Premium Upholstery Hides for Luxury Leather Walls
The family firm’s innovative KLADTM tile-style approach brings unexpected ease to custom installations
Keleen Leathers’ premium upholstery hides have exquisitely clad everything from the buttery booths at the Neiman Marcus Hudson Yards Zodiac Room to Kylie Jenner’s shades-of-pink dining room chairs.
Now, the family firm’s innovative KLADTM tile-style approach to luxury leather walls brings unexpected ease to custom installations.
MOTO MODERN KLAD debuted with 24-inch hair-on hide squares for a conversation-stopping Colorado mountain home stairway wall. More requests followed, and soon a Las Vegas designer seeking Harley Davidson cachet had KL artisans stitching chrome zippers into supple black leather. The resulting “Zipperd” wall, its tiles connected with functional zips, has become a KLAD classic.
IN THE WEAVE Flat pieces take on the visual depth of basket weave, aided by smooth squares contrasting with rectangles in the characteristic grain of epi leather, famously used by Louis Vuitton. Hand-painted crimson edges against tiles the rich blue of a mountain dusk complete the trompe l’oeil—but bespoke KLAD is available in any of KL’s more than 1,000 leather options, including hair-on, shearling and belting.
DECO-RATED A proprietary highly resilient backing is the key to KLAD’s DIY-style installation and provides a distinctive soft touch. Computer software translates a designer’s original sketch into precision-cut pieces composed of the selected leathers, as with this intricate Art Deco “Waldorf” design. “We send it in pieces all clearly marked so it installs much like a ‘color by number’ concept,” says KL founder Rick Mullen.
SOOTHING SYMMETRY End-to-end triangles create the clean-lined calm of this subtle yet commanding diamond pattern, ideal for a bedroom aerie. Natural hide’s no-two-pieces-alike appeal gives organic texture and subtle variations to leather walls, which are also acoustical, thermal and inherently flameproof.
Each KLAD luxury leather wall is a custom design, with KL catalog photos referred to as “inspirational images,” showing capabilities for creatives to play with.
SEW SPECIAL Border stitching on rect- angles installed in a running bond pattern gives this design a luxurious hand-sewn appearance. Roughly a quarter-inch thick, KLAD tiles can be made as large as 4’ x 6’ and attach to the wall with a rolled-on water-based adhesive. The KLAD backing’s innate flexibility allows it to follow curves and even wrap pillars, and pieces can be trimmed on-site for a perfectly tailored fit.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS Computer printing allows Keleen Leathers to emboss KLAD tiles with textured detailing, as on this tone-on-tone “Upgrade” design.
Whatever the pattern, KL works with over 40 tanneries worldwide, including a 260-year-old European company that spends eight months tanning and soaking one special leather. And all of KL’s tannery partners produce leather with water-based stable elements that leave homeowners’ walls free of harmful chemicals—and are ultimately biodegradable.
