You can use a blunt-edged object, such as a butter knife, to help you peel up and scrape away the loose bits of faux leather if it is difficult to do with just your fingers. This method works for all types of faux leather items that are peeling or cracking including furniture, clothing, and accessories. Keep in mind that it will likely only temporarily restore the appearance of the faux leather and it won’t make it look brand new. You will eventually be better off replacing the item.

Leather wipes are specifically formulated for cleaning leather and work well on faux leather, but you could also use a different kind of gentle cleaning wipe, such as a baby wipe.

If you can’t find the right color of acrylic leather paint, you can mix multiple colors together to make a color that closely matches the faux leather.

If there are different sections of faux leather of varying sizes that you want to repair, it can be helpful to have several small paint brushes of different sizes to paint smaller and larger damaged areas.

You can use a hair dryer to speed up the drying process if you want. Set it to medium heat and hold it about 6 in (15 cm) away from the painted surface, then move it slowly back and forth across the painted patch until it is dry.

Pay special attention to certain areas that might require more paint to blend the repaired area in, such as around the edges where the paint meets the existing faux leather and any spots near seams.

Don’t worry if the acrylic finisher looks white when you first apply it as it will dry on clear. Watch out for any runs or droplets as you go and wipe them up with your paintbrush.

Remember that your faux leather will not look perfect when you examine it up close, but from a distance it will look much better than before when it was peeling and ugly.

This method works best for small damaged areas where the faux leather is just starting to peel or crack.

You can use leather repair dye to color exposed fabric that the faux leather has peeled away from as well as to stick loose pieces of the faux leather back down.

The dye will absorb into the fabric, so go ahead and apply it generously. You don’t need to worry about putting too much.

Apply more dye as needed while you do this until there is enough to get it all over the damaged area and the color of the exposed fabric looks dark enough.

The leather repair dye also acts as an adhesive, so the loose flaps will be stuck down once the dye dries. If you purchased a leather dye repair kit, you can also use any application tools that came with the kit to help press down and smooth out the loose flaps of faux leather. [15] X Research source

You can also use a heat gun to dry the dye if you have one available. If you don’t have anything to speed up the drying process, the leather dye will take 1-2 hours to dry on its own.

You can repeat the process of drying the dyed area with a hair dryer and touching it up as many times as you want to until you are happy with the results.

These kits are commonly marketed for repairing leather and faux leather furniture and car seats. They are available online, at a home improvement center, or from a leather or auto supply shop. You can use this type of kit to fix tears, rips, and holes in your faux leather items.

If your kit did not come with sandpaper, use your own fine-grit sandpaper, such as 120-grit.

If the kit did not provide you with a cleaning solution, you can use rubbing alcohol to clean the damaged area.

You can use a sharp utility knife or boxcutter to do this as well.

Some kits might have multiple patches, in which case you can choose from different colors to get the closest possible match.

Be careful not to get any adhesive onto the good faux leather around the tear. If you do, carefully scrape it off using the edge of an old card before it dries.

If the tear is very tiny, like a thin slit from a knife, you don’t necessarily have to use the patch. You can skip to the next step and try glueing down the surrounding faux leather to seal up the tear.

If you couldn’t find a patch in a color that closely matches your faux leather item, you can paint over it with leather paint or use leather dye to color it. Some kits might even come with different colorants you can apply on top of the patch.