Leather vs. cloth upholstery (1 Viewer)

[Seth Paxton]

Funny you ask since we just got a new Pottery Barn leather chair. Cats have back claws only (strictly house cats). CRyan is right. It's not the scratching, its the pushing off with the back claws.
So during the day we keep the seat covered with a blanket. If we use the chair or have company we fold up the blanket.
The chair sits great. Leather is wonderful to me. We both went with leather for our cars as well and neither of us would complain one bit after more than 4 years with both of them.
God love those little bastard cats. Like babies there is a reason they are made cute...survival.
As far as class goes, the chair outclasses the rest of our house at this point (and it's a pretty nice place as we have been told by others), so I don't get the attitude about leather. There is a reason it's popular and expensive. If it was a gimmick people would be on to that fact by now. Maybe Value City crap looks bad, but then their cloth stuff is classless as well.

 

[Julie K]

I'm surprised at the attitude that leather furniture lacks 'class'. When I shopped for a new couch about a year ago I was surrounded by fabric couches sporting big gaudy flowers. While I love my tacky Hawaiian shirts, I find such designs rather unappealing on my furniture. The few solid colors in fabric I saw are probably best described as sanity-threatening colors that could only be manufactured under the hideous light of far distant alien suns.
Or so it seemed to me.
My dark brown leather sofa looks nice to me and feels good when I sit on it. And as a very nice plus it goes very well with the hippo on my wall.
Jason,
Stains are stains whether they are on leather or fabric. I've found that generally the higher the cost of a material the harder it is to clean. A splash of red wine or a slop of chili will be just as bad on a light fabric couch as on a light leather one. If concern over stains are a priority, then you need to shop for a fabric that can be cleaned easily. However, there are some stains that just do not come out. Perhaps the best thing would be to subtly steer your sloppily-eating friends to the dining room?

 

[Charles J P]

Perhaps the best thing would be to subtly steer your sloppily-eating friends to the dining room?

Actually, the leather I was refering to in my post that I do think is classy, is very easy to clean. Like I said, it is not the porous kooshy leather. It is smoother, harder and you will not find it on the oversized couches with hundreds of pleats. It looks more its from the 50's. If you spill something on it, the finish is harder so you have time to wipe it up before it just soaks in. I agree, that some things will stain no matter what, but of course the darker and less porous your material is, the better as far as being stain resisitant.

 

[Mark Schermerhorn]

Charles, I agree with your take on leather. Only the "antiqued" brown leather looks at all good to me, like the kind of thing you would find in a study. Although I find it too stuffy anyway so I wouldn't buy that style either.
"Regular" leather couches are ok, but they are something I'd put in the family room (or HT room if I had one ), and not a living room or anywhere else. I don't like their design or appearance.
But, whatever works for you is what's best.

 

[Todd Hochard]

Jason,
To answer your question about spills-
We've never had a major spill of anything on the furniture. Couple of baby spit-ups, dirty dog paws when he comes in from the rain, etc., but no red wine or anything. We use an all-natural (whatever that means) olive/citrus based soap cleaner that we get from Origins (this is our general purpose house cleaning stuff, too) to clean up the little spills, and it has worked fine.
If you've got sloppy friends, I say corral them to the table. If they protest, say "your drooling, drink-spilling, chip-dropping, walking-the-dog ass is not to be trusted with my good furniture." Or something like that.
Todd

 

[Patrick_S]

we just got a new Pottery Barn leather chair.

I probably have the same chair from Pottery Barn and I find it is a great chair. I also purchased the autumn.

I really do not understand all the negative comments concerning leather. Cheep leather furniture looks cheap, as does cheap cloth furniture.

While I do have cloth furniture in my formal living room, (hopefully soon to be my theater.) I prefer leather in the den and family room.

It's just all a matter of preference and style.

As already noted a real plus to leather is that it tends to come in neutral colors so it goes with almost anything. On the other hand if you buy a cloth couch and it has so "in" design you'll find it sticks out in a few years.

 

[Jason Handy]

Thanks for all the great input everybody! I was not expecting such a robust discussion over furniture, but I am certainly not complaining.

Over the next few months, we will be buying our furniture - I will take into account all your ideas so that I have a better idea of what to ask when we go to the store.

Thanks again,

Jason

 

[Keith Mickunas]

A friend of mine bought a nice expensive couch about two years ago. From the beginning he and his girlfriend would yell at the cat when it eyed the couch. Problem sovled. His cat does not get on the couch. They have other things for him to climb and scratch and he does just fine.

In my experience, most animals can be trained. My dog learned she wasn't allowed on the furniture early on. She was allowed in the bean bags, and on the ugly vinyl covered ottoman. Eventually she found we were less strict on the old furniture, but heaven forbid my mom finding her on the new stuff. She knew the rules so well that only if food was involved would she break it, even if we attempted to call her up on the furniture. The only exception was my brother's futon. For some reason she took to that right away, but she only slept at the foot of it, not on his pillows.

 

[PatrickM]

We have two matching leather love seats in our family room that get sat on a lot. We've basically been sitting on them every day since 1994. Our young son is all over them and people have spilled coke and whatever else on them and you know what? Its never left a stain. The leather we bought is the brown aged look type but is really thick and soft. It lasts like you wouldn't believe and is really comfortable. I don't think my cloth couch and loveseat in the living room would have lasted this well.

Patrick

 

[Ryan Wright]

I like leather where appropriate and would have it, except for one thing: My dog.

I spent $35k on a new vehicle in late '99. It had a beautiful leather interior. The problem is, I was paranoid about anything happening to it. My dog has toenails like any animal and while she does not tear things up on purpose, merely walking back and forth on the leather would leave marks all over it. So, I never took her anywhere.

When I got tired of making $760 car payments last November I traded it in for a less expensive vehicle. I specifically requested a cloth interior so I can take my dog places. Sure, the cloth wears a little faster with a dog on it and will probably have to be replaced sooner rather than later, but at the end of the day I can vaccumn the hair off and it looks brand new again. With the leather, every time she hopped on she would leave marks all over it and they were next to impossible to get off.

Yes, you can teach your animals to stay off the furniture. No, they usually won't listen when you're not around - especially cats. They'll hop up there anyway and jump off if they hear you coming. But my dog is a member of the family and I treat her very well. She sleeps in our bed with us and I enjoy having her on the couch with me when I watch movies. I want her to be allowed on the furniture. At the same time I want my furniture to look nice; I'm not interested in sitting on furniture that looks like hell because the animals have been all over it. As long as they don't make a concious effort to tear it, cloth holds up very well. Leather doesn't.

So, no leather furniture for me.