Matte H&M Leathers

[erinn]

Anyone have recommendations for the most matte leathers from H&M? From all the pictures on here & H&M website all the leathers look like they have some sort of sheen to them, even the unprotected ones. I imagine whatever top coating they use is causing this. I recently purchased some Stickley wood furniture and saw a leather from them that was completely flat and it was a semi-aniline protected leather. Does H&M offer any leathers that are completely flat? Can you request that a leather have a flat top coat?

[drcollie]

There are definitely matte leathers in the line. Ones that come readily to mind are Caress (GR2), Quintessence (GR4), Native (GR2), Lambskin (GR4), Capri (GR4), Antelope is sort of in the groups (GR4), and Dream (GR2) is sortof as well.

[erinn]

There are definitely matte leathers in the line. Ones that come readily to mind are Caress (GR2), Quintessence (GR4), Native (GR2), Lambskin (GR4), Capri (GR4), Antelope is sort of in the groups (GR4), and Dream (GR2) is sortof as well.

If I order a burnished leather, can I request that the top coat be finished out matte like with steel wool? Can H&M adjust any other leathers sheen levels as a special request?

[erinn]

So I stop by a store today that had a few H&M pieces on display. Gosh, the sales person there couldn't have been more clueless. I made a comment about how I wasn't sure how much the squeaking on the burnished piece would brother me and his reply was "I think the squeaking is due to the size of the chair" LOL I was also gushing over the Capri harness sample and he told me it was nice but he wouldn't recommend anything over a level 2 grade. H&M needs someone like you to go out and train all their dealers.

Anywho, at least I got to thumb through the sample books and test out a burnished chair. The chair was Weston Cane Burnished, I think. The guy didn't seem to confident about that and there was no tag. I loved the rustic look of it and it would fit nicely in my craftsman home. The feel of the leather was okay. Little too much sheen and squeaking but seemed pretty durable. I loved the feel of the Capri and it so matte. My prefect leather would be the look of burnished but the feel of Capri. There was one called Capri Harness that looked very similar in coloring to the Weston Cane. The Capri Harness also held up pretty good to my finger nail test.

It's really hard to tell from a sample how the Capri Harness would look on the Leslie Sofa. Do you think it still have a rustic look to it. Is the Capri Harness suppose to age with a lot of color variations & markings?

[drcollie]

I'm not surprised. Sadly your average furniture store salesperson would prefer to read a newspaper or browse their Facebook page rather than studying their product line to gain knowledge and they'd never think of taking a factory tour or going to Furniture Market to talk to the people that make the pieces. That's because they don't enjoy their craft and lack passion for what they do, its just a paycheck and when they don't know something, they make stuff up. I pride myself on having THE ANSWER for everything I have in my store and If I don't know - I'll find out. And when I do, I'll share that knowledge here on the forum.

You won't get past that sheen issue on any burnished leather, that's not something that can be adjusted as its the sealer to keep the burnish toner locked onto the leather. If pieces are a little too 'noisy', you can take some talc powder and rub onto the friction areas, that quiets it right down but you have to wipe down the white dust afterwards.

Capri doesn't really have a rustic look, its a luxury hide all the way. It won't 'age up' like a burnished or pull up leather, either. It will stay just as the day its delivered unless sun fade gets to it or failure to clean the hide makes it soiled.