Refurbish leather shoes with wood stain.

[Rocketboy]

I have these leather shoes that are really comfortable and look great. The problem is that the color of the leather is light and it's starting to look dry and dusty around the toe area and other scuffed spots. I used to wear these in the salon and they have hair color splatters here and there. I've used lots of conditioner for light leather and at this point I think what they really need is some color replacement. Since I always have dark oil based stain around for back alley furniture finds I thought, why not stain my shoes!

This was a first attempt at this type of staining so I just went for it. The stain I used is oil based and takes a few days to dry. Since it is oil based it did leave the leather feeling rather supple and buttery. Bonus!

After the stain soaked in for an hour I wiped off the excess and allowed them to dry completely. It grabbed darker in the areas of high wear and I think that looks just fine. To be safe I won't wear my favorite socks the first time I sport these, just in case the stain wants to transfer.

[lizzymahoney]

Good job, good thinking!

For anyone else who wants to try this: If you did a lot of waxing or polishing before, a good rubbing with alcohol would clean off the residues and allow the stain to penetrate more easily. You'd still have the issue of the high wear areas being somewhat more receptive to the new color.

[Muffy_Stopheles]

The darker stain looks great. :)

Good idea!

[timidgothica]

those turned out fierce.

[Dencity]

I'd be afraid to use too much alcohol. Awesome job though, I might try that on my old boots. They could use... well, something! :)

[Rocketboy]

I wore them today and they looked great. I had on white socks purposely just to see about the stain transfer and I there wasn't any.
When I did these I also stained sides of the rubber soles and that area is taking a longer to dry. If it stays tacky then I'll use some sort of solvent to remove the excess oil.

Other ideas for similar projects:
What about using hair color to color leather? They use aniline dyes for leather already and that's exactly what hair color is.
Hair color will also stain some synthetics....
The down side would be the removal after processing time.
Taking that into consideration using a demi-permanent hair color might be easier to remove.
There is a lot more choices in hair colors then wood stain.

I can say for sure that it's quite permanent, I've ruined many shoes.

I don't have any other shoes to practice on right now though......

[pegzoe]

that's a great idea, the hair color ... and also, love the darker stain colored shoes...