How to clean a leather sofa: dark and light, care and hygiene

Skin, as a material, has been used by mankind since time immemorial. She has not lost its relevance today. Furniture, covered with leather, is very comfortable, transforms the look of the room, gives the status of prosperity and respectability to its owner. Leather sofa is in demand more often than other furniture.

Over time, this popularity cannot but affect its appearance, especially if the leather cover is light: the sofa loses its original appearance, dirty spots appear on it, and even whole "spring thawed spots". The sofa loses its former appeal. What to do? Change it to a new one? But this is an inadmissible luxury - after all, it costs a lot. There are three ways out of this situation. The first is to sell and never buy leather furniture (no furniture - no problem). The second is to cover the leather sofa with a blanket, but then why would you have to buy it if in that case an ordinary sofa would have been quite suitable, and at a much lower price. And finally, the third option is to roll up your sleeves and start cleaning it, since it’s still possible. On how to do this, and will be discussed below.

A bit about leather sofa

To know what is possible and what cannot be done with any thing, one must have at least some idea of what it is made of.
If earlier cattle leather was used for furniture, today it is already possible to purchase a sofa with a cover made from the skin of an exotic animal.
The highest quality coating is considered to be from the upper layer of the skin. It has high elasticity, skin texture is clearly visible. Furniture with such a coating is an expensive pleasure, it is exclusive.
The middle and lower layers of the skin are less elastic, have a blurry pattern.
Genuine leather has black, brown and beige color. Therefore, you can immediately determine whether your sofa is “painted” or natural and, accordingly, take this into account when cleaning it.

At present, the coloring with natural dyes predominates, which makes the furniture environmentally friendly. The range of colors used for dyeing is quite diverse.

To this day, you can still find leather furniture with aniline dyes. You should know that this type of dye negatively affects health.

Basic rules for caring for a leather sofa

Before you start cleaning a leather sofa, you should familiarize yourself with the contents of the accompanying documentation issued to you upon purchase. It is important to know which detergents are recommended by the manufacturer of the sofa to clean it from dirt. For patent and aniline leather can not use the same means.

If you are not sure about the positive result of the detergent, do a test cleaning in a place that is invisible to prying eyes. It is possible that you will need to test more than one tool before you find the right one suitable for your sofa.

Do not rush to draw conclusions about the action of the detergent before proceeding with the cleaning of the entire sofa. Wait until the tested area of skin has dried completely and only after making sure that there are no traces of dirty stains in the form of the changed initial skin color, proceed to clean the rest of the sofa.

First of all, you should clean the sofa from large debris. It’s best to use a conventional vacuum cleaner, but vacuum it carefully so as not to damage the leather cover of the sofa with a nozzle. After that, you can proceed to wet cleaning the sofa cover.

After cleaning up large debris, one must proceed to remove various dirty stains. This, perhaps, will be the most difficult part of your work, but it must be done first of all, because the dirt concentration in spots is higher than on the rest of the sofa cover.

Do not use cleaning products that are not suitable for leather products. Under the influence of such products, you may be able to remove stains, but with them you will remove the protective top layer, consisting of natural oils. The result of such cleaning will soon appear in the form of cracks.

Everyone knows that skin is a porous material in its structure. And this feature, after some time, begins to make itself felt. Dirt clogs into the pores of the skin, which is not so easy to “pick out” with an ordinary sponge. And here any brush will come to your aid, even a toothbrush, but with soft bristles that will get dirt in the most inaccessible places, including in the pores.

Do not use excessive force when removing stains. Your zeal will only help dirt rub into the skin pores.

If you accidentally spill any liquid on the sofa, immediately remove it with a soft material that absorbs moisture well. This should be done exclusively with soaking movements. Rubbing movements are unacceptable, as this will contribute to the rubbing of this liquid (tea, coffee, etc.) into the pores of the skin and will only aggravate the situation. The result will be manifested, if not instantly, then after some time - for sure. A spot on the couch is guaranteed.

But if you “spill” natural milk on the sofa, it will even be beneficial for him, because the oil contained in it will soften his leather cover. And you do not need to buy special products to moisturize the coating, the composition of which is not always complete without chemical components. Explain to you what is more useful, natural or artificial, perhaps, is not worth it. Of course, you should not use pure butter in its pure form - the effect will be the opposite.

Upon completion of cleaning the leather sofa, its complete drying, do not forget to apply a layer of conditioner - a wax-based moisturizer to the skin. This should be done regularly, but not often - once every six months it will be quite enough.

If your efforts to clean the contaminated areas of the sofa do not give the desired result, do not be discouraged - consult a specialist.

Cleaning a light sofa

The light skin of the sofa is an excellent object for drawing with a felt-tip pen or ball-point pen to your baby left "for a moment". The issue of removing the "art" of the baby is not so complicated if you started to solve it in time. To do this, you will need alcohol or acetone (acetone is an extreme measure that requires some skill from you). A cloth moistened with a solution of these products will easily remove traces of a ballpoint pen or felt-tip pen.

Traces of spilled coffee or tea on a light sofa will be perfectly eliminated by a solution of natural soap that does not contain sodium lauryl sulfate. If the soap did not cope with the task, you can use a weak solution of vinegar.

An important advantage of a light sofa over a dark one is the ability to use funds without fear to noticeably damage its color.

Skin cleaning is possible using a conventional dishwashing detergent. The surface of leather furniture is wiped with a sponge moistened with this product. After that, its remnants are washed off with a damp cloth.

Cleaning the dark sofa

An unpleasant feature of a dark leather sofa is the delicacy of its cleaning. Use alcohol to clean the skin carefully, because the quality of its painting may not be up to par, and as a result you can get an excellent “camouflage” version of the sofa. It is doubtful that this will make you happy. Therefore, before using alcohol to clean the leather coating, you should try to wipe it with it in a place where, in the case of a negative result, it would be imperceptible.

A bit about hygiene

Of course, dirt is a matter of hygiene. But do not forget about things like fungus or mold. Its presence in the folds of a leather sofa poses a certain threat to both the "health" of the sofa and you. To disinfect the area infected with the fungus, you can use a weak vinegar solution. But you should quickly clean the infected area so that the solution does not have time to soak into the skin of the sofa.

The owner of a leather sofa is no less worried about scuffs or scratches.

But here, not everything is so bad. There is a special water-soluble polymer, it is also called liquid skin. It has seven colors, which allows you to get almost any shade. Apply it to the damaged area with a thin layer. To restore the restored texture to the skin, immediately after applying the polymer, press it with a dry sponge. If the restoration did not work the first time, repeat this procedure.

Skin scuffs can be removed with a neutral shoe polish. As a result, you will again get a brand new leather sofa, spending just a jar of cream or a spray of polymer.

Finally

I would like to recall the prevention of clean sofa. If you will not:

have a picnic on the couch;
wait for your light sofa to turn dark;
use only special detergents for cleaning, but, nevertheless, previously tested on subtle sections of the sofa;
Dry the cleaned sofa with an electric hairdryer to speed up the process. For this, open windows and natural ventilation of the room after cleaning the sofa will be enough;
vacuuming weekly;
located near heat sources;
allow pets to do morning exercises with sharpening claws.

A leather sofa will delight you and your loved ones for more than one year.