DIY Network

Leather Home Accents Small leather pieces add big style. From "B. Original" episode DBOR-113

B. Original with leather embellishments for your home.

A little leather can go a long way in your wardrobe—or in your home. It's easier than you think to embellish furniture and home accessories with leather, especially when Michele Beschen shows you how.

The B. Original host demonstrates how to make a professional-looking leather inlay for a piece of wood furniture and how to use thin pieces of leather to dress up a wooden stepstool.

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Leather Inlay

This technique allows you to add a leather accent to any solid wood piece—whether it's furniture, a door or something as simple as a magazine rack.

Materials:

leather blank
wooden item to receive inlay
rotary tool with router attachment
leatherworking tools
contact cement
leather paints (optional)

	Figure A
	Figure B

• Soak the leather blank in water and let it dry until it's just damp.

• Position the leather blank on the piece receiving the inlay and trace it carefully.

• Using a rotary tool with a router attachment, router the area receiving the inlay (figure A). You want to remove just enough material so the leather lies flush with the surface.

• Use stamp tools to design your leather blank. This is a good opportunity to experiment with the tools; if you aren't happy with the result, you can easily get another leather blank. Michele Beschen chose to work with lettering for her magazine rach inlay.

• Use contact cement to glue the finished piece of leather in place (figure B).

• You can further embellish the piece with leather paints.

	Figure C
	Figure D

Leather Furniture Embellishments

Materials:

furniture to embellish
thin pieces of leather, various colors
upholstery tacks
scissors or craft knife for trimming leather.
hammer

• Lay out the leather pieces on the furniture you want to embellish. Once you're happy with the look, trim pieces if necessary.

• Attach the leather pieces to the furniture using upholstery tacks or cut tacks. Treat the process as you would upholstery: Make sure you pull the leather tight to the piece as you tack it down, and alternate sides to keep everything even and taut (figure C). Put a tack every 1½ to 2 inches (figure D).

• Embellish your leather with fabric paints or solvent ink, as desired.

You'll love the look of leather in your home!