How to Embellish and Paint Leather Shoes

Give Your Old Shoes a New Lease on Life

Do you have a closet full of old shoes that are perfectly wearable but look a bit tired or outdated? Turn them into stylish custom designs with a little fabric paint and maybe some trim for an extra special touch. Just changing the color can make an old pair look like new, and it's quick and easy to do if you know the right technique.

You can also pick up an inexpensive new or used pair of shoes at a discount shoe, vintage, or second-hand store and transform them to reflect your own sense of style.

Customize Shoes to Match a New or Favorite Outfit

Choose a pair with a shape you like, and use the easy painting and embellishment tips and techniques in this tutorial to transform them, so they match or complement the outfit perfectly.

The Great Shoe Makeover

Paint Yourself a Closet Full of Fun, Fashionable Leather Shoes, Sandals or Boots

In this easy step-by-step tutorial on how to paint leather shoes, I'll show you how I turned an old, boring pair of beige leather comfort sandals from ho-hum to fabulous. Along the way, I'll share some simple tips for breathing new life into old leather or manmade leather boots, shoes, sandals or handbags or adding some fashion flair to new but ordinary bargains with new colors, trims, and other great details. You can even mix a custom paint color to match a favorite or special occasion outfit!

All you need is some acrylic fabric paint, a couple of paint brushes, and some simple supplies like painter's tape, alcohol, and cotton balls to transform ordinary, boring leather shoes and accessories with new fashion colors or colors that match a special outfit.

These step-by-step instructions also explain how to adapt the prep for this painting technique if you're painting manmade rather than genuine leather.

Prefer your accessories to be artsy or to have more bling? Kick it up a notch by adding embellishments like rhinestones, faux gems, ribbons, lace, feathers, fabric or other fun trimmings to your custom-painted leather shoes.

Ready to learn how to turn your old shoes, sandals, boots, purses, belts, and other leather accessories into your own one-of-a-kind, custom designs? Let's get started!

Can These Boring Beige Comfort Sandals Be Transformed From Ho-Hum to Hot?

Finding extra-wide sandals that fit and are comfortable enough for my "problem feet" is always a major challenge. Finding ones that also look attractive and fashionable is more like Mission: Impossible.

My old, worn and matronly looking beige leather sandals were what are euphemistically called "comfort sandals," which is marketing code for low-heeled, ugly, clunky and totally devoid of style. They also were the most comfortable shoes in which I had ever walked, with a thick, flexible soles that cushioned my feet. So I decided to take on a seemingly impossible challenge: turning my beat-up, boring, but oh-so-comfy sandals into fun, stylish footwear.

The Best Book on How to Paint Leather Shoes and Embellish Them

I did a lot of research up front, so I wouldn't risk ruining my most comfortable sandals. "Sassy Feet" by Margo Silk Forrest and Destiny Carter quickly became my go-to reference resource for information on leather painting and embellishment for this project and others. If you're going to buy only one book on how to paint leather shoes, manmade leather shoes, and fabric shoes, make it "Sassy Feet."

Three Types of Paint Came Up Repeatedly in My Research

• Angelus Leather Paints: The first was Angelus Leather Paints, acrylic paints made specifically for painting leather shoes, handbags, wallets, etc. From what I could tell, I also would have had to buy their proprietary brand of Leather Preparer, Finisher, and also possibly something called Deglazer. The dealbreaker for me was that I couldn't find a local retailer that carried all the Angelus Leather Paint colors, and I wanted to see them before deciding which ones to buy.
• Spray Paint: The second was spray paint. I didn't think it would have the flexibility needed to prevent cracking and peeling where the shoe leather creases during walking. And I didn't like the idea of breathing in the paint or propellant vapor.
• Acrylic Fabric Paint: That left me with the third type of paint that was recommended by several sites for painting leather: acrylic fabric paint. It comes in tons of colors, remains flexible after it dries and adheres well to both genuine leather and manmade leather-like materials. I was quite tempted by the FolkArt Extreme Glitter acrylic fabric paints by Plaid—and I am looking forward to trying them out on a pair of pumps—but I didn't think glitter would look good on my very casual sandals.

