I get asked this question many times.

How can I paint my walls with a leather faux look?

It is very easy to get a faux leather look on walls. Textured walls are the easiest, but it isn't a big challenge to do the same on smooth finished walls.

Two things you must remember:

1. Color Choices
2. Glaze Color Choice

First, color choice. You can choose deep rich colors for faux leather or you can create a pale buckskin color that would be good for a western theme room.

I will stick to the deep colors for this article. Red, Green and Blue are really the only colors I would try this technique with. 

Base color on walls would then be a Fire Engine Red, Kelly Green or Royal-Marine Blue. The reason for the bright colors is that the glaze over the top is very dark and if you start out with a deep color, the walls will just look black.

Remember to prime your walls with a dark primer, because dark paints will take many coats to cover… especially red. 

You can find  Faux Leather Wallpaper, but this technique is so easy to do… why bother. When you get tired of it… just paint over the faux leather painting.  

I mix my own glaze and you can do this easily.

At the big box hardware store… you know - Home Depot or Lowe's, (or any good paint store) you can find Universal Tints or Colorant. It's the dark colors that are added to paint cans when the guy behind the counter mixes your paint colors. Well, you can buy this stuff in bottles. It is very concentrated, so get the smallest tube they offer. 

Your going to mix up glaze and colorant. That's it. It will resemble stain. Mix well and keep mixing as you glaze the walls as the colorant tends to settle.

Start with a mixture of one pint glaze to 1 1/1 oz colorant. This should be dark enough. Brush this mixture on the wall with a throw away brush. This goes on in patchy, puzzle shaped areas. About 2 ft x 2ft areas… then you have to blend in the patch. I like to use a Woolie Lambwool Faux Applicator Tool because it's soft and creates a very soft texture, even if you don't have textured walls. 

That's pretty much it… Very easy! :) 

This is THAT Painter Lady's office with Faux Red Leather Walls!

Here is another site with Faux Leather Painting Instructions. 

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