Paints for leatherette, faux leather, skai, vinyl or polyurethane sofas and armchairs

If your skai or leatherette sofa is too badly damaged, a full renovation of its surface may require recolouring so that you can once again enjoy using it every day. Indeed, if it has significant snags or scratches, or if the years of wear have simply dulled its original lustre, applying the Sofolk Repair Product necessarily means dyeing it again in order to conceal the various repairs carried out. As this product is available in black or white, recolouring is the only way to get a uniform colour over the whole surface. Likewise, if the colour of your sofa has become dull because of repeated rubbing, it is essential to recolour it to restore its original look and enjoy a uniform colour again.

Giving your leatherette lounge suite a new colour can also be a chance to harmonise it better with your new decor, or to give this room, with its incomparable look, a new direction to suit your tastes. You will feel as though you have discovered a brand-new lounge, for a lower price that covers only the new dye used, rather than the purchase of new furniture. Whether it is a second-hand sofa in good condition or your own, recolouring it with our Sofolk products will certainly give it a new lease of life, provided it is applied properly.

Sofolk Leatherette or Skai Paint

Specially developed for synthetic materials, our Sofolk paint is very easy to use and therefore within everyone's reach. This quality product lets you recolour plastic-coated coverings such as leatherette, skai, polyurethane or vinyl, with ideal coverage that respects the surface of your sofa and ensures a long-lasting result. What is more, this recolouring product is water-based, so there is no risk of irritation or danger to the skin when applying it.

Before applying our Sofolk Paint for leatherette and skai, it is important to prepare the material of your sofa or armchair in order to obtain an even recolouring over the whole surface. To do so, we recommend lightly sanding the surface with fine sandpaper, using gentle pressure no heavier than the weight of your hand, so as not to damage the material. This step must be carried out on every part of your leatherette sofa that is to be recoloured, as it removes any remaining original lacquer and thus ensures better adhesion of the paint on your skai lounge suite.

Next, and again with the aim of achieving a uniform result, it is essential to degrease your leatherette or skai sofa with acetone. This very effective solvent removes traces of sebum and household pollution from the material, as well as the residual dust from the sanding you carried out beforehand. Using a clean paper towel, you clean your sofa with a single pass on the less exposed areas, and with two or three passes on those that are most heavily used, such as the armrests, the tops of the backrests where your head rests, and the seats. It is important to note that acetone is a powerful product that degreases the surface of your leatherette sofa very well, but it also removes colour. It is therefore perfectly normal to see marks appear on the colour of your furniture at this stage. These will nevertheless disappear immediately thanks to the covering power of the new dye when you recolour.

Finally, you apply the colourant with a high-density foam roller after shaking the container well. We recommend crossing the strips of paint you apply for perfect coverage. Depending on the colour chosen and the original colour, particularly if these are light colours, a second coat may be necessary. You will then need to allow a drying time of at least 4 hours, and ideally 24 hours. You can, however, use a hairdryer to speed up the drying of your paint and save time on your finish. In this case, we advise starting with hot air and finishing with cold air for the best result.

To preserve your new colour in the long term, once the paint is perfectly dry, it is vital to apply a Sofolk Clear Skai Lacquer, which keeps both the material and the colour of your sofa intact for several months, despite the repeated rubbing it undergoes every day. This protection also lets you choose the finish of your sofa from three formulas: matt, gloss or satin. A wide choice for very different looks to suit your tastes and your interior decor. If you are not sure which finish you want, bear in mind that satin is the finish most often used in leather and leatherette furnishings. By choosing it, you have every chance of recovering the original look of your leatherette sofa.

Sofolk Leatherette and Skai Paint: a product suited to all your leatherette items

Besides your living-room sofa, our Sofolk paint for synthetic materials can also be used for many other applications in your daily life, and can restore the look of a variety of items that you cherish:

• Your clothes and accessories in the wardrobe: bags, jackets, trousers, ankle boots, etc.
• Your furniture in the lounge: armchairs, sofas, chairs, divans, suites, etc.
• Your car surfaces: steering wheel, seats, side panels, leather dashboards, leather sun visors, gear lever, handbrake, etc.
• The saddles and upholstery of your motorbike or boat: we strongly recommend our marine leatherette paint for materials exposed to the weather.

