Recoloring Hancock & Moore Recliner

[jardiff]

I purchased a H&M Chippendale Recliner #1021 in 2002. The recliner's original color is Cavalier Dark Blue, but has faded quite a bit over the years. The chair used to have a "purplish" hue in the faded areas, now there are some areas (e.g. the armrests) where the color is whitish. In all the time I have had it, I have never cleaned, conditioned, colored or done anything to the leather. I would like to recolor the chair, and was thinking of changing the color to black. If I go over the bluish and whitish areas of the H&M chair with an aniline dye, will the color look uniform? Is it a bad idea to change the color, should I just stay with the Cavalier Dark Blue?
p.s. I believe the color is Cavalier Dark Blue since that is what it says on my receipt. I did not find any reference to this color is not on the H&M website. Thanks for your advise.

[drcollie]

Stay with the Cavalier Dark Blue, it will be VERY difficult to do a color change. It will be difficult enough to re-dye your existing color.

You should have a color flag under the seat cushion about 6" x 6". Cut that off and mail to Leather Magic in North Carolina and ask them to make you up a dye/restoration kit. They will make the proper one for that leather, which is a semi-aniline, not a pure aniline. You'll need cleaner and conditioner, too. Follow the instructions to the letter. Most the time you will have to have a hand-held hair dryer handy and you don't want to skip that step. Restoring the color takes some time and about 10 coats of the dye, so you need that hair dryer to flash off each coat and help set it. Once you're done, you'll need to seal it with the protection cream.

I've done it many times, the result is very good when you're done provided you follow the directions. Good luck!

[jardiff]

Thank you for your reply. I will definitely stay with the color, since its sounds like it would be complicated to change it. I had thought that the leather was aniline because of the fading and wasn't sure if I had to use a sprayer/airgun. But if the leather is semi-aniline, can I just wipe the dye on instead? Thanks again.

[drcollie]

Semi-Aniline has a topcoat on it and you have to get through that with the dyes and that make sit much trickier to do. Sometimes the dye will not penetrate. Best to send a sample to Leather Magic in North Carolina and let them look at it and make a restoration recommendation. They are pros at doing that.