How to clean your leather sofa
Clean your luxurious leather sofa with our top guide to cleaning and maintaining your pride and joy to make sure your investment not only lasts a long time but looks more beautiful than the day you bought it.
Hold off with the water
Don’t get your leather too wet when you’re cleaning up a mark or stain – this is the quickest way to ruin the look of your sofa. By all means dab with a damp cloth, but nothing more.
Invest in some leather cleaner
Specialist leather cleaner is the obvious choice for regular cleaning to get your sofa looking stunning once again. There are various products out there so make sure you check that the product you’re buying is suitable for your sofa. Saddle soap is a less obvious choice, but can work well on many types of leather – again, check what you’re buying is suitable for the leather your sofa is made from.
Perform a weekly dust down
As with anything, your sofa can gather dust on a weekly basis and a simple dust down while you’re cleaning your house or flat is a sure fire way to keep your sofa looking tip top and prevent future stains. You can also use a vacuum cleaner if you so wish and finish the job with a quick buff of leather polish. Don’t use furniture polish! This will ruin the leather.
Get rid of those stains
Alcohol, aerosol and eucalyptus oil are all tried and tested stain removers for leather. For those stains that leather cleaner just will not budge, give one of these a go instead – you might be surprised!
Got grease?
Grease stains are the bain of sofa-owners lives, popping up here and there with just the slightest spillage or drip. Don’t despair! Just sprinkle a little baking soda on the stain, leave for a few hours, dust off and hey presto! The stain is gone.
Grab a lemon!
A housewife’s favourite, lemon juice and tartar paste is brilliant at lifting dark coloured stains on a range of fabrics, including leather. Rub the affected area of the leather with the paste and simply wipe off with a damp cloth.
Don’t forget to test
We all know that leather can react badly to some cleaners, so it’s a great idea to test your cleaning method on a hidden area before committing to using it all over. The last thing you want is a discoloured circle that looks worse than the original stain!
Don’t be a scrubber!
If the stain or mark just won’t budge, don’t be tempted to scrub at it – you’ll more than likely cause more harm than good a ruin the leather. If all else really does fail, then call in the professionals. Upholstery cleaners have amazing tools and certainly know how to use them!
Just a spill
The best way to deal with spillages is to immediately dab them up with a paper towel – this way they don’t get the chance to cause a stain. Be gentle, don’t scrub and once you are finished, dab the affected area gently with a towel. Before you know it, your sofa will be dry and stain free!
Clean Little and Often
We can’t help the odd spillage and mark – it’s life. However, if you take good care of your sofa with regular polishing and conditioning, you’re far less likely to have a dirty sofa in the long run. Prevention is better than cure right? So the more you can prevent a costly upholstery cleaner bill the better!
