There is a lot to be said about the luxury of leather furniture. From the extravagance of a full-grain leather sofa to the commanding feel of a top-grain leather office chair, leather furniture has been a mainstay in our homes and offices for over a century. Leather furniture is highly durable, yet it softens over time to become a luxurious comfort in your lounge room to a welcoming seat in your business chambers, to the most natural scent of a leather armchair that speaks of cigars and brandy, or a warm-lit fireplace.
How Do You Choose that Perfect Piece of Leather Furniture?
There are three main steps to choosing your perfect leather accompaniment for your lounge room or study, your office or rumpus room, or your man-cave or sewing room:
- Decide on the type of leather furniture you desire.
- Ensure that the leather furniture is suitable for your home.
- Visit a local showroom and experience the feel of the furniture.
- Arrange for purchase and transportation to your home.
Deciding on the type of leather used in your choice of furniture is the first step.
How Do You Choose the Most Suitable Type of Leather?
If you are not bound by cost, then the most obvious choices for leather furniture are the full-grain and the top-grain coverings on your sofa or chair, or lounge sitter. Full-grain leather is the purest form of leather covering and generally retains the qualities of the animal hide after fur is removed and the leather is softened a little after being soaked in dye.
Initial use will find the full-grain leather furniture still a little hard at first, but over weeks and months and years, the leather softens with usage until it is so sumptuous and comfortable you might never want to get up.
Top-grain leather furniture is the next best choice and is a little softer due to further buffering during the tanning process. This item of luxury maybe a little less costly but is just as durable and nearly as pure as the full-grain counterpart. It could be a suitable choice if you have small children or members of the family that might be averse to the slight coarseness of full-grain animal hide.
The logical choice for leather furniture if you are working to a budget is bonded leather furniture. These sofas and chairs and sitters are covered with leather that is pieced together from off-cuts of the leather process and retain the similar feel, scent and durability of the higher-priced items. Although containing less leather than the top of the range items these pieces of furniture can still be called genuine.
Split-grain leather furniture is another possible choice as the leather used here is the remaining hide after the top part is removed. This type of furniture is coarser and harder to maintain for durability but retains the scent and texture of the higher-priced items.
Does the Leather Furniture Suit My Home?
Asking yourself this question can save you a lot of wasted time and effort. Take into consideration choice of colour, and space limitations. Even if that leather sofa or armchair you always wanted is on special at the dealer’s, it might not fit into your lounge room or cosy den, or the colour might clash with the surrounding décor. Then you have to consider maintaining your leather furniture to keep it soft and durable, and free from stains and markings.
Visit the Leather Furniture Showroom
It is advisable to visit the leather showroom where you want to purchase your furniture, or even a showroom that sells leather furniture just to get the feel for the type of sofa, or chair or sitter that you want. Sitting in that chair or lying on that sofa, imagine what the piece of furniture would be like in your own home. Visualization skills aside, choosing the best piece of leather furniture is a project that is enjoyable and will yield the results of the softness and smell of leather, something that cannot be matched with other types of furniture.
