5 smart tips for maintaining leather upholstered furniture

Your leather upholstered furniture can last you a lifetime, if you take caution and care. Here are a few tips to keep your pieces at their best.

When it comes to caring for leather chairs and sofas, more is less. Regular cleaning requires nothing more than dusting. Don't use saddle soap on leather furniture — save it for your boots. Likewise, don't use oils, abrasives, varnish, straight ammonia, or ammonia diluted in water.Here is a cleaning regimen that will keep most leather furniture looking great for decades.

Note: Because leather coatings vary, it best to read the cleaning instructions that came with your furniture before cleaning. If you didn't keep the instructions, you may be able to get them from the manufacturer or the retailer.

• When a piece is new, treat it with a leather conditioner/preservative to protect it and keep it supple.
• The most important thing you can do for leather furniture is to dust it weekly. This keeps the pores from getting clogged with dust particles. Just wipe with a soft cloth.
• About four times a year, thoroughly clean leather furniture with a leather cleaner. Concentrate especially on wear areas, such as seats, arms, and backs. After cleaning, reapply a conditioner/preservative.
• Note that uncoated leathers readily absorb liquids and should not be cleaned with anything more than dusting or a damp cloth. Just dusting is better. Some stains just can't be removed from uncoated leather. You can try using an art gum-eraser to remove ordinary dirt.

• Coated leather will initially repel most liquids, but then it will gradually begin to absorb the liquid.
• So if you use a clean, absorbent cloth or sponge to immediately blot up a spill, you'll usually have no trouble picking up the liquid without leaving a trace.
• If necessary, you can use a couple of drops of liquid hand soap in lukewarm water to help soak up the liquid.
• The good news is that even if the liquid has had a chance to soak in, it will dissipate in time, just as human skin will absorb and eventually diffuse stains.

• If your leather should get stained with ink, grease, wax, urine, blood, or gum, you'll need to use a professional leather cleaning product to remove it.
• Follow the instructions that come with the product.
• It's smart to have the cleaner on hand because the sooner you attack the stain, the better chance you have of thoroughly removing it.

• Place your leather furniture at least half a metre (two feet) away from any direct heat source, such as a radiator, hot-air vent, or fireplace.
• Too much dry heat will cause leather to dry out and crack.
• Also, keep your leather furniture out of direct sunlight that will gradually fade the leather, as it will any dyed furnishing. Sunlight can also cause leather to crack.

Try to position your leather pieces so that people won't brush by them as they walk through the room. Repeated rubbing at one spot can cause marks that you can't remove.