My cousin referred me to his own blog post where he shares his own knowledge and experience restoring wood with Earth Friendly products. Chris suggested that I use Earth Friendly Furniture Polish on both the wood and the leather. While, we're still looking for a store that carries this product, (most stores seem to be sold out) my mom dropped off some of the Weiman Leather Wipes that she uses so we decided to start round one. They may not be as environmentally sound but they certainly are convenient for quick touch ups!
Both the chairs and ottoman were pretty dirty and EXTREMELY dry so we thought we'd begin our restoration with these wipes (it also helped us to procrastinate organizing our tax stuff) and continue with Earth Friendly products later in the week.
We began by using the wipes to clean and moisturize the leather. It is difficult to show the extreme transformation in a photograph but I tried in the picture below. The chair on the left has not been treated while the leather in the background and on the right has been wiped once. The leather that has been treated once already looks less scratched, more supple and appears darker in colour.
The change in the wood is even more dramatic. In the pictures below, you can see how rich the wood looks after I scrub it a little with the wipes.
The chairs will need more work but they're starting to look great already! These will definitely be a wonderful addition to our new living room.
