Building Home - need furniture

[Jane A]

Sundance 4717, Angelo chair & ottoman 2010, 2009 in a dark leather like Antelope Nugget. Can we back track a bit, though to the leather selection? Our house is passive solar, which means that for a few months during the winter there will be sun hitting the front of the furniture. We will not put a sun barrier on the windows as that would defeat the purpose of passive solar. Given that, is a protected leather going to be a better choice or can we just as easily protect any leather with a sun block treatment? Or is it even safer to use a sunblock with a protected leather? This advice will help me with my leather choice!

[drcollie]

Hey Jane,

Well as you probably know, direct sunlight on anything of color is a bad combination. UV rays will take the color out of anything, even a hardwood floor. Any of your finished leathers (such as Antelope) will stand up better to that direct sunlight than aniline hides. But even they will bleach out over time if no steps are taken to slow the exposure. If you want to use untreated windows then my suggestions is the Leather Magic SPF 80 sunblock, and / or simply drape a throw or afghan over the areas where the sun hits and let that throw take the UV rays instead of the leather.

[Jane A]

Hey Jane,

Well as you probably know, direct sunlight on anything of color is a bad combination. UV rays will take the color out of anything, even a hardwood floor. Any of your finished leathers (such as Antelope) will stand up better to that direct sunlight than aniline hides. But even they will bleach out over time if no steps are taken to slow the exposure. If you want to use untreated windows then my suggestions is the Leather Magic SPF 80 sunblock, and / or simply drape a throw or afghan over the areas where the sun hits and let that throw take the UV rays instead of the leather.

Let me make sure I understand you correctly. You are saying that even with the sunblock a finished leather will be lesss susceptible to sunfade than an unfinished leather?

[drcollie]

Correct! Remember that a "Finished" leather is a painted leather. An Aniline leather is vat/drum-dyed. Anything that is dyed, be it leather or wood, or wool, is more susceptible to sun fading than something that is coated (painted).

UV rays from the sun can do a lot of damage to colors, even hardwood flooring*

* Here's a little trick - cherry is one of the few woods that LOVES sunlight. With exposure to the UV rays, it darkens and 'ruby's up' (becomes more red). Install a cherry floor of cabinets in a home and leave it natural, with a light coat of clear on it - and it will turn into the most rich and beautiful color you ever saw in about three years time if the sunlight hits it every day. The only thing is, you can't put rugs or furniture down on the floor as they will 'shadow' and show an outline where they don't change color.