A TikToker painted over her leather chair because it didn't match her 'aesthetic,' but viewers are divided over the budget interior hack
TikTok: @yeli.heidecker
- A TikToker's decision to paint her leather chair a lighter color received millions of views.
- Thousands of comments responded to the interior hack with a very mixed reaction.
- Some felt the TikToker had ruined the chair while others thought critics were being too harsh.
A woman has blown up online after she shared a divisive interior hack that involved painting a leather chair to change the color.
On July 6, a TikToker who goes by @yeli.heidecker posted a video that showed her rolling what appeared to be cream-colored paint onto a brown leather chair. On-screen text said she'd tried explaining to her husband that the "old" furniture was ruining the aesthetic, so she had to "refurbish and paint it." The caption included the hashtags #homeimprovement and #budgethomedecor.
The upload received over 7.8 million views and 3,300 comments from people who seemed largely shocked and confused by what they had just seen, and appeared to unanimously agree she had ruined what they felt was a nice piece of furniture. Popular comments also joked that she deserved jail time for the idea, or suggested the entire thing was a comedy sketch.
In a follow-up video posted the same day which received an additional 669,000 views, the TikToker could be seen crouching in front of the fully painted chair, while she responded directly to a comment that questioned if it was even possible to paint leather.
In the upload, she briefly showed the paint she had used, which was an acrylic leather paint satin finisher from the paint brand Angelus, and said she'd first prepped the chair by cleaning and deglazing it, a process that involves removing dirt in order to restore the natural oils of the material, according to Leatherek, a website that aims to educate readers about leather.
"Sometimes you just don't have the money to buy a $5,000 new couch, so this is what we're dealing with right now," the TikToker added, and clarified that she'd originally planned to throw the armchair away but was testing this method instead, and after painting the chair white had changed her mind and was repainting it a tan color.
In two further updates, which received over 450,000 views each, the TikToker showed a closer look at the painting process, and responded to various comments that thought she'd made a bad choice. She said at the end of the day, "this is my chair."
Some viewers came to the defense of the TikToker and wrote that people were being unnecessarily harsh about a piece of furniture that didn't even belong to them. "Some of those comments are way too aggressive over a chair," one viewer wrote and received 800 likes.
On July 9, the TikToker posted the latest look at the chair as she added a third and final coat of tan paint. She included an on-screen comment from a viewer who criticized her for the project, which asked if she had "just come back from the asylum," and in a voiceover said she couldn't understand why people were being "so rude" and "offensive."
The post received 265 comments, as some continued to lambast the paint job, however many more appeared to appreciate the look as it came together, complimented the TikToker for what she had achieved, and thanked her for informing them it was possible to paint leather.
The TikToker @yeli.heidecker has over 64,400 followers where she typically posts videos about decluttering her home.
This isn't the first time a homemade painting project has caused a stir on TikTok.
Back in March, a TikToker received over two million views after she used $24 of paint to dye her carpet black. That same month, another TikToker faced a ton of backlash when she used antique picture frames in an effort to make her refrigerator more "vibey."
For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.