Olga

Leather is and always has been the king of furniture upholstery material. Durable, easy on the eye and comfortable... However, unkept leather can quickly turn your interior’s exclusive look into a ‘cheap nightclub’ feeling. If you want your leather furniture to keep its perfect condition for years, you have to maintain it from the very first day. Leather furniture is low-maintenance, not no-maintenance!

As soon as you get your new piece of leather furniture, you should put leather protector on it. This acts as an additional shield and keeps any dirt from being absorbed deeper into the material and also helps you with cleaning. Light colored leather will benefit from this procedure especially if you have an accidental spillage of coffee or even red wine.
Another dangerous enemy is sunlight. If you don’t apply UV protection, be sure to change the position of the furniture from time to time, especially when just a few particular areas are directly exposed to sun beams on a daily basis. It’s pretty hard to get rid of faded color stains later.

Another natural enemy of your leather sofa is cracking. It starts occurring, when the leather runs out of its natural oil after some time. Moistening products will help you, but you have to use them on a regular basis.

Regular maintenance requires you to clean the furniture every 1-2 weeks with a dry cloth (mainly to get rid of the body oils and salt people leave there) and vacuum it. Apply the moisturizing and protecting treatments 3-4 times a year on the most affected parts (seats, arms) and once a year on the whole surface, including the insides of panels.

What should you do if that glass of red wine or bowl of blueberries finally ends up on your beautiful leather chair despite all your efforts? If it’s polished leather, it’s not such a big deal if you act quickly. Simply wipe off the liquid, dry it and finally you may use a bit of oil to polish it again if needed. Unfinished leather is not a very common material for furniture; in this case you will need to play a bit with leather soap. Buy one made for furniture; like saddle soap for saddles and baby wipes for babies. Similarly, never use silicone polishes, wax polishes or other chemicals which are not intended for leather surfaces! You will avoid many additional unnecessary problems!