Purchasing new furniture for your home can be exciting. You can completely change the look of your home by replacing old furniture. If you are planning on purchasing a new leather sofa, it is important to be able to determine whether the sofa is made of real leather and to find leather care products to keep it looking its very best. Many furniture companies make sofas through bonded leather. Bonded leather is small pieces of discarded leather that are bonded to a polyurethane backing. This is not real leather. If you want to purchase a real leather sofa, and want to know how to identify if a sofa is made of real or fake leather, there are a few ways that you can tell.

The Label

It is important to check the label on the sofa before you purchase it. The tag will be able to tell you whether the leather is real or not. There are a variety of terms which furniture companies use to describe the material that they used. Often times, it is difficult to know whether the term is one that is used for real or fake leather.

Real Leather:

• Genuine leather
• Nubuck
• Pure aniline
• Semi-aniline
• Pigmented leather

Fake Leather:

• Faux leather
• Naugahyde
• Pleather
• Bonded leather
• Leatherette

The Price

The price of real leather is substantially higher than that of fake leather. If you look at a price tag, and it does not seem like much money, chances are the leather is not real. The price difference between real leather sofas and fake leather sofas can be hundreds of pounds.

Appearance

If you look closely at the sofa, you may be able to determine whether it is made of real leather or fake leather.

Real Leather:

• Natural hide markings
• Gain characteristics
• “Fat wrinkles” (wrinkles in the leather caused by the animal’s fat deposits)
• Rough, uneven seam edges

Fake Leather:

• Smooth, perfect edge seams
• The couch is covered in a large, continuous piece of upholstery, rather than smaller, sewn patches.
• No natural markings, just a fluent, solid colour.

Touch
If you know what to feel for, you will be able to determine whether your sofa is real or fake leather by the touch. The feel will be very important when you are in your living room, sitting on the sofa.
Real Leather:

• “Fat wrinkles”
• Soft suppleness
• Slightly uneven feel
• Warm feeling when you sit

Fake Leather:

• Cold feeling when you sit
• Smooth to the touch
• Stiff feeling

Smell
When a couch of genuine leather, you can often tell by the smell. The smell of genuine leather is very distinctive. If the sofa emits an appealing smell, it is likely real. Unprocessed, fine leather will have a stronger smell than real leather which has gone through a mechanical dying, buffing, or sanding process. When leather is fake, it may have an unpleasant smell due to chemicals in its synthetic fibres.

Furniture shopping can be exciting, however, it can also be stressful. If you are not educated on leather furniture, you could end up spending a great deal of money on a sofa that is not worth what you are paying for. You may also end up purchasing something that you don’t really want. When you are able to distinguish the difference between a real leather sofa and a fake leather sofa, you will be able to make an educated decision. In the end, you will have the sofa that you want. It is very important to know how to identify if a sofa is made of real or fake leather. Always purchase the sofa set from a reliable store such as Chesterfield Sofa Company that ensures 100% authenticity of the leather and other material of the sofa.

Take care of your leather sofa with a leather basalm.

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