Cleaning Tips for Leather Upholstery

Keep your leather looking brand new!

Keep your leather sofa looking brand new!

Accidents happen and, even worse, sometimes they happen to leather.  Next time you have a little spill on the sofa, don’t panic.  Just keep these Contempo Sofa tips in mind:

To remove small ink stains, dip a cotton swab in rubbing alcohol and apply gently.  Take great care to be delicate and avoid applying the alcohol to unstained areas.  Dry gently, as well.

Oil and grease can be removed with baby powder.  First wipe as much of whatever substance off the leather as possible.  Then cover the stain in baby powder and let it sit overnight.   Wipe away in the morning.

Dark stains can be removed from light-colored upholstery by mixing a paste of lemon juice and cream of tartar.  Apply the paste to the stain and let it sit for about ten minutes.  Apply another layer the paste, rub it in gently, and then remove with a damp sponge.  If you’d like you could also add a little moisturizing soap to your sponge.

Moisturizing soap is generally an effective way to freshen up your leather and keep it well-conditioned.  Just remember not to soak the leather or rinse.  Just dab it with a moist cloth.  You can also purchase soap made specifically to treat leather products.

Timeliness and preparation are both important.  If you can treat the stain immediately, that will prevent it from saturating the leather and becoming permanent.

Do not ever use hand sanitizer, dish soap, Windex or nail polish remover to clean leather upholstery.  The chemicals in these substances could damage the leather further leaving ugly spots and blotches.  Also, before trying your cleaning methods, find an inconspicuous or unused spot on your sofa to test the cleaning solution first, just to be sure your solution won’t damage or stain the upholstery even further.

Are the any leather cleaning methods we forgot to mention?  If you know of any other helpful tips, leave a comment below or tell us on twitter via @ContempoSpace.

This entry was posted in Tips and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Cleaning Tips for Leather Upholstery

  1. Judy Bass says:

    Please take expertvadvice on leather care as some of this information is not adviseable – if we can help with a guest blog please let us know
    Regards
    Judyb
    Leather care consultant

  2. You could make use of your available resources at home when removing stains. Various solutions could be used depending on the type of stain. You just have to learn more about it to prevent your leather furniture from getting damaged.

  3. Stains should be removed immediately or else they will be quite difficult to remove or might even leave a permanent mark on your leather upholstery. Making use of the appropriate materials for cleaning stains will make the job a lot easier.

Leave a Reply to Judy Bass Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>