Leather as explained in "How To Choose Leather Furniture" is a wonderful natural material that is used in many leather goods: bags, shoes, saddles, accessories, and of course furniture. Leather is associated by many to an idea of prestige and luxury. When chosen as the finish for our furniture is it a sure way to add value to our environment? Resistant, long lasting and easy to care for a leather sofa is always a great choice.

There are really only three types of leather suitable for a quality sofa. The first and best quality that you can purchase is full-grain or top-grain leather, and nothing can compare to it. With a longevity of about 20 years, the additional money spent on this quality item is well worth it. However, it does require a little more maintenance than leather sofas of lesser quality. Its extremely breathable qualities make it also a little more permeable to stains that could occur from liquids. This is the most expensive leather, it has a beautiful sheen and patina and is probably the best choice for an area that is used for receiving visitors rather than a family room with much daily traffic.

Elegant Modern Contemporary Le Corbusier Style Black Leather Sofa and Two Chairs Set

Corrected-grain are often available in more colors than full-grain leather due to the way they are processed. These leathers are usually treated to resist stains, and dirt and might be more suitable for a sofa that will receive a lot of daily use. This type of sofa with intense daily use will last from 8 to 15 years and will require little maintenance.

The other consideration in choosing a leather sofa is the look of the leather you choose. Whether you decide on a supple fine grain leather or a coarser leather is strictly a matter of preference and not a factor in the quality.

Decide first where your leather sofa will be placed, how you will use it and what size you need. When you know your needs, you can then start comparing prices, which is not always easy considering the variations that exist in quality.

You will also have to compare style and comfort when selecting your new leather sofa. Contemporary leather sofa styles are appreciated by leather lovers as much as old world traditional seating and the selection is wide. Colors like style are a matter of personal preferences, and  you are no longer stuck buying a brown leather sofa. Today you will find that white or cream leather sofas are also very popular.

How to care for your new sofa

The first rule of proper care for your new sofa is never scratch the leather to remove dirt or food particles. Use a soft cloth and a leather cleaning product that will damage neither the grain nor the color.

Avoid direct sunlight and heat. Place your sofa a couple of feet away from heaters as close heat can discolor the leather.

Clean occasionally with a leather product or cheaper and good for leather: baby body lotion.

There is no other material that can embody nature, strength, ease of care, beauty, and sensuality like leather. Far from aging with time, leather acquires patina that accentuates it character.

However, how can you choose what is the right leather for you? What are the different types of leather and does it matter? How to recognize quality leather furniture and how to care for it? People often ask these questions; we propose to answer them in this article. We offer you this advice which, we hope, will make you a more informed consumer who will appreciate leather and share our passion for this beautiful material with extraordinary properties.

Leather generally does not refer to the skin of one particular animal, but to the skin of any animal. Many leather pieces bear the label "genuine leather," this term is by no means a label of quality, all leathers are genuine. This label does not provide useful information as to the value of the material, but is a label that manufacturers use for marketing purposes, as a way to distinguish their product from manmade leather, by using a recognizable symbol.

Manmade leather is a textile base covered with a layer of synthetic material with characteristics similar to leather. The thing to remember about this kind of leather is that if the base for making this material is an inferior leather instead of a textile, then the piece can be labeled "genuine leather." This is a very deceptive marketing device.

Real "genuine leather," in comparison is a natural product with unique properties. It is resilient and elastic, it accepts mechanical demands of production better than cloth; it has a longer lifespan. It is easy to care for, breathable and pleasant to the touch. As noted it is will last a long time, and as time goes on it will have a patina and wrinkles that will add to it character. It will take little care and maintenance for leather furniture to look good for many years.

The quality of leather is of course, dependent on the conditions of the animal that produced it. The better fed and the better the animal conditions, the better is the leather.

The second factor in producing quality leather is tanning. It the process that skin undergoes to become leather, and it requires a skilled craftsman to produce the best leather.

There are different types of leather: full-grain, top-grain, corrected-grain, and split.

Full-grain leather uses a skin that remains in its most natural state when tanning, this allows better natural breathability and less moisture from prolonged contact, resulting in more comfortable seating. Full-grain is the best quality leather you can buy.

Top-grain leather is the second quality you can buy. Its surface has been sanded and refinished. It will give a colder feel, a leather that does not breathe as well, and patina will be reduced. The advantages of top-grain leather are that it is less expensive than full-grain and it is more resistant to stains.

Corrected-grain leather has had an artificial grain applied to its surface. It is an inferior quality leather, although it looks perfect, as the imperfection of the hide have been covered up.

Split leather is what remains when the top-grain was split from the hide. It is what makes suede leather. Suede is "fuzzy" leather on both sides.

If you would like to know more about the composition of leather the International Union of Leather Technologists and Chemist Societies has a glossary of leather terms that can be found at IULTCS

We now know that leather is a material like no other, that there is much latitude in the label of leather, that the quality can vary greatly. For furniture it is preferable to choose a full-grain leather to ensure longevity, comfort, and lasting beauty, as well as easy maintenance. Leather furniture is an investment that you will never regret.