Sofa Upholstery: Leather vs. Fabric (living room, beds, sofas, couch)
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looking for our first "nice" piece of furniture and i'm stuck weighing the pros and cons of each. truthfully, the main con to leather right now is that it's pretty expensive. that said, apparently good leather lasts a long time.
brands i'm consdering:
Hancock & Moore - at the very upper end of our budget
Bradington Young
Smith Brothers - dubious about leather quality
I love the Hancock & Moore leather sofa I bought a few years ago. Very comfortable, has held up beautifully. I bought it to be a "rest of my life" piece. BTW, we have had small dogs, but I've never seen any scratches on the leather.
Edited to add: google to find dealers other than your local one. I forget who I ordered from, but I saved about $3000 on our sofa by ordering from someone in the New England area instead of buying in TX where I lived at the time. That savings was even after paying for shipping.
We've had two leather sofas (Natuzzi) and a leather recliner (Ekornes) for 25 years now and no issues. Get "full grain" leather - this is the whole hide thickness. "Top grain" is shaved thin so they get multiple sheets out of one hide. There are also "reconstituted" leathers (can't remember the terms of art) which are essentially leather shavings bound together with glue and coated with plastic. You can generally tell cheap crappy leather by its shiny hard finish as opposed to quality leather which has a soft matte finish and a thick solid feel.
Hancock & Moore and Bradington Young are quality brands and you will not be disappointed. They are however, Very expensive. If you don’t have pets or if your pets aren’t allowed on furniture leather shouldn’t be a necessity. A nice tweed or chenille would be a good choice and very durable. Fabric gives you so many options! I just wouldn’t do ALL leather furniture .
I’ve owned both, i prefer leather. I have one chair upholstered in fabric. I’ve instructed the grands that they may not eat while sitting in that chair.
For me, a big disadvantage of leather is the limitation of color and pattern.
With upholstered furniture, I think one should buy the best quality one can afford. You will be sitting on the piece for years.
I have both: leather sofa & love seat upstairs, fabric downstairs. My gray leather sofa & love seat are 17 years old. No kids here, but two small dogs. I use a leather cleaner & conditioner on them. They were about $2,500 when I bought them. They have held up very well. But they are cold in the winter. I have a lot of throws to take care of that. The fabric furniture is 5 years old. It's holding up very well, but isn't used that much.
I must be the only person who sticks to leather furniture.
I disagree with the poster who says leather furniture adjusts to your body temperature quickly. That hasn’t been my experience.
Interesting - it's totally been my experience. If the indoor temperature is kept relatively stable, and most are, I find that leather responds very quickly to my body temperature.
I also never "stick" to my various leather sofas or chairs.
Be careful about the type of leather. Our great room leather sofas were fine for the first two years but then started to get surface scratches. I'm chalking it to the dry climate, but even with regular treatment, scratches from wedding rings and laptops are frequent. Its just dh and I in this house so no rough treatment, and these were NOT cheap. I can't imagine kids or pets being near these. Also, we cant keep pillows in place on this sofa due to the slick surface, and a throw for pets would never stay put.
Our cheapest leather sofas are in the lower level and they are doing great. They are a light cream color so scratches wouldn't be that visible. I also suspect they are not all leather. My favorite sofa is a Classic Leather piece that we bought 20 years ago. It's now in the office and though it's suffered some from the move to a dry climate, it's not in bad shape at all. We have one fabric sofa that is about 12 years old, has down cushions, and is my favorite place to lounge and read. So comfy. I like having a mix.
looking for our first "nice" piece of furniture and i'm stuck weighing the pros and cons of each. truthfully, the main con to leather right now is that it's pretty expensive. that said, apparently good leather lasts a long time.
brands i'm consdering:
Hancock & Moore - at the very upper end of our budget
Bradington Young
Smith Brothers - dubious about leather quality
I don't like leather because it is slippery;uncomfortable in hot weather; and cold in winter. Try draping a blanket over the back or arms and it will slide off. Cushions don't stay put. Leather takes a very long time to break in, soften up and become pliable. Fabric is much easier to clean with any standard rental machine or cleaning company.
Why not just try out one armchair in leather first and see if you like it. When nobody wants to sit in it then you know.
If you are buying upholstery beds either in leather or fabric, you need to weigh your options. And, by options I mean the maitainance, the wear and tear of the materials, etc. While leather may look sleek, it’s expensive and requires a lot of maintenance as compared to the fabric ones.
We've had our leather couch for 15 year through kids and pets, and it's held up beautifully. It's in our family room and is probably the most used piece of furniture in the house. We've never done anything to it, so I don't know what kind of maintenance you're talking about. I will say that it does pay to get good, quality leather. It won't be cheap, but it will last much longer.
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