a sponge saturated with some dye and start applying it to the leather piece.
Ensure the sponge is soft to help prevent scratches or marks from resulting afterward on the leather. Apply this leather dye in smaller circles and keep moving towards covering a large area. Take note of all corners, and apply the dye evenly on the leather item.
As you apply the dye, the leather item would start appearing lighter, and once you finish, leave the leather to dry. The leather item should be left for 6 to 24 hours to air dry, after which you can start using the leather item.
You can repeat this process if you find the leather not appearing some shades lighter as you desire. If you find your dye appearing dark, you can search for how to lighten leather dye and do so before applying the dye.
Dying the leather furniture in your sitting room would help keep the room ventilated and ensure the dye doesn’t stain your floor. Furthermore, this can work awesomely as a suitable leather sofa repair.
02. Removing the Top Leather Finishing
Successful removal of the top finishing on your leather item can help lighten the leather. Many people suggest the use of acetone for this process. So, will acetone lighten leather? Yes, it can, as it removes the leather finish. To get started, it would be best if you follow the steps below:
- Get some acetone or leather deglazer and apply some on a soft cloth to saturate it. Ensure that the cloth is damp and not overly soaked with the solution; you can wring out the cloth piece to remove the excessive moisture.
Kindly note that it would be beneficial to protect your hands with rubber gloves, much more for those with sensitive skin to prevent irritations.
- Start rubbing the acetone or leather deglazer saturated cloth on the leather, applying it gently on every corner of the leather piece.
- To entirely remove the top leather finish coat, wipe off the acetone or leather deglazer with a clean cloth. During this process, it may be necessary to replace the piece of cloth as it gets dirty.
Note: This method is suitable for various types of leather crafts, and you can lighten your car’s leather seat using this technique.
03. Bleaching the Leather
Bleaching the leather’s color is one of the most effective ways to lighten leather, and you can conclude the whole process using an oxalic acid solution. You can use oxalic acid to lighten leather, as it is a type of bleach that is suitable for wood crafts and leather crafts. This solution is often employed for cleaning leather, as well.
- Create the bleaching solution of oxalic acid, adding more of the oxalic acid to help make the leather some shades lighter.
- Then, rub the leather item’s solution, dipping a clean cloth or sponge into the oxalic acid solution, and apply it in small circular motions. As you keep applying the solution, you will notice the oxalic acid leather color appearing light.
- You can repeat this process if you haven’t achieved your desired result, but this time, add some more oxalic acid.
- You can also soak the leather in a bowl of this solution for 10 minutes. Then, allow it to dry in an airy area. Once dried, you can repeat the process if you need the leather color lighter while checking it out to notice the color changes
You can pick any of the procedures explained above to help you get started with how to lighten leather boots and how to lighten fake leather, as well as other leather lightening projects you would like to commence.
FAQs
Q: What causes leather to fade?
Whether it is genuine leather or fake leather, you can find leather pieces fading with time. However, real leather often comes with excellent durability that maintains its qualities for a long time. If you start using your leather products, you may start noticing some color fading after a while.
With the regular change in environmental temperature, this change is expected, contact with body oils, light, and dust. But you can fix this gradual loss of leather color by making the leather darker. For leather users who are yearning to lighten their leather, this situation seems like a natural way of achieving such.
Q: Does sunlight lighten leather?
It is common for leather items with regular contact with sunlight to start having lighter color shades, different from their original color. Acting as a natural agent for bleaching leather, you can start noticing some quick changes. This reaction is made possible by the ultraviolet (UV) rays from the natural source of light.
However, exposing your leather to sunlight for the sole purpose of lightening it is not advisable. Sunlight dries and cracks leather items, resulting in the leather item wearing out in no time. Of what use is damaged leather if you achieve your desired results on leather color lighting?
Q: How can I lighten my leather couch?
To get started with the process of lightening your leather couch at home or in your office, it would be helpful if you consider bleaching, dyeing, or removing the couch top finishing. For bleaching the leather, a solution of oxalic acid would do, as you can quickly apply it to the leather surface to get excellent results.
Using acetone of leather deglazer on the leather piece can also help lighten its color by taking off the top finishing worked on the leather. You can apply the acetone or deglazer with a soft cloth and wipe with another cloth after the process. Once the leather item gets dried, you would get that light leather color.
Q: Can you lighten a dark brown leather couch?
A good quality leather paint that is a few shades lighter than the dark brown leather finish you already have can help make the couch color appear lighter. You can also consider painting the leather item with a lighter color shade.
But there are other alternatives, like placing some brightly colored throws on the couch and some colorful pillows would help. It would help if you also tried painting the walls brightly and choosing excellent colored accessories to accentuate the dark brown couch.
Q: How can I lighten my room that has a dark leather couch?
You can always change your home’s look and always make it appear colorful, even with a dark-colored leather couch. To lighten the room, you can consider lightening the leather couch or using other alternatives. It would help if you increased the lighting around the leather couch, painted the walls with lighter colors, and added some brightly colored lamps in the surrounding areas.
A brightly colored pillow on a dark leather sofa would make the room appear brighter; you can look out for those with patterned designs. Furthermore, you can purchase suitable, brightly colored throws to add more interest to your home’s aesthetics while lightening the room.
Final Words
Can saddle soap lighten leather? What is the easiest way to lighten leather? How do I lighten the leather jacket I just purchased? These and many similar questions are often asked by leather owners, as they yearn for excellent steps on how to lighten leather.
Lightening leather parts or entire leathercraft can be quite challenging for persons with blurry vision. But with the right tips and tricks, this process can be relatively easy. If you are among those leather owners with such a question in mind, you should check out this article and grab your leather repair kit to embark on this journey.