Thanks to the Information in Sassy Feet, I Learned That:

• Jacquard's Lumiere and Neopaque acrylic paints work beautifully for painting leather shoes (as well as shoes made from manmade leather, but not vinyl, rubber or plastic).
• Prepping leather for painting requires only a gentle cleaning with a cotton ball dipped in rubbing alcohol (or in acetone for manmade leather).
• Inexpensive Pledge acrylic floor finish works perfectly as a sealer to protect the painted leather or manmade leather.

Now I was ready to start planning my leather shoe painting project in earnest.

Color Tips to Help Inspire Your Custom Shoe Design

Learning how to paint and embellish leather shoes means you don't have to be at the mercy of whatever seasonal colors the fashion dictators have decreed this year or limit yourself to what's available in stores, online, or in your particular size and width.

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Now you can choose any color or combination of colors that tickles your fancy, regardless of what's currently in fashion, and paint yourself a fabulous pair of shoes in whatever styles, colors and patterns you prefer.

You can pick a color palette to match the clothes you wear most often or a special favorite outfit. If you wear mostly neutrals, consider adding a pop of color by painting a pair of shoes or sandals in this season's fashion shades.

1. Don't worry if you make a mistake - it's easy to fix. Don't like the color after all? No problem! Just choose a different shade and paint over the first one. You can always change your mind and even re-paint your shoes next season, next year, or whenever you wish. If you decide to change the color after you have already applied the clear top coat of Pledge floor finish, simply sand it off gently before you prep and re-paint over the old color.
2. You can easily mix up a range of shades of that color for a tonal look (including ombré shading) by mixing any Lumiere color (or any custom color you've mixed) with different proportions of Neopaque white or black paint. Adding white paint will create lighter shades of that color, and adding black paint will create darker shades.
3. Want something bolder? Try using strongly contrasting colors together with color blocking or maybe an animal print pattern. Are you artistic? How about painting your own designs freehand? Or use stencils to add patterns and more color, as I did on my comfort sandal transformation project below.
4. Remember that you're the designer. Let your imagination run wild, and have fun!

Deciding on a Color Palette and Choosing the Right Jacquard Lumiere and Neopaque Acrylic Paints

My warm weather clothes tend to be in the blue-green palette (mint, turquoise, royal, etc.), so for my sandals I bought three full-sized bottles of Jacquard Lumiere paint in Pearl Turquoise, Halo Blue Gold (a fabulous color-shifting bluish-green shade with shimmering gold flecks), and Pearlescent Blue. Jacquard Lumiere paints come in a gorgeous selection of pearlescent, metallic and even interference (color-shifting) shades, and all of them are beautiful! So I also decided to get both the Jacquard Lumiere Halo & Jewel Colors Exciter Pack and the Jacquard Lumiere & Neopaque Exciter Pack. Each of these samplers includes 9 paint colors, which gave me a wider range of paint colors to play, just in smaller quantities. Between them, the two "exciter packs" also included my three main colors, but since I wasn't sure how much paint I'd need I bought the full-size bottles of those colors. And the Lumiere & Neopaque Exciter Pack includes both Neopaque Black and Neopaque White, so I could mix lighter or darker shades of any color I wanted.

I highly recommend getting both the Jacquard Lumiere and Neopaque Exciter Packs I mentioned, which will give you a great choice of colors to accent your main shoe colors. In fact, if you are painting the body of the shoe in more than one color, you may not even need to buy any full-size bottles of the Lumiere and Neopaque paints, depending on how much each color you will be using in your design.

I also recommend getting a bottle of Jacquard Flowable Extender, which can be mixed with Lumiere or Neopaque paints to make them more transparent without thinning the paint consistency or can be mixed with Jacquard Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments to create transparent, shimmery glazes (which is how I used it).

I already owned a nice assortment of Pearl Ex mica powder, which has a pearlescent or metallic sheen and is fabulous for all sorts of crafts and work well with many different craft materials, including polymer clay. For this project, I purchased two additional colors, Duo Blue-Green and Turquoise. (Unfortunately, the Duo Blue-Green has been discontinued, but there are many other spectacular Pearl Ex colors for you to choose from, including several other color shifting "duo" colors.)

