Caring For Your Leather Sofa Beds

The first, and almost the most important factor that goes into caring for your leather sofa bed is to ensure that where possible, you avoid using water/good old fashioned elbow grease to keep that superb finish that comes naturally with this superb material.  We’ve lost track of the amount of people that have ruined really beautiful furniture by trying to clean their leather sofa beds in the same way you’d clean the dishes!  Leather is a unique material, and using soap and water to clean it can cause real damage to it – which is the last thing you want when you’ve spent a lot of money on obtaining the very best!

Secondly, it is always wise when you’re planning to give your leather sofa bed a good clean to ensure that you invest in proper leather cleaner.  There is a wide variety of options available on the market today, and you’ll usually be able to find the right product to suit your own leather either online or simply at your local supermarket.  Failing this, most towns will have a specialty shop that deals in shoe repair – these places have years of experience in leather care, and will usually be happy to help point you to the right materials.

Don’t overdo it with the cleaning.  Whilst we’re not lessening the value of good hard elbow grease – lord knows how we’d get the curry stains off the plates without it – leather is a gentle material, which means that if you go at it too hard, then it will usually suffer damage to the finish.  If you’re just looking to wipe off a spillage, then one or two gentle wipes will usually be sufficient to do the job.  For more severe staining it would be a good idea for you to look for a slightly stronger (and still specially designed) cleaning product, rather than simply scrubbing harder.  As ever, you should be avoiding at all costs any damage to the finish – that classy look is why people spend the money on leather sofa beds in the first place!

Keep things tepid.  There are a lot of things in life that should not be tepid: a bath in the winter, a cocktail in the summer and a hot-tub all spring to mind!  However, it’s important to ensure that any liquids and cleaning products that come into contact with genuine leather should neither be too cold nor too hot.  Leather is a living material, which means that unlike polyester and other plastics, it is susceptible to both cracking if it dries out (leather should be treated regularly), or warping should it become too wet – worse, it can even become mouldy if it suffers both!  Use tepid cleaner and treating materials, and the material of your leather sofa beds should be fine.

As with anything, though, always ensure that if you’re uncertain about certain aspects of caring for your leather that you consult an expert.  In any area of life, the advice of someone who really knows their stuff is invaluable, and that’s certainly the case here!