Note 06
Leather, coated hides, and vinyl
“Leather” on a label can mean a full hide with little surface colour, a hide with a thick pigment coat, a split with a coating, or a coated fabric that contains no hide at all. The wear tells you which behaviour you have, even when the label is gone.
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A short glossary
Use these as descriptions, not as a shopping list.
- Aniline
- Colour that has gone into the hide. The grain is visible and the surface marks easily. Water and oil leave dark spots. A cream can darken it.
- Pigmented
- A colour coat on the surface. It resists a spill better and can scuff at corners so a lighter layer shows through. Heavy conditioners can sit on top and feel tacky.
- Coated split
- A lower layer of hide with a printed or painted skin. If the skin cracks, the fibrous layer shows. It is still hide, and it does not behave like a thick pigmented full grain.
- Vinyl and coated cloth
- A plastic skin on a textile. Folds can crease white. There is no hide to “feed”. Solvents that are casual on a worktop can melt the skin. See also upholstery cloth.
Creases, scuffs, and splits
Creasing where a cushion bends is use. A network of fine cracks in the flex zone at the front of a seat is the coating or the hide fatiguing. A pale scuff on a dark pigmented arm is often the colour coat thinning, not a hole. A split you can part with a fingertip, with fibres or foam behind it, has gone through. Conditioner will not stitch a split.
Denim and hair products transfer colour. A blue cast on a pale arm that matches a person’s usual seat is transfer, and it may sit in the surface rather than on it. Sun will fade dyes on the window side. That is the same pattern as on timber, described in the light and heat note.
A small test, then stop
If you use a cleaner at all, use it where a cushion overlaps or at the back of a skirt. Dampen a cloth. Do not pour onto the seat. Wait until it dries and look for darkening, shine, or a white haze. One hidden spot is the test. The whole sofa is not the test. Do not mix a solvent, an oil, and a pigment pen on the same arm in one afternoon. You will no longer know which one marked it.
Water left in the seams can reach the board or webbing underneath. Blot a spill. Do not soak. If the seat smells sharp or the coating is sticky and wrinkled after a cleaner, leave it alone and air the room. The surface wear note covers hard finishes if the arms are timber and only the cushions are hide.
Stitching that has opened along a piping cord is a thread problem as well as a surface problem. Photograph the run of the seam before any loose end is pulled. Pulling the end can open the next stitch.