Choosing the Right Paint Brushes for Painting Leather Shoes

Something else I learned on the Sassy Feet site was that soft, synthetic brushes such as white Taklon are the best choice for applying the acrylic fabric paint on leather and man-made leather shoes smoothly. Margot Silk Forrest and Destiny Carter of Sassy Feet recommend the following four brushes for painting leather or manmade leather shoes:

• #1 or #2 fan brush - an essential brush for covering large areas evenly;
• #0 or #1 round brush - for painting details or fixing mistakes;
• #6 or #8 flat shader brush - for painting along (or up to) edges;
• 1/2" flat shader brush (sometimes called a "wash" brush) - to apply the acrylic sealer (also can be used the same way as the smaller shader brush to cover larger areas at a time).

You can buy a set of all four Crafter's Choice white Taklon paint brushes recommended by Sassy Feet at the Sassy Feet online store. You also can find them both as a set and individually at most large art or craft stores.

Other Types of Paint Applicators

A cool trick I learned from the book "Sassy Feet" is to use a tapered, silicone rubber-tipped Colour Shaper rather than a round brush to create perfectly round, neat dots of paint. I've used and loved Colour Shapers for years with metal clay and polymer clay and I adore them, so it was great to discover yet another good use for them, as well as learning the secret to making perfect paint dots on my shoes! These come in a range of different sizes, shapes, and degrees of firmness, but a firm or extra-firm tip is the best choice for painting dots. If you work with any type of ceramic clay, metal clay, polymer clay, etc., I recommend getting a few sets of them in different sizes, shapes and firmness levels.

Another cool tool for painting large dots is a new, unused eraser end of a regular #2 pencil.

And an alternative to a clay shaper for making tiny dots is to stick a flathead head pin firmly into the eraser end of a new pencil, although getting the pin stem aligned perfectly parallel to the pencil is tricky, and it's important so that the head of the pin is perfectly perpendicular so it creates an evenly round paint dot.

In certain situations, a toothpick can give you more control than a small paint brush for painting certain freehand designs with fine lines, such as snowflakes.

Prep Leather Shoes for Paint With Rubbing Alcohol, Manmade Leather With Acetone

I learned that the best way to prep leather shoes before applying Jacquard Lumiere or Neopaque paints is to clean them gently with rubbing alcohol (AKA 70% isopropyl alcohol or isopropanol) and a cotton ball. Extra-large cotton balls are particularly useful for this task.

If your shoes are made from manmade leather, substitute plain acetone from the hardware store for the rubbing alcohol. Note: Do not substitute nail polish remover unless it says 100% acetone or pure acetone.

If you are painting leather or manmade leather shoes with a shiny finish, including patent leather, I suggest sanding them lightly with a superfine sanding sponge to remove the shiny finish before cleaning them gently with the alcohol (for leather shoes) or acetone (for manmade leather shoes, including patent leather).

Using Painter's Tape to Mask Off Areas of the Shoes

I chose painter's tape rather than masking tape because it is low-tack and less likely to leave a residue on the l leather after it is removed. I tried both Scotch Blue multi-use painter's tape and green FrogTape brand painter's tape. Both worked well to mask off areas from the paint, such as the heels and soles of my sandals, but the Scotch Blue Painter's Tape was easier to remove.

Cutting in the Edges Isn't as Easy as It Looks

After all my books, paints, and supplies had arrived, it finally was time to get to the fun part: prepping and painting my shoes (and then embellishing them, although I didn't know I would be doing that at the time)!

The photo above shows my sandals after I prepped everything except the heel and sole with alcohol, taped around the straps with FrogTape painter's tape, and painted the strap at the very front of the right sandal. After discovering that "cutting in" the edges without getting any paint on the sides of the insole wasn't as easy as I had thought, I added some strips of the blue painter's tape to cover the adjacent parts of the insole before starting in on the left sandal.

Mixing a Custom Paint Color for the Front Strap

For the front straps, I mixed up a custom color by stirring a little of the Turquoise Pearl Ex powdered pigment into a dollop of Pearlescent Turquoise Lumiere paint. Instead of using a paint palette, I used some clean, empty, screw-top contact lens cases (that I had gotten from a colleague for storing small amounts of metal clay air-tight). The acrylic paints dry quickly, and the screw top allowed me to seal the paint if I needed to stop for a break or to answer the phone. (I kept a little leftover custom paint mixture in one of the cases for a few days as a test, and the paint was still perfectly fresh and ready to use.)

