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Would anyone be willing to share their experience with sofas or chairs covered in white, ivory or cream leathers? I am interested in how difficult it is to keep clean over time. We are exploring decor ideas and really trying to decide what might work for us.
They are, as you would suspect, more maintenance-heavy than a darker hide. And most certainly get a top-coated leather (i.e., finished, painted, protected) so you have a fightin' chance and keeping up with the cleaning. A light colored pure aniline is difficult to keep looking nice (ever seen a 1 year old Louis Vuitton handbag with the natural leather? They are all discolored with even light use). The trick on light leathers is to keep Leather Conditioner on them regularly, that adds some barrier protection - and to wipe them down frequently with a damp cloth. Avoid sitting on them in blue jeans, especially damp ones. Most blue jeans use indigo dye for their color and that can, and will, transfer to that light leather and is nearly impossible to remove because it is a dye.
I have a cream couch and live in a home with 2 adults. I love the couch and it works fine for us. It's like a new car...after the first scratch, you relax and live life a normal person. I even let guests sit on it. ;-)
Thanks for the input. I am really trying to decide on the furniture as that will dictate the paint color of the living room which will guide the paint choices for the rest of the house which we hope to get painted stem to stern, inside and out this Spring. The vast majority of the time it's just me and DH or sometimes an adult visitor or two but there is our little granddaughter who at 1 year isn't particularly messy but will likely get more so as she gets older. Such decisions!
I would never even consider white or cream leather. Not even light beige. If I wanted a white look, I would use denim or linen slipcovers, and darker leather on other pieces. The slipcovers can then be washed with Oxy-clean, which takes out virtually all stains-- much better than bleach. This look is actually pretty fashionable right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by pucks104