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Thread: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    Default Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    I thought I would share my experience regarding my 2 year old leather sofa, one year after adopting 2 cats. Let me preface this by saying, even though one was a small kitten and the other only 1 1/2-2 years old when I got them, they are "good" cats. They have never used the furniture as scratching posts and these scratches are all from jumping onto or off the furniture or chasing each other on it. So if you have cats that use your furniture as a scratching post, I expect your experience will be very different. I also have kept the sofa covered with throws as much as possible, especially when I am not home, but sometimes they slip and stuff happens.

    This is what I mostly saw on the back behind the cushions and less so on the arms. I have since put a matching piece of leather from H&M over one arm and that has stopped the marks there. If you were willing to use arm caps it would go a long way towards protecting against that. The large back cushion is a scratch I just found when I got home last week and the throw I had covered it with had slipped off. I suspect a chase ensued after I left for work, but I cannot prove it, lol.





    At Duane's suggestion I requested a bottle of touch up dye that H&M provides at no charge. Today I finally took out a fine liner paint brush to see what it could do. I am happier with the arms and back than the cushion, but they are all a big improvement. I am posting larger photos of the retouched areas because I want you to be able to see that they are still there if you look closely enough.





    [url=https://flic.kr/p/2jD1uXx]

    My "technique" was to paint over the scratch and then use a paper towel to remove any excess from the non scratched area by just rubbing it over over the areas with the wet dye with the paper towel. For the most part, the dye absorbed into the scratched areas immediately but was still wet so could be removed from the finished area. When it