After I finished painting the front strap of each sandal, I used the same custom paint mixture (Pearlescent Turquoise Lumiere and Turquoise Pearl Ex pigment) to paint the leather strap at the back.

Painting the Remaining Sandal Straps

I also seriously considered using a scissor with a fancy edge to cut out a strip of painter's tape that would cover half of the strap and allow me to paint a more interesting version of color blocking. I own a set of fancy edging scissors in a wooden stand with 12 different designs that would be perfect for this, and also to create interesting border stencil designs around the top edge, throat, or along the heel of a shoe.

You can use automotive detailing tape or drafting tape to mask off straight lines for stripes, grids, etc. And I came across an interesting tape from 3M called "Scotch Artist Tape for Curves" that is designed to create curved lines for masking off paint, which opens up all sorts of interesting possibilities!

Adding Pizazz With Hand-Painted and Stenciled Flourishes

I wanted a somewhat tonal palette of greens and aquas with touches of bright blue. After painting the heel strap in the same custom pearlescent turquoise as the front straps, for the second set of straps in the front I added some Halo Blue Gold and some of the Duo Blue-Green Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments to the leftover paint mixture from the first set of straps, which created a lovely greenish aqua shade. I used straight Halo Blue Gold for the two wide elastic straps on each sandal.

The tonal effect was really pretty and also very subtle, which was the effect I had been aiming for. But after being inspired by the wonderful painted and embellished shoes in Sassy Feet, I knew I wanted to take my sandals a step farther (so to speak). One of the amazing shoe makeovers in "Sassy Feet" that had inspired me to try transforming my own comfort sandals was a pair of sandal-clogs even clunkier than my own pair that had been painted and then stenciled with bright, contrasting colors for a fun, festive, artsy look. So I decided I'd try stenciling the front straps of my sandals.

I didn't want to use a plastic stencil because I knew it would be nearly impossible to avoid getting paint underneath it, since it couldn't conform to the shape of the straps. So I decided to make a stencil by punching decorative holes into painter's tape with a paper punch. I quickly discovered that trying to use the paper punch with just the tape didn't work; the cutouts as well as the punched-out tape got stuck in the punch and getting them out was a major pain. So I decided to try putting a strip of painter's tape on a sheet of plain white paper and punching through both at the same time so that the sticky side of the tape wouldn't touch the punch. It took more force than I could muster to get through both layers, but after enlisting the help of my husband, I was able to get exactly what I needed. We used the punch upside-down so that we could align the end motif from the punched-out strip with the matching motif at the beginning of the punch die, which created a punched-out strip with a continuous, properly-spaced design. The tricky part was separating the punched-out tape stencil from the paper, which required the use of an X-ACTO knife and a lot of patience, since the pressure required to punch through both layers had bonded the tape to the paper rather firmly and removing the tape without tearing any of the delicate punched-out motifs wasn't easy. Also, the little punched-out parts that weren't attached to the main part of the strip tended to curl up. But we finally got them separated and straightened out.

I carefully applied the punched-out tape stencils to the front straps of both sandals and smoothed down each motif carefully to make sure there was good contact around all the edges so no paint would seep underneath. Then I mixed up a custom paint color by combining Pearlescent Blue Lumiere paint (a gorgeous royal blue pearl shade) with some of the Turquoise Pearl Ex powdered pigments and used a wedge-shaped cosmetic sponge to dab on the paint. I allowed the first coat to dry briefly and then applied a second coat, and after just a couple of minutes I carefully pulled off the painter's tape stencil, which I wanted to do before the paint dried completely.

After the stenciled paint design was completely dry, I mixed up a glaze from the Jacquard Flowable Extender and the Pearl Ex Duo Blue-Green powdered pigments and brushed it over the stenciled straps to soften the contrast a bit. The sandals were looking really good, and I was thrilled!

Making Stencils for Painting Shoes

The paper punch I used to create my stencil (from painter's tape) was an Anna Griffin design that I purchased many years ago and has long since been discontinued, but there are many wonderful paper punch designs for you to choose from to create your own shoe painting stencils. If you want to stencil in a straight line, as I did on my straps, choose a border punch. Otherwise, there are some fabulous large motifs that would look super on a shoe's vamp, back seam, or heel. There also are self-adhesive punched paper borders or stickers you could use.