Whichever item you recolour, it is important to start your new dyeing job knowing that you have enough product for the whole surface concerned. Indeed, colouring in two stages could leave an unsightly dividing line. Our paint is available in 250 ml, 500 ml, 1 litre and 2 litre containers. If you are not sure how much to order for your project, our Sofolk team is at your disposal to guide you in your purchase and review your needs, so that you can recolour optimally and without surprises. In the case of a made-to-measure colour, we also keep the reference of your order for one month so that any shortfall can be made up as quickly as possible.

An unlimited choice of colours for recolouring your skai sofa

• When planning your project, you will need to choose the new colour for your leatherette or skai sofa. To suit all your wishes, Sofolk has developed an unlimited choice of colours to provide you with a dye that unfailingly suits you. To achieve this, we provide you with several tools to find the perfect shade that will show off your lounge suite at its best:

Standard colours: a choice from 22 standard colours, all of which are available for immediate manufacture and therefore ensure faster delivery of your new dye.

Manufacturer colour charts: the 12 colour charts available, including those of Sofolk and RAL, let you simply order the original colour of your sofa from among the major manufacturers. An effective way to give your leatherette or skai lounge suite all its former lustre.

Made-to-measure colour: if we do not have the reference for your sofa's colour but you still want to enjoy its original colour again, you can send us a sample of at least 1 cm². By unstapling the ‘dust cover’ underneath the frame, you can cut off the material needed for a sample without spoiling the look of your leatherette or skai sofa. As soon as we receive this sample, we create the matching made-to-measure colour and dispatch it to you within 3 to 7 working days.

These varied options give you the assurance of a dye that matches your expectations perfectly. What is more, Sofolk's commitment to consistent quality promises you an exceptional finish, whichever colour you choose for your new colouring. Furthermore, this product can also be ordered in the same colour as the Sofolk Pigment Colourant for plastic and leather, to offer you even more possibilities.

An ultra-simple recolouring method

As we mentioned above, our Sofolk Leatherette and Skai Paint contains a water-based formula that bonds to the material without the need for an adhesion primer, an undercoat or a colour fixer. You therefore save time on your recolouring, without compromising on the quality of the result once dry.

Moreover, whatever treatment your leatherette has received, whether fire-retardant or anti-UV, our product bonds without difficulty as long as you follow the sanding and degreasing steps detailed above. Likewise, our paint can be applied to natural leather with the same final result. A detail that can prove crucial if you are not sure which material was used to make your sofa or lounge armchair.

You can also use Sofolk Marine Upholstery Paint for Skai, Leatherette and Vinyl, which is a solvent-based version of this product. Available as an aerosol, it is particularly robust against external aggression and bad weather. With remarkable adhesion and superior resistance to rubbing, this paint gives you covering power that respects the grain of the material and keeps its colour, as well as your leatherette, in good condition over the long term.

With Sofolk, more than 30 years of expertise are put at your service for recolouring your leatherette and skai sofa. Our products, used by professionals, ensure incomparable quality thanks to premium formulas that we develop for you. Easy to use, our products let you dye your vinyl or polyurethane lounge suite again with complete simplicity. Indeed, you need no particular knowledge of painting or DIY to apply our paint for leatherette. You follow simple steps and recolour your sofa in the colour of your choice, without leaving your home.

Made in France, Sofolk products are the culmination of an unrivalled know-how that is particularly close to our hearts. A source of pride that means you are delivered within a few days, straight from the manufacturer based in Bordeaux. We would nevertheless point out that a made-to-measure colour requires extra manufacturing time. If your project is urgent, you can of course contact us, and our team will look into the various options with you.

Beyond quality products, Sofolk is above all a service dedicated to the care of your leatherette items. Our telephone service is here to answer all your questions and to support you in your recolouring project, whether on the quantity to order, the product to choose, or how to use it. You can also put your questions to our team on our forum, where you can post photos of your skai sofa or armchair and so obtain personalised, precise recommendations for your situation. You will also find on our site many tutorials and FAQs to help you recolour your leatherette lounge suite, as well as informative pages detailing the products or the particular features of the synthetic materials of your furniture. A multi-faceted support that Sofolk provides so that you get the best possible experience from our products.

Finally, our customers are no doubt best placed to talk about our products and recommend them to you. You can therefore read on our site the many verified positive reviews, as well as the testimonials, from a number of customers on how they use Sofolk products. We attach great importance to this feedback, so that we can always offer you the best solutions for recolouring your leatherette sofa. You will also find on our site articles published in national magazines mentioning our brand for the renovation of your leather or leatherette furniture. A source of pride that we strive to maintain by offering you quality products at the best price, and above all accessible to everyone!