Protect your leather seats from damage

Without ignoring the cost factor, leather furniture is a very popular choice for many living rooms. Their attractive look is timeless. For some people, owning leather chairs gives them a feeling of pride and accomplishment as it adds an elegant look to your living room, especially when the leather is still new.
Leather sofas have been used all over the world for thousands of years.
Leather is durable, easy to clean, and long-lasting, and brings a raw natural beauty that manufactured products simply cannot match. However, when your children start playing on them, they may be a dirty mess before long.
Oscar Okello, a carpenter at Wood Art Carpentry Workshop, in Kasubi, a Kampala suburb, says people who have children, not to mention pets like cats and dogs also show up at his workshop looking for durable leather fabric.
He explains: “Preventive measures are in order to keep that leather sofas looking new, unless the home owner wants to protect the leather with a cover, or ask children and pets to stay away from the living room entirely.”
Okello says when they are buying these leather fabrics for the sofas, the importers advise them on their proper maintenance.
He notes that one of the best ways of keeping the leather on your sofa looking good is preventing it from getting stained.
Spills and crumbs happen, even when adults are the culprits, so keeping food away means you will not have to deal with that.

How to clean leather material
Elena Nakintu, an interior designer at Royal Interior Decorators in Nateete, a city suburb, says, for children, “Crayons, markers, pens, scissors, paints and play clay are some things they can use to mess the sofa area any of them could lead to stains or damage. You should not be so hard on your children, teach them to quickly notify you once a spill happens. Wipe it off immediately with a damp cloth or leather cleaner.”
She clarifies that you may borrow ideas on how other leather gear is preserved. You may choose to spray your sofa with protective sprays. These are normally similar to those used for leather or suede shoes and jackets; they create a thin barrier that helps prevent stains on the leather.
“These sprays are sold in furniture shops, supermarkets or interior design shops. Leather is also susceptible to staining from hair and skin oils as well as unwashed fabrics, so place towels or a sofa cover over the leather if someone sits in the same spot frequently. Special leather cleaners remove stains from hair and body oils and can also be used to spot cover areas where the protective coating on the leather has worn off,” she says.
Grace Kintu, a proprietor of Dreams House Cleaning business, in Wakiso says, the charm of leather is that it is mostly resistant to odour and it does not attract pet hair.
If by chance some actually happens to find its way onto the cushions, it wipes off easily with a dust cloth.
She says dogs and cats seem to avoid leather as long as there is a scratching post nearby, and if your dog leaves a small scratch you can usually fit it up with dye.
Kintu reasons that faced with the wrong adversaries, a new sofa can look great used in a very short time.

Considerations for purchase
Prior to making a purchase, an evaluation of a leather choice should be considered.
While some material can completely withstand the added wear and tear possible with a pet, others are indisputably better than others.
She adds, there a variety of options, for example, you can choose distressed leather, and these usually draw less attention to scratches and scrapes.
“This kind of leather is one a home owner is likely to keep for half a lifetime. Unlike other fabric, this leather can be easily wiped down to clean up spills when children and pets are around or a grown-up manages to splash their wine or juice,” Kintu says.
She adds that many furniture companies fail to tell consumers their leather sofas actually contain very small amounts of real leather, as the percentage of actual animal hide can differ, depending on the retailer or manufacturer.
Kintu declares that they often find that some of the sofas they clean are of poor quality, low content leather or poorly-made bonded leather sofas.
He notes that genuine leather is a bit expensive.
“If you are able to be patient and save the necessary funds for a genuine leather sofa, do so, especially if a leather sofa which is valuable to scrapes is what your heart truly desires.”

Ways of cleaning leather sofas
Vacuum clean the sofa with a soft brush attachment. Make sure it sucks the dirt out of all the gaps, otherwise the dust and stain could be rubbed into the sofa when you wipe it with the cleaning solution.
Dust particles are rough in nature. Hence, they can damage the leather when they come in contact with moisture.
Create a cleaning solution by mixing equal amounts of water and white vinegar. Alternatively, you can mix a few drops of commercial leather cleaner in water.
After which you should dip a soft cloth in this solution and squeeze it out so that the cloth is damp, not completely wet.
Then wipe the entire sofa with this cloth while rinsing the cloth in the cleaning solution when necessary. It is best to start cleaning from the top and work your way down.
You can as well clean your leather sofa with a moisturising soap and water (bring it to lather and then wipe). Test the cleaning solution on an inconspicuous spot before using it on the entire sofa.
To remove mold or if your little one has scribbled something on the sofa with a ballpoint pen, clean the affected area with a combination of equal parts of water and alcohol.

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