"Sassy Feet" also suggests a cool two-step reverse "stenciling technique" that is actually easier than doing a regular stencil. Paint the shoe the color you want the stenciled design, pattern or embellishment to be and let it dry. Then apply self-adhesive paper stickers, paint on the background color, and then carefully lift up an edge of each sticker with the tip of a craft knife and peel it away to reveal the color underneath. Clever idea!

Instead of using commercial stickers, you also could use paper punches or craft scissors that cut fancy borders or edges to punch or cut out self-adhesive sticker paper to create your own unique shapes for reverse stenciling.

I Paid the Price for Ignoring the Book's Advice About Painting Elastic

I had read the warning in "Sassy Feet" not to use Jacquard fabric paints on elastic or stretch fabrics. But I loved my harmonious color scheme, and the Jones Tones fabric and craft paints they recommended instead for elastic or stretch fabrics weren't available on Amazon, and I didn't want to have to introduce another color into my already harmonious color scheme. OK, the real reason was that I was impatient to finish and wear my pretty new sandals and didn't want to have to track down another type of paint.

Not following Margot's and Destiny's advice about painting elastic turned out to be a BIG mistake. After admiring my lovely paint job I decided to try on my sandals before applying a protective clear top coat. To my horror, as I slipped them on the beautiful, even coat of Halo Blue Gold paint on the elastic strap across my instep fractured into dozens of tiny, ragged-edged stripes. Aaarrggghhh!!! I had no one to blame but myself and was kicking myself ignoring the experts' explicit advice.

Fortunately, the elastic strap at the front of each sandal hadn't stretched noticeably when I put on the sandal and the paint on those straps didn't crack. But I definitely needed to remove the paint from the top strap across the instep. However, I had applied three or four coats of paint over the elastic to get a nice, even coating and the fractured paint held on tenaciously to the elastic. In desperation, I even tried brushing it off with a brass-bristle brush meant for metal, but that paint clearly had made a commitment and wasn't going anywhere! The only thing that worked was to hold the elastic in a stretched-out state while digging and scraping off the paint with the thumbnail of my other hand.

In addition to shredding the tips of my thumbnails, this process also had the unfortunate side-effect of permanently stretching out the elastic straps, which had picked up some of the blue pigment and were now a dull, faded-looking, almost denim color. They no longer held the sandals against my foot and, as you can see in the photo, the edges of the stretched-out elastic were now rippled. Now what?

Reinforcing the Stretched-Out Elastic

I had no idea yet how I was going to fix the aesthetic problem I had created, but it was obvious my first challenge was to address the structural problem—namely what do do about the loose, flabby elastic in the paint scraped straps!

I dug through my old sewing notions drawer and, luckily, found some narrow, white, flat elastic that was at least 10–15 years old but still seemed to have good stretch-and-recovery properties. I also found some elastic thread and promptly used it to sew a strip of flat elastic along the center the straps. My stitching wasn't especially neat or even (sewing isn't one of my better skills), but I knew the elastic and stitching would be covered with something (although I hadn't yet figured out how or with what) so I didn't worry about it.

I tried on the sandals again and was pleased that I had succeeded in stabilizing the straps while maintaining enough stretch to pull them on easily. Whew!

I Could Hardly Believe It When I Found Perfectly Matching Wide Stretch Trim With Iridescent Sequins!

I took one of my sandals to the fabric store to see what type of stretchy trim and/or embellishments might work to cover up the stabilized elastic straps. All the ribbons and trims that looked good with my paint color scheme weren't stretchy, and none of the stretchy trims seemed to coordinate with my paint colors. I had asked my husband to come along since he has a wonderful and artistic eye, and I was about to give up when he suddenly spotted some wide, elastic trim covered with fabulous, transparent, iridescent square sequins that color shifted from light aqua to light green. Excited, I snatched up a yard right away! The photo shows what it looks like covering the strap of one sandal, as well as the blue-green rose montée rhinestone I sewed carefully onto the still-painted elastic strap in the front.

Go Big or Go Home With Rhinestones and Faux Jewels

At the same moment that my husband spotted the sequin elastic trim, I spotted some large, oval, faceted aqua sew-on faux jewels that were the perfect width for the strap. I found some matching thread and brought home both the sequin elastic trim and the aqua faux jewels so I could try both options.

