How to Recycle A Leather Recliner

Last week, Big Bear was sitting in his favorite recliner in our family room - yes, we're a recliner type of family - and the recliner broke.  It had been having some problems leading up to the day of collapse, but, it had served us well.  Of course, when his recliner broke, he took my recliner (which matched his and was in much better condition).  But rather than be left without my favorite chair, I had him bring my Ethan Allen wing back recliner downstairs from the boy's room. 

For a week, the broken recliner sat in our kitchen.  We couldn't decide whether to give it to the Goodwill or have the trash cart it off.  Well, the decision was made for us because the Goodwill didn't want it and couldn't fix it.

The day of reckoning came - trash day - but instead of taking the recliner, in tact, to the street for the trash to pick up, I decided to gut the entire chair and salvage the leather and the stuffing in the pillows.  Hey!  I'm resourceful!! 

So we gutted the chair, removing leather sections piece-by-piece and removing the soft inner padding as well. 

You can't believe how much leather I pulled off this chair.

I called Big Bear into the kitchen because this was a job for him.  It's harder to razer off leather than it looks.

He got busy on the chair.  He took off the leather and pulled out the stuffing and I watched...

And took pictures...

And advised him.  - not.

Poor chair.

One thing I know for sure - it's leather.

The gutted chair had given us 12 years of comfort. 

Yes, we got our 399 dollars worth out of this chair.

And now, we've skinned it like the ... sorry, the thought gives me the willies.

And that is the piece that broke.

But - take a look at this pile of soft, nice leather!  Think of all the ways I can use this ... 

Let's see, I can make leather laptop covers, and leather calendar books, and maybe some wallets or a little bag for Sarah or a leather jacket for a doll I make.  The ideas are rolling around in my head like Cheerios in a bowl of milk.

But the leather isn't all that we pulled from that chair.  We pulled a big pile of nice batting out of it too - perfect for stuffing dolls, making teddy bears, and pillows.

This is what I call recylcing at its best.  And to think that for the cost of that chair, I may have been able to recyle it and sell some very nice leather items and dolls for more than we paid for it.  Now, I just need to find the time to make some goodies from this very nice leather.

Be good to the environment - recycle.