The Beauty of Top Grain Leather ?
Nothing adds richness and beauty to a room like a gorgeous leather. It has been used all over the world for thousands of years in any number of applications. Leather is durable, cleanable, and long-lasting, and brings a raw natural beauty that manufactured products simply cannot match.
What is Top Grain Leather ?
A hide is actually much thicker than a finished upholstery leather. Before it is finished, a hide is split into layers. The layer closest to the surface is the Top Grain and includes the actual surface of the skin with all of its natural pores, wrinkles, and scars. It is the strongest part of the hide.
The Split Hide is everything that has been cut from the inner layer of the hide. It is used to make suede and other leather products such as genuine leather.
Usage & Maintenance
Leather is a natural product and will last for many years with proper care and just like your skin leather will stretch and reconstitute and heal.
As leather is elastic stretching depends on usage and other factors such as the firmness of the foam in your sofa. You may find that those sofas with the neatest most taught leather are also firmer than other sofas. Similarly the more comfy softer feeling leather sofas have a degree of give to allow the user to sink in slightly feeling comfortable.
It is a balance between the look of your product and comfort you require.
Don't be alarmed if you do have slight creasing in your leather sofa as weight and body heat will soften the sections sat on more or for longer periods. This is perfectly natural and there must be a give to the cushioning to offer the comfort. After immediately getting up from a leather sofa the leather may have stretched slightly but will reconstitute when bearing no weight. By the same token the foam will soften when bearing weight and again will come back to normal position when not in usage. Stretching is not a defect but an inherent natural quality of the leather.
We also advise the use of proper leather cleaning materials and a cream to keep your leather in top condition.
http://www.deluxdeco.co.uk/furniture-clinic-care-kit-5603.html
Leather Seat Cushions
Unlike with fabric, it is impossible to make a reversible leather cushion. This is because leather does not breathe, so any air inside the cushion cannot escape when you sit on it. This would be very uncomfortable, so we use a special breathable fabric on the underside of our leather cushions (as well as on the backs of our leather back cushions). For that reason, the cushions cannot be flipped around like they can in fabric.
Depending on the design of the furniture, it may be possible to rearrange the location of the seat cushions (e.g. swap the left and right cushions), but they cannot be flipped upside down.
Care and Cleaning
In spite of the durability of certain types of leather, it is NOT invincible. It is a natural product, and it can stretch, scar, wrinkle, stain, and show scratches. The tanning process can only protect hides to a certain extent.
It takes preventative measures to ensure that your furniture will last a lifetime. Use the following cleaning methods to keep your leather furniture looking its best for many years to come.
A word of caution: the finish on leather furniture can wear off from prolonged contact with chemicals of any kind—including chemicals found in hair gels, hairsprays, skin lotion, and even certain dyes used in clothing. Be careful about anything that has regular, repeated contact with your leather furniture.