If you’ve made the decision to invest in quality leather furniture of any kind for use around the office, chances are you’d prefer to keep it in the best possible condition. After all, these are not the kinds of temporary or throw-away bits and pieces you can afford to neglect – quality leather office furniture does not come cheap.
So while there’s always the option of calling in the professionals to restore things to pristine working order, the following tips and tricks can also help keep your leather furniture looking every bit as good as new:
1. The secret to keeping leather furniture as clean and well maintained as possible lies in caring for it little and often. Quite simply, if you arm yourself with nothing more than a clean and very slightly damp cloth, a quick wipe on a daily basis is really all it takes. You might also want to keep a duster handy, as leather furniture tends to be something of a magnet for the stuff!
2. Try to get into the habit of turning the cushions on your leather furniture (if applicable) on a regular basis, as in doing so you will minimise those rather unfortunate wrinkles that tend to appear.
3. Take to your leather furniture on a weekly basis using a vacuum cleaner with the softest brush attachment you have. Make sure you get into all the cracks and corners the likes of which may be harbouring all manner of nasties, giving the whole thing a good wipe down afterwards.
4. For a simple DIY cleaning product, try mixing together in equal parts of lukewarm water and white vinegar. There are of course plenty of leather cleaning products on the market, but this often works just as well. As always however, be sure to test things on a relatively small and ideally hidden area first, just to see how your own leather reacts.
5. Make sure your leather furniture stays as dry as possible at all times, removing excess moisture after cleaning and wiping up any spills or splashes immediately upon detection. In addition, never be tempted to use any kind of hot air device to dry leather furniture as this can result in the leather becoming dehydrated and damaged.
6. If you find yourself faced with a rather unfortunate problem of mould and mildew build-up, it can be surprisingly effective to treat it with a mixture of equal parts water and surgical spirit. Once again, don’t go ahead before testing is out on a small bit of inconspicuous area.
7. If you come across any stains of any kind that are still wet, be sure to block the liquid off and out of the material, rather than rubbing it in or spreading it even further.
8. Last but not least, one surprisingly powerful weapon in caring for leather furniture and removing a variety of seemingly stubborn stains is in fact nothing more than the humble baby wipe. Be sure to choose the gentlest product possible and carry out the usual test before going ahead on a larger scale, that you might just be surprised how well these little moist tissues work.