Restoration of a Ralph Lauren Club Chair

Roger,

These are some pictures of a Ralph Lauren Club Chair that a friend of mine has. This is a valuable piece of furniture and it has not been treated well during its' life. He had it re-colored at some point and then later I also recolored it using some inferior polyurethane colors that later peeled. In an attempt to get this chair and foot stool restored correctly he has completely removed all of the old coatings and what you are seeing in the pictures is, for the most part bare leather. What do you recommend to restore this to it's original appearance. I am mailing you a swatch of the original leather from the chair so that you will be able to see what it began life as.

These are photographs of the chair and footstool.

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1133.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1134.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1135.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1136.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1137.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1138.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1139.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1140.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1141.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1142.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1143.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...ctures1144.jpg

Somehow the pictures are not sharp enough for proper inspection to determine how good the stripping was performed.

What products were used at the first attempt?

What products have you tried on that peeled?

What products had he used to remove the polyurethane colors?

If possible retake and repost better pictures, so that recommendation can be precise.

In the meantime I shall wait for the swatch.

But these are the possibility:

If the original is nubuck it is only possible to refinish as nubuck if all other unwanted pigmented finished can be removed with a feel as good as nubuck.

If original is standard aniline, it is only possible to refinish as semi-aniline (opaque with good coverage) aniline uses transparent dyes.

If original is an aniline pull-up, the inherent wax or oil in the leather structure is where the problem lies when it is finished as pigmented.

If original is pigmented, which I do not think so!

This piece of contemporary classic at this sad stage is still worth the effort to restore close to its original beauty but only with some compromises of course!

The sample is aniline leather with a rustic color effect, 1.9mm in thickness.

The possibilities are:

1. Convert into Nubuck if grain has been damaged by the previous stripping.
2. Convert into a semi-aniline if grains are not damaged.
3. Retaining as an aniline possible but unlikely.

Please replace with better qualities pictures for a good inspection before we make our above choices.

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...koh/Lorenz.jpg