Everything You Need to Know to Care for Your Leather Furniture
If you have gorgeous leather furniture, you need to know how to care for it and make the most of your space. This guide has you covered. Get what you need here.
You’ve bought saddle soap. You follow the directions. You’ve cleaned the entirety of your brand new leather chair with care and love. You stand back. You watch the leather dry. Your gorgeous leather couch turns black and begins to crack. You begin to panic. You wake up.
Good thing that was a dream. You quickly realize you haven’t even brought your new Ekornes stressless furniture home yet.
But it’s time to get to work finding out how to care for your leather furniture properly.
No Saddle Soap
You dreamed about saddle soap for a reason. You might have used it on your leather boots when you lived on the farm, but that’s not for your couch.
Really, you want to avoid most any soap on your leather furniture. If you try to use even watered down dishwashing soap, it will remove the color from your leather.
Don’t Let It Sit
Even if you never spill a drop of anything on your furniture, it will get dusty and dirty. It will also eventually crack and fade. While you can get your leather furniture to last as long as three fabric sofas, it still needs to be conditioned and cared for.
This is why you should dust and vacuum the furniture daily. It’s not going to look very sharp if you let dust accumulate. Get a large duster. There are bound to be some hard to reach spots on your furniture.
If you continue to dust your furniture often, you will avoid dust working its way into the cracks. This will make it less likely for your leather to break up.
Get a vacuum with a hose attachment so you can pick up those crumbs in the crevices. With constant pressure, those crumbs will tear into your leather. Even micro-tears will deteriorate your leather eventually.
Get It Covered
Do you own cats? Cats and kids. Those are the two worst things for leather furniture. Cats need to scratch (for various reasons we won’t go into here). If you aren’t going to get rid of your cat, cover your leather furniture. And get a cat tower for them to scratch on.
Just once. That’s all it takes to ruin a piece of leather furniture. You can’t repair the scratches your cat makes.
Get On Those Stains
Stains. Kids leave stains. Heck, you might even leave stains. If you aren’t going to cover your furniture, you need to be vigilant. Like a hawk. Because as soon as that ketchup comes into contact with that leather, you need to pounce.
If you don’t clean up a stain immediately, it might be too late. Grab a paper towel. Dab the area with the paper towel or even a terry cloth. You need to get it up as quick as possible.
Grease and oil can be taken care of. Use talcum powder or baking power on it. This will absorb the grease and hopefully you won’t have a stain.
If it’s an extreme situation, get some upper-end furniture cleaner. Make sure to test it on an inconspicuous spot first.
Conclusion:
You want your leather furniture to last at least half a lifetime if not more. Care for it as if it were your child. It’s truly worth it.