A staple of any high-class lounge, living room, cafe, or sitting area is quality leather furniture. Known to last a lifetime and never appear outdated or out of style, leather furniture is a worthy investment for any personal or professional space.
Humans have used leather hides for thousands of years in their clothing, bedding, weaponry, shoes and more. Today, people can purchase leather from anywhere in the world depending on things like style, preference, and the type of animal skin.
Since consumers spend decades with the same piece of furniture it’s wise to go into any purchase with careful research. With that in mind, we’ll go over a few key pointers for choosing the best quality leather furniture in the article below.
Choosing Quality Leather Furniture: 4 Major Indicators
Leather furniture is the perfect addition to every vintage room or modern interior design. However, purchasing bad leather is likely to spoil the appeal of any design.
Shoppers should understand that expensive prices don’t guarantee quality leather furniture. Any furniture store can hike its prices to gain hype on specific items, regardless of their true quality.
In order to stay ahead of the tricks and games of furniture purchasing, look for these essential indicators of quality leather furniture:
- Texture
Genuine leather should be soft to touch, but with a definite firmness that you can fell by pressing in using only a little pressure. Fake leather will either be extremely tough or else soft enough where a slight scratch or indention will leave marks.
In addition, true leather should be warm to the touch, as the hide is designed by nature to retain heat. Fake or poor-quality leather will feel cool or downright cold. Plus, good leather is likely rough along the edges of each cut.
- Smell
You can’t mistake the smell of authentic leather, and there are few other natural smells to compare it to. Quality leather furniture should have a rich and familiar aroma whereas poor materials will likely smell like chemicals.
- Size
A full piece of leather furniture will require a bunch of materials — much more than a single hide can provide. The average size of a hide is somewhere around three feet by six feet, which isn’t likely to be enough for a single recliner, much less leather lounge suites.
Customers can check the back panels of furniture items to spot stitch marks and determine roughly how many hides were used. If it seems like a single piece of fabric with no stitch lines, the odds are it’s a poor or fake piece.
- Color
You can look at furniture tags for manufacturer information, but sometimes you can spot a flaw by eye. One such spottable flaw is a fake tinge of color. Natural leather has it’s own rich color and may undergo staining to bring out subtle shades.
Colorful leather or leather with shades unlikely found in nature are sure indicators that the material is fake or poor quality.
More Design Insight from the Professionals at Futuristic Architecture
Looking for more insight into design and tips for choosing the best quality leather furniture for your next project?
Browse other articles on the Furuturistic Architecture website today and look for topics like interiors and furniture to find specialized information to help you buy.
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