Here you can see what the strap of the other sandal looks like after I sewed on the faux jewels. Again, my stitching is far from perfect, but unless someone's face is within a foot of my foot, it looks fine. I wrapped and tacked some of the sewing thread around the edges of the jewels and in between them to hide the white elastic I had used to stabilize the strap.

I liked the look of the rose montée rhinestone on the sequin strap version and decided to sew on three of them in a row for this jeweled strap version.

Tips for Attaching Plain Flat-Back Crystals or Hot-Fix Crystals

If your shoe or sandal is made of non-stretchy fabric, you can attach flat-back crystals with Gemtac glue or use hot-fix crystals. Imagine encrusting the heel of a plain black or jewel-tone satin pump with clear or colored Swarovski crystals in a faux pavé look!

Which of My Sandal Strap Makeover Options Do You Prefer?

Do you like the sequinned strap version or the jeweled strap version better?

Doing the Bling Thing and Painting the Insoles

Thanks to the generous input I received in the poll from visitors to this page, I ultimately decided to go with the jeweled strap. So I removed the sequin trim from the left sandal and sewed on jewels to match the right sandal.

Unfortunately when I tried on my blingy "new" upcycled sandals to admire my handiwork, I didn't like the look of the original tan insole that showed at the front. I gave myself a pedicure with one of my fun new aqua nail polish colors for summer to see whether that would make any difference, but the crescent of tan leather in front of my toes still bothered me.

I mixed up a new paint color halfway between the pearlescent aqua blue of the narrow leather straps in front and the metallic aqua-green-gold of the large diagonal elastic strap immediately behind them. Then I used that new shade to paint the insole, including the edges that showed all the way around.

I tried them on again and they definitely looked a lot nicer! But I still didn't like how much of the (now painted) insole showed past my toes, and I realized that the bright iridescent blue stenciling that I had put only on the thin strap at the very front needed to be repeated somewhere to tie everything together harmoniously.

The Finishing Touch: Freehand Painted Decorations

I came up with a solution that would solve both problems: I would paint the bright blue stencil pattern from the strap in mirror image to fill in the section at the front that extended beyond my toes! Unfortunately, some of the delicate tendrils on the stencil tape had torn when I removed the tape after stenciling the front straps. And I really wanted the pattern to curve ever so slightly at the ends to match the shape of the front of the insoles. So I did something ludicrously ambitious for my very first try at painting leather: I painted a mirror image of the stencil design freehand, using a very small round paint brush!

As you can see, my attempt to replicate the stencil design in mirror image was far from perfect. Even so, I was really happy with the way it turned out. And this time when I tried on the sandals again I loved the results!

Adding the Protective Clear Coat

Now that I had finished all the painting it was time to apply a flexible clear coat to seal and protect the acrylic paint.

I brushed a thin, even coat of Pledge with Future Shine Premium Floor Finish over the painted straps, as recommended in the book and allow it to dry overnight. The clear coat was extremely shiny when I applied it, and I was worried that my sandals were going to end up looking like patent leather — definitely NOT the look I was after! So I was delighted to see that after it dried completely the clear coat's effect on the painted leather's appearance was fairly subtle.

Note: The marketing folks over at SC Johnson changed the names of their Pledge with FutureShine floor finishes, and now choosing the right product is very confusing. You can use Pledge FloorCare Wood Finish (NOT Pledge FloorCare Wood Trigger, Pledge FloorCare Wood Concentrated Cleaner or Pledge FloorCare Wood Squirt & Mop) to seal your painted shoes. (I don't know whether Pledge FloorCare Multi Surface Finish might work also.)

Before and After: The Big Reveal!

Here's another look at how my leather sandals looked before I started beautifying them, and the completed painted and embellished final product.

I think it's a pretty awesome transformation, especially considering what I started with and the fact that it was my first try at painting and embellishing leather shoes. And now that I've got all my supplies, a little experience, and quite a bit more confidence I'm already planning several more shoe makeovers. I also bought a cute leather bag that I'm planning to paint to coordinate with or complement my "new" leather sandals!

Concerned That You're Not Creative Enough, or That You'll Mess Up Your Shoes by Painting Them? Not to Worry!