How to repair holes and tears in leather upholstery

We're making a few changes in the living room and I've been on the hunt for a comfy leather chair. I found the perfect chair on Kijiji and picked it up for a song because of some damage to the back and arms. The back was easily fixed, but there was a large tear in one arm and a nickle-sized hole in the other. I did a little research on repairing leather upholstery and picked up a leather repair kit for less than $15.

The repair kit's directions are pretty straightforward, but I learned a thing or two in the process. As you can see, my results aren't perfect, but I think they're pretty good considering the size of the damage.

There are basically four steps to the process: insert fabric backing, apply adhesive, mix and apply filler, then apply grain paper and heat to set the filler. Applying the filler is the tricky part: the key is to apply multiple, thin layers with very little overlap into the surrounding area. It's time-consuming work, and I was impatient (no surprises there). I went a little too heavy with the filler (in an attempt to get away with fewer layers) and covered more area than I needed to. Not a huge deal, but something I'd do differently next time.

That said, unless you inspect the arms closely, you really can't tell that anything is out of the ordinary. And it looks loads better than when we first brought it home.

I have one last tweak to make to this chair and then I'll share the full transformation. As much as I love my DIY gold chair, Adam has always complained that it's not comfortable enough (I later added a back cushion, to no avail). And as I've mentioned before, we're in the process of transitioning to stylish pieces that can stand up to our lifestyle, because who has time to worry about furniture?