Creating custom leather accessories is similar to painting custom shoes and its a great way to create truly one of a kind pieces.
To show you how to use your painting skills on leather bags, Eric from @servicedby_e came through to put together a tutorial on how to create a custom Louis Vuitton leather bag.
How to Paint a Leather Bag
Painting a leather bag is more or less the same as painting leather shoes. To get started, you only need a couple of materials:
- Tape
- Preparer & Deglazer
- Paint & Brushes
- Heat gun
- Finisher
Once you have materials together, just follow a few steps to paint your custom bag.
Step 1: Tape the Edges
Start by taping off the edges to protect the parts of the bag that you don't want to get any paint on.
You can remove the tape after painting the main portion of the bag to add extra details and line work.
Step 2: Apply Preparer & Deglazer
Angelus Preparer and Deglazer is essential for removing the bag's factory finish, which will make it easier for the paint to adhere to the bag.
Use a q-tip to carefully scrub off the paint and finish on the areas that you want to paint. If you're following along with this project, you only need to use it to wipe off the gold finish on the LV branding.
Step 3: Painting the Bag
For this project, Eric painted a gradient from brown to purple along the front of the bag, but you can use whatever colors you want.
Use a detail brush to carefully paint light, even layers. If the paint gets outside of the lines at all, you can use more Deglazer to clean it up.
Step 4: Drying
Once the first layer of paint is down, you can use a heat gun to speed up the drying process.
After the first layer is dry, add more layers as necessary, making sure to wait until each layer is completely dry before moving on to the next.
Step 5: Painting the Strap
After the front of the bag is finished, paint the same pattern on the shoulder strap using the same materials and techniques as before.
Step 5: Satin Finisher
After all of the paint is completely dry, you can finish off the bag with satin acrylic finisher to protect the paint from minor scratches and add a satin finish.
Use a paintbrush to apply a layer of the finisher over the bag, and once the finisher is completely dry, you can use the bag as normal.
Make sure to check out the full tutorial on YouTube for a more detailed walkthrough, and stop by our online store to grab the materials you need to recreate this custom bag.