Treading gently here with the "patina" word, but.... aging leather which gets fine cracks, slight darkening due to oils from our skin and discoloration from use creates a patina in the correct sense of the word. Thats how you know its leather. You either digs it or you don't. If you don't, easy decision.
A word of caution before you run around collecting furniture off craigslist. I sold various grades of leather furniture (both foreign...and domestic) in a former career field at a local Sofa King store. Evidently I was quite knowledgeable and appreciated by my peers since I often overheard them saying that I believed myself to be Sofa King smart and Sofa King good at what I did. Any way, I digressed, even higher priced sofas are very often leather-matched using leather on seating surfaces and arms, everything else is pleather. Also, in order to make them color match they were died together after assembly rather than full aniline dying where the leather is died top to bottom in a vat prior to cutting and sewing. If you run out picking up peoples used couches, settees, sofas, love seats, futons, chestfields and davenports to make car interior out of the backs and side panels you are likely going to end up with a hernia, a crappy furniture collection and a lower grade vinyl than if you just started off with marine grade vinyl...that doesn't have Cheetos, ear wax and fruit cake stuck to it.
I don't believe that the term smart can be applied to a sofa salesman EVER. Talk about an oxymoron That is more appropriate
I used "interior decorator" leather (very high priced) that started to shrink after getting caught in the rain. Replaced it with marine grade naugahyde. Top photo is leather, other is marine vinyl.
What is this rain you speak of? We only got 15.75" of the wet stuff in December, nice dry month here. I drive past a dairy farm every day on my way to work and I have to wonder two things, "what is that god awful stench?" and "why aren't the cows all blotchy and water stained? Something's ill never know but I do know I like the look of the marine vinyl in Denis4X4 roadster above. One of my golf buddies says "If you want something tough, something you can depend on and something that won't fade on you or let you down, put the word Marine in front of it".
...Marketeer comes to mind...user of adjectives such as 'Marine'. I like that. 'Marketeer'...reminds me of days long gone, on the high seas...
Avoiding the choice of material question but speaking to the original color question......... I'm very partial to a tan interior with red paint. Call it "Caramel" or call it "Palomino", it's a winner on my scorecard. I had a Mercedes in the early '90s with that combo and I'd go that way again in a New York minute. I bought a red '50 Chevy panel truck earlier this year that has a red and oyster interior that I just can't make myself like. First chance I get, I'm color changing the interior to a Chestnut (light brown) interior paint and soft trim. That's a shade darker than the Mercedes Palomino color but I think it will work well. This is what I have that I don't like...........
Yes leather makes a beautiful interior, but it can be bought st a good price. When I built my convertible I bought the leather from an advertiser in Hemings. This guy lived in the Whitchita KS area he bought the last years left overs. It’s a fantastic low price and an excellent leather
This stuff is fantastic, feels like real leather and even the back side looks like leather. https://www.perfectfit.com/15978/758123/Upholstery-Leather/Embrace-Recycled-Leather.html
This iteriror discussion eminds me of a friend of mine who just spent $5500.00 on an interior for his 55 Chevy. I asked him how he liked the new interior, he replied "I wish I had spent $10,000.00 for something I liked".
Good looking!! Nothing feels like REAL leather. And it doesn't matter, but I like the red exterior red interior.
I discovered something interesting on furniture and I guess upholstery in general. There is a process where they take chewed up leather and form it into a material that they call leather, it is leather in the sense that it is made from leather but it is not like buying a hide. It is often used on lower end furniture and I suppose lower end upholstery material.
Take all the unuseable leather scraps, grind them to a pulp, mix in a binder to make a sheet of it again and cover it all with a plastic surface looking like leather. A genuine fake.