6 July 2020
Natural leather, as a material commonly used by humans, has a very long history. Even our ancestors knew that it is an excellent natural raw material that can be used, among other things, for making clothes, shoes, tents, panniers, tools, weapons and other items. Due to its properties – flexibility and strength – it was also used in transport.
Leather has been used in furniture production for many centuries. Traces of leather furniture can be found, among others, in ancient Rome, where patricians from the wealthiest houses rested on leather chaise lounges. At that time, it was an elite material, a symbol of luxury reserved only for the few.
As time passed, natural leather found more and more applications in the production of household items, although due to the expensive, complicated processing (until the 18th century the process took almost a year!), leather furniture was available mainly in manors and palaces. In the Middle Ages, it served as an upholstery material to produce chairs, which were easy to keep clean. In the Renaissance, when Spanish craftsmen perfected the techniques of leather processing and finishing, other types of furniture began to be covered with it, and decorative elements made with upholstery nails were also used. At the court of Louis XIV, dyed or gilded leather was used to upholstery furniture for sitting in representative rooms. The beginning of the 19th century saw the birth of the Chesterfield sofa, which became an icon of the classic British style – a leather sofa with characteristic quilting, large buttons and rounded armrests.
In the 19th century, there was also a rapid development of techniques for the treatment and dyeing of leather. Thanks to the use of chromium salts, the whole process became faster and cheaper. This made leather furniture widely available also for the middle class. Since the 1960s, leather in the living room has become a trend and fashion. Today, there are so many colours, textures and types of this material on the market that everyone can choose a piece of furniture for themselves, no matter what style they prefer or what size they are looking for.
The history of natural leather is long enough for myths to appear. Here are some of them, with an explanation what the truth is.
Myth 1 – natural leather is cold
Some people claim that leather is less pleasant to the touch than fabric because it gives a feeling of coolness. Nothing could be more wrong. Natural leather adapts perfectly to the surrounding conditions. Among other things, it takes the temperature of the room in which it is found. If you sit on a leather sofa, at first you may actually feel a little cooler than the room temperature, but after a short while it will warm up locally under the influence of your body heat, giving you a pleasant feeling of comfort.
It is also worth remembering that whether you feel warm or cold when touching a leather piece of furniture depends, among other things, on the type of leather that was used to make the cover. For example, leathers which are only slightly treated in the finishing process, are gently sanded to a velvety, matt surface. They are very pleasant and warm to the touch. They are said to have a soft and warm grip.
Myth 2 – natural leather is expensive
Leather furniture is a good investment in beauty, elegance, comfort and convenience. However, it is important to choose wisely and to place emphasis on quality. If you decide on cheaper materials, such as pleather or bycast, remember that they have little in common with high-quality natural leather. They have a polyurethane topcoat, which allows for the embossing of prints that resemble natural leather.
The development of technology and production processes make the upholstery fabrics offered on the market have better and better properties. This includes their strength, appearance and stain resistance. Better parameters increase the quality of the fabric, but also significantly affect its prices, bringing it closer to the prices of leather upholstery and often even surpassing them. The choice between a leather sofa and a sofa in fabric upholstery is therefore not so much a matter of price as of individual taste and expectations of aesthetics and looks.
Myth 3 – the natural leather cracks and wears easily
High quality selected natural leather from the best tanneries in the world is processed to provide excellent aesthetic qualities and strength parameters. Like any other product, it requires proper maintenance and cleaning. Properly cared for using cleaning and maintenance preparations recommended by the furniture manufacturer, retains its properties for a very long time. Specially formulated leather cleaners not only effectively remove stains, but also impregnate the leather and protect it against the penetration of dirt.
You wash your favourite dresses in a gentle liquid detergent and use a fabric softener, right? You surely also systematically clean and wax your car, use cosmetics specially selected for your leather type, polish your shoes to make them look beautiful and apply scratch protection film to your smartphone. Whether you take care of yourself or your favourite items, you know they’ll wear quickly without proper care. The same applies to leather furniture. If you take the same care of them, they will pay you back with a long life, durability and impeccable appearance.
Myth 4 – natural leather can be bought in running meters
Natural leather is a product of animal origin. Although it undergoes significant processing, it will never, like artificially produced fabric, be sold in a roll.
What’s more, each piece of leather comes from a different animal, and therefore each leather sofa, each leather corner or each leather armchair will be a unique product. This is due, among other things, to the fact that each piece has its own set of natural features (marks such as scars, bites, veins, etc.), which testify to its natural origin and make every piece of furniture in leather upholstery a unique product.
Myth 5 – natural leather is only suitable for sophisticated, old-fashioned furniture
Natural leather is perfect for armchairs, small sofas and corner sofa beds, as well as for large, spacious, U-shaped seats for the whole family. It looks great on furniture stylised to look like the classics of designs, with rich creases, quilting and other ornaments. At the same time, it adds extraordinary elegance and class to modern style furniture, emphasising its austere, often even modernist design.
Leather furniture with smooth bodies and sides, sparingly decorated, in bold, expressive colours, will introduce dynamics and wildness into the interior. Modern white leather furniture will ideally complement high-tech rooms, where glass, brushed steel, concrete and ascetic, minimalist design reigns. Modern, bucket armchairs “dressed” in natural leather will gain even more interesting appearance and character.
