16th July 2013
So, you have spent thousands of pounds on a brand new high-quality leather sofa and now you want to take care of it? Great! 100s of consumers purchase a new sofa each year, but they overlook the fact that sofas, both old and new, need ongoing care. If you don’t care for your sofa on an ongoing basis it will become faded, worn out and generally, look older than it should, well before its time. Here are some tips for keeping your leather sofa looking brand new.
Cleaning a leather sofa is about the simplest and most effective thing that you can do. Believe it or not, small particles of dust and dirt can slowly start to wear into the sofa. Over time they will create worn out patches which tend to make the sofa look like junk. A simple wipe with a wet cloth once a week will usually do the trick. Try to avoid putting your feet up with shoes on, however tempting it might be.
Fading is one of the things that really affect how a sofa looks. If you place a sofa in a part of the room that gets the sun the majority of the day, it is going to fade quickly. This will also produce those horrible wrinkles that leather sofas tend to produce over time. Essentially, putting it in a part of the room that is less inclined to get the sun all day and every day is going to mean that it looks brand new for a much longer period of time.
Don’t wait until a sofa starts to look old and withered before taking action. From day 1, your leather sofa is going to be taking a beating. For that reason, using solutions that are designed to protect and enhance the look of leather is going to help a great deal. Most furniture stores (online and offline) will have a range of solutions specifically designed for this purpose. Doing this one a year will usually be enough to keep it looking like brand new.
Finally, you are going to see some scratches and tears develop over time; something that can not be avoided. That being said, there are some ways to get rid of the scratches and tears, or at least, make sure that they are not instantly noticeable. Scratches can be buffed out using a special leather solution. Much like how T-Cut works for cars, you’ll be able to work the solution into the leather to reduce the impact that the scratches have.
Tears are a different story. You’ll need to purchase a leather repair kit which includes the likes of patches and glue in order to repair small tears. For larger tears, you might want to consider calling in a professional upholsterer, as bigger tears are likely to be much more noticeable.
A sofa costs thousands of pounds. You need to protect your investment by using both prevention and curing techniques to keep your leather sofa looking like brand new. If you have children or pets in the house, we would also advise choosing a brown leather sofa or a black leather sofa to avoid stains and tears sticking out like a sore thumb!
