The soft sheen and luxurious comfort of leather furniture is something that can’t be beat. The beauty and warmth of natural leather is like nothing else, and a leather sofa has an unmatched style and durability that is all its own. But if you are new to the world of leather couches and chairs, you should know some helpful maintenance pointers to ensure that your leather furniture is ready to last a lifetime.
Step One: Easy Maintenance to Keep Your Leather Clean
Like just about anything, the first step to maintain your leather for years to come is to keep it clean. One of the great things about top grain leather couches is that the leather tanning process ensures that it is naturally resistant to wear, tear, and staining. This means that you won’t have to do much work to ensure that your leather sofa is clean.
Begin your cleaning process with your vacuum cleaner while using a hose attachment. Use that attachment to go over all of the surfaces on your couch, ensuring that you get into all of the nooks and crannies where crumbs and other debris likes to hide. If your leather sofa has adjustable headrests or recliners, it is a good idea to fully extend them to access all parts of the leather. Once you have all of the crumbs swept up, you can check over the couch for any other maintenance needs.
If there is some dirt or grime that wasn’t picked up with the vacuum, you can go over the area with a lightly moistened cloth to get everything else picked up. A cloth that is soft and non-abrasive like microfiber is to be preferred. You never want to fully saturate your leather, but a damp cloth should be all that you need to get up most dirt.
Step Two: Keep Leather Couches Out Of Direct Sunlight
This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but for the best outcome of your leather sofa over time, it is a good idea to keep it out of direct sunlight. Sun damage is cumulative and irreversible no matter if your sofa is made of top-grain leather, premium fabric or anything in between. The cracking that can occur due to sun damage on leather can be more dramatic than the fading you will see from sun damage on fabric. If your sofa will be exposed to a lot of sun, keeping the leather conditioned will keep the sun damage to a minimum.
Step Three: Moisturize and Condition Your Leather Sofa
Since leather is a natural material, ensuring it is kept supple and conditioned is the best way to ensure its beauty and quality will last for years to come. There are many types of leather conditioners on the market, but better options for leather furniture tend to be drier and denser. Something that is thicker and solid at room temperature, rather than a liquid in a bottle. Again, you don’t want to pour any sort of liquid on your couch, even to moisturize it. It will take a little bit of elbow grease to apply the conditioner and buff it out (always do a spot test first), but will add longevity and suppleness to make sure your leather looks its best for years to come.
Leather furniture is some of the highest quality furniture available on the market. When properly treated, a leather couch can last a lifetime, and will only grow more beautiful and striking with age. With some vacuuming and conditioning, your reclining leather sofa, wood inlaid leather accent chair or stylish leather ottoman can stand the test of time.