How to Care for Leather Furniture

The DIY Playbook
by The DIY Playbook
3 Materials
$10
10 Minutes
Easy

We both have a couple leather pieces in our homes and love the warmth and texture they bring to our spaces. However, leather does require some maintenance in order to keep it conditioned and looking its best.

Here's our step-by-step process to care for our leather furniture and what you should be doing on a weekly and monthly basis.

Every week, we recommend wiping down your leather furniture with a microfiber cloth. This helps pick up all of the dust and debris on the surface and keeps your leather looking shiny!

About once a month we remove the cushions and vacuum up any debris that fall in the cracks. This should only take a few minutes!

Finally, you need to condition the leather once a month or so. This prevents the leather from getting dry and cracking. It will make the leather a little darker at first (like in the above picture), but it should dry evenly. (You may want to test it in a small area first, just to be sure!).

Take the leather conditioner ), put some on a microfiber cloth, and apply it in a circular motion all over your furniture. Be sure to do a light coat and then once it dries buff it!

You'll be left with a well-conditioned piece that will last for years and years to come (as long as you take care of it!).


For the full steps to this project, .

Suggested materials:
  • Microfiber Cloth
  • Vacuum
  • Leather Conditioner
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  3 questions
  • Ruth Ann Ruth Ann on Nov 05, 2018

    My leather chaise has tiny little tears on the head rest where the former owners furbaby laid and apparently “stretched”, digging little nail tips into the leather. Bought it anyhow because other then that, the piece is like new. Any ideas about how to repair or at least hide these little boo boos? I will contact a leather shop if need be, but love how creative all of you are! Thanks!

  • Frieda Vaghar Farshchian Frieda Vaghar Farshchian on Feb 04, 2019

    What would you use for leather conditioner? Thanks for the quick reply.

  • Lyn Lyn on Dec 08, 2019

    Any tips on how to repair rips?

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  • Katelyn Katelyn on Nov 04, 2018

    Very nice! Thanks for sharing

  • Amar Amar on Oct 13, 2020

    Leather cleaning is very technical! General cleaning can be taken care of at home:


    Here are the 4 ways to clean leather furniture:

    1. To clean debris from the sofa, you can use a Vaccum Pump

    2. To clean the dust of leather surface, use the feather or microfiber and clean in lightly.

    3. To remove stains, wipe the leather surface with a leather cleaning solution and then let it dry.

    4. Avoid using olive oil to clean the sofa instead, you can use a leather conditioner to conditioning the sofa


    https://www.workaroundtc.com/what-is-bonded-leather/

    for more details.


    However, in nasty stains, discoloration, and other grave matters, it is always advised to consult a leather care professional!


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