Steam Team Tips: Understanding Leather and How To Care For It

When people purchase new leather furniture for the first time, some people believe it won’t require hardly any maintenance or that it won’t be damaged nearly as easily as other material. On the flip side, there are some people who never even bother buying leather furniture because they believe it requires too much work to take care of. The reality is somewhere in the middle of these. With the right knowledge, taking care of your leather furniture can be a breeze. Here at The Steam Team, we’ve learned a whole lot about leather care over the years, and now we’re going to share some of that knowledge with you.

Different Types of Leather

The first step to caring for your leather is knowing what kind of leather you’re working with, since different types of leather require different methods of cleaning and maintenance. With hair-on leather, the preferred cleaning method is just gently vacuuming or dusting with a dry cloth. For full grain leather, use a damp cloth with warm water to clean up spills and stains, and be sure not to scrub too heavily. We’re not going to go into any more detail about other types of leather here, but be sure to find out what type of leather you have and do more research on your own about how to properly clean it.

Daily Care

Day-to-day care of leather is typically pretty simple. As stated before, when cleaning spills and stains on your leather, make sure you use the right method for your type. For all leather, try to keep it away from any direct sunlight or a heat source, as it could cause the leather to fade in color and dry out quickly. Also, be sure not to use ANY standard chemical cleaner on your leather, most chemicals could damage the leather.

The Steam Team

One more important thing to know about your leather is that it will need to have its natural oils replenished about once every year to maintain its look and feel. Turns out, we offer a service that does just that! For more information on how we can help replenish your leather furniture, just visit The Steam Team website.