Your furniture may not have a passport, but it has travelled through time and across vast distances, often accompanying its owner as its owner moves from home to home. I have a small coffee table that I have kept since the 1980s. Interior decor can affect our , but it can also carry meaning and memories. Good designers understand that we can form a strong relationship with furniture. That connection is so powerful and vital that a family can choose to keep a piece of furniture even when it’s old and broken. That attachment to our furniture makes it hard to let go. Every owner of furniture understands the emotional pull of furniture, especially long-lived furniture. Great furniture fulfills certain basic, emotional needs. It’s important then to understand how to prolong its life. In this article, I will discuss how you can care for leather furniture.
Keeping leather furniture in the best possible condition is something that worries every owner of leather furniture. Sometimes, the fear of damaging it, or shortening its life, is so great that some people worry about whether, for instance, they should even sit on their leather couch. People worry about spilling stuff on it. They worry about it flaking. We love our furniture, we don’t want anything to happen to it.
Now, when you want to clean a leather couch, or any piece of leather furniture, you should start off by vacuuming up any dirt, crumbs or other debris. After this, you want to wipe the furniture down using a soft, dry and hopefully clean cloth. If there are any scratches on the leather, run your finger alongside them. Assuming the scratches are small, your finger’s natural oils will smooth over the leather’s scratches.
One of my biggest fears when it comes to leather furniture, is that I’ll spill something on it. Often, a leather couch, for instance, will come with cleaning instructions that detail the leather cleaner that the manufacturer believes works best for the leather. Use the prescribed leather cleaner to clean the leather, following the cleaning instructions. If you cannot locate the instructions, or contact the manufacturer, then you can look for . I know there’s a temptation to follow unlike folk wisdom, like using vinegar to clean your leather. Don’t. Stay with tried and tested, manufacturer-approved solutions. Don’t experiment with your furniture. You don’t want to ruin your brand new with someone’s untried remedy.
To be even safer, apply the cleaner to a small section of the leather furniture, preferably somewhere hidden. This way, you can check if the cleaner will leave any spots on the leather.
is a serious concern with a simple preventive solution. Keep your leather furniture away from direct sunlight, heaters and radiators. Heat causes leather to flake, so avoiding it will protect your leather from flaking.
If you own leather products like briefcases or bags and want to preserve their shape, stuff a towel into them. The towel will fill out your briefcase or bag, preserving its shape. Place that leather product in a cool, dry area inside a dust bag, and the surface will be protected for many years.
If you own a leather jacket, keep it on a sturdy coat hanger to keep its shape and integrity.
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