Repairing Leather FurnitureSaving $ with the help of a leather professional.

In the current economic times, we all need ways to save some $.  Here are a few thoughts on how a leather repair professional might save you $.  

  • Repair or Replace-  Many times a well-loved leather sofa that is 5-10 years old shows the love.  It may be dirty, have minor scratches, scuffs along the edges, stains or even minor sun-fading.  Maybe the sofa is hopelessly out of date or your just itching to get a new one.  But the choice to restore the leather is also a possibility as well.  All of the common issues I mentioned can be cleaned, repaired and conditioned away by a good leather professional.  Usually to restore a sofa you will spend about 20% of the cost of replacing a good leather sofa.
  • Buying Used Furniture– Another money saving option some of my customers have chosen is to buy used furniture and clean, repair or restore it.  Look through the other articles on the site to discover damages we think are unrepairable or just send us a few good pictures of the leather you might buy.  We can tell you if it’s worth paying a few hundred bucks to buy and a few hundred more to restore you will still be way under the price of good new leather furniture.  Some places to look are online at www.craigslist.com, the scratch and dent section of a retail furniture store or in your local newspaper.
  • Repair vs. Upholsery– There are definitly times when re-upholstering your leather furniture is the only option.  If you want to totally change the type of leather on the sofa, if it has large tears or holes or if it has badly cracking seats.  But other times upholstery is expensive over-kill.  Many damages don’t need new leather but can simply be repaired or restored.  Check out some of our articles on repair vs upholstery to learn the difference.
  • Repairing Damages vs Replacment-  Odd as this one may sound, I have customers that are so frustrated with a cat scratch, ink damage or small puncture in their beautiful leather chair that they just want to replace it.  Don’t.  Check out some of the pictures of what can be repaired and see for yourself.  Many damages can be repaired so nobody even knows they ever happened.  
  • Dangerous ways to try to save $- Finally, I want to warn you of a few ways you shouldn’t try to save $ with leather.  Don’t buy the cheapest leather from the cheap stores.  You really do get what you pay for with leather furniture.  Don’t buy a super cheap used leather sofa that just has a smidge of a cat or dog or smoke smell.  Smells can be really hard to get out of leather usually because they have settled down into the fabric fill inside the sofa.  Don’t let your buddy who just learned how to repair leather from a late night TV infomercial repair your leather.  Bad repairs are common and make the work a lot harder for a good pro to come back and redo.

Hopefully these ideas help you enjoy leather and save some $ at the same time.  Got any other leather related $ saving tips.  Let us know and we’ll add them to our list.

 

Need a leather repair pro in the Baltimore/ Washington area.  Click here to see how I can help you.