How do you clean a leather lounge?
Vacuum the seams and crevices, wipe the surface with a cloth wrung out in warm water, then clean it with a pH neutral leather cleaner and let it dry. Finish by conditioning the leather so it does not dry out. On a family lounge, twice a year is usually enough.
That is the whole job. The detail below is about doing it without damaging the hide, because most of the damage done to leather furniture in Australia is done by the cleaning, not by the use.
What you need
- A vacuum with a soft brush head
- Two soft cloths, one damp and one dry
- Renapur Leather Cleaner Spray, which is pH neutral and biodegradable
- Renapur Leather Balsam and a sponge
The Clean and Restore Bundle is those two together, which is the pairing most people reorder.
The method
- Vacuum first. Grit is abrasive. Get into the seams and under the cushions with a soft brush head before anything wet touches the leather.
- Wipe with a damp cloth. Warm water, wrung out well. This lifts the dust and body oils that sit on the surface.
- Clean. Spray the cleaner onto the cloth rather than the lounge, and work a panel at a time. Let it dry.
- Condition. Put a small amount of balsam on a sponge and work it over the leather in a thin coat. If you can see the balsam sitting on the sponge you are using too much. Wipe the excess off on the rim of the jar.
- Leave it. No buffing, no polishing cloth. The leather takes what it needs.
How often should you condition a leather lounge?
Twice a year suits most lounges. Go more often if the lounge sits in direct sun, near a heater or in a dry inland climate, and less often if it is barely used. Leather that feels dry or looks dull is asking for it, whatever the calendar says.
Why leather lounges crack
Leather is a skin. It holds oils that keep the fibres moving against each other, and those oils leave over time through heat, sunlight, air conditioning and simple use. Once they are gone the fibres break rather than flex, and that shows up first as fine surface lines, then as splits along the seat edges and the arm tops where the hide bends most.
Conditioning replaces what has been lost. It is genuinely preventative: once a hide has split, no product puts it back, so the work is in the years before the cracks appear.
What not to use on a leather lounge
- Baby wipes and household spray cleaners. Most are alkaline or contain alcohol, and they strip the finish.
- Saddle soap. Made for tack, too harsh for furniture hide.
- Olive oil and other kitchen oils. They soak in, go rancid and leave a smell you cannot remove.
- Anything that promises a shine. Silicone sits on top, builds up, and eventually looks plastic.
Is my lounge actually leather?
Worth checking before you treat it. Real leather has an irregular grain and warms to the touch. Bonded leather, sometimes sold as leather look or leather match, is a backing sheet with a polyurethane coating, and it peels rather than cracks. A conditioner cannot feed a plastic coating, so on bonded material the honest answer is that cleaning is all you can usefully do.
What about suede or nubuck furniture?
Never use balsam on it. Balsam flattens the nap and the damage is not easily undone. Suede, nubuck and fabric upholstery want the Protector Spray instead.
How much balsam does a lounge take?
Less than people expect. Renapur puts a 200ml jar at around 20 leather sofas, or 500 pairs of shoes, because it goes on in a thin coat and one coat is the job. For a single three seater the 200ml jar will last years. If you are looking after several pieces, the 500ml is better value.
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