Give Your Leather Couch A Facelift

If this was your couch would you buy a new one?

Last week my son said,"Don't you think it's time we bought a new couch?"
But I must admit that was before I had given it my special treatment. Last week it looked like this 

I bought this couch last century and as time flies it seems like only yesterday when we had the most terrible trouble to get it though the narrow door of our livingroom. We won't be able to get it out unless we hack it to pieces so I'm doing my best to lengthen it's life.
After we had it about 6 years a hole appeared at the front. It took a year for me to think of a way to fix it. At first I thought of cutting a large piece of leather from the back ( nobody would notice because it's backed onto a cupboard) and sewing/sticking it onto the seat part but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it neatly. Eventually I shoved a small piece of leather through the hole and then spreaded some glue on it and then pulled the edges of the hole together and stuck it down. I put something heavy on top untill the glue was dry. This worked very nicely and you could hardly see there had ever been een hole there!
The piece of leather I used I had saved from old leather articles which weren't in a good enough state to donate such as broken purses, gloves, shoes etc.
To get rid of the white stripes caused by tiny tears in the leather I use shoe polish! My couch is green with a blue undertone and I couldn't find shoe polish in the right colour so I used dark blue. I warmed the shoe polish a bit to make it softer and easier to spread out and then I got a clean cotton cloth and a lick of polish and rubbed the polish into the cracks. When all the white was gone I left the polish for a few hours to soak into the leather. Then I got a shoe brush and buffed the area untill it gleamed. After that I got a clean duster (a soft cotton cloth) and rubbed as hard as my little arms would let me. You will notice that your duster will turn blue or brown or black but this doesn't matter. This is to remove the excess shoe polish so it doesn't rub off on your clothes. When hardly any colour comes off anymore you're finished. I wouldn't let any visitors with a white skirt or trousers sit on the couch the first few days. I usually spread an old bath towel over the area just in case.
I have done this twice now and it works well for me. Last time I mixed some leather polish in with the shoepolish but I find this gives less of a shine. But this could be fine if you're couch is mat leather.
I would be lying if I said my couch now looks as good as new but thanks to this method my couch still had a few good years left in her!