Caring for Leather FurnitureCleaning gum off of your leather furniture without damaging it!

      Here’s a quick article on how to remove gum from your leather furniture.  Most all of my articles are taken from real in-home customer experience.  This one starts with a quick blurb on the background of the story or you can skip down to the step-by-step procedure at the bottom of the page.

 

        After digging out of the latest blizzard here on the east coast, I finally got out to a customer’s home to help her with leather repairs.  The damages were 2 fold.  First, one of her children had gotten gum on the leather sofa and it hardened into the surface.  Second, a well-intentioned, if naive, carpet cleaning guy offered to try to clean it off with adhesive remover.  So when she called me she had both gum on the leather and discolored leather where the cleaner took off the color. Here are the pix:

First the sofa with the gum on the leather and the white discolored area under the gum:

 

Second, The gum has been removed using the technique I will teach you, but the white discolored area is still visible.

 

Finally, the area has been recolored and top-coated.  She was very pleased with the result.  (but the camera angle makes the leather color look funny but it looks right in person)  

 

 

     If the color comes off you will probably need to hire a leather pro to replace it. I’m happy to help anyone in the Baltimore/Washington area who needs help with leather repair.  You can learn more about hiring me by clicking here.

What to do if you get gum on your leather

      I’m also happy to teach you how remove the gum without removing the color so you don’t need to hire me.  So in this case, how can one remove gum from a leather sofa without taking off the color or needing to hire a pro?  It takes a few easy steps.

  1. First, you want to soften the gum by heating it with a hair dryer.
  2. Scrape as much of the gum off as possible with a firm plastic scraper. (Pampered Chef scrapers work great)
  3. Heat the remaining gum residue with the hair dryer.
  4. Rub off any gum left on the leather with a soft, DRY cloth till it balls up and comes off
  5. Only then use a good leather cleaner to wipe the entire seat seam to seam.
  6. Follow with a good leather conditioner to moisturize the leather from the heat application. Click here for the leather cleaning products we recommend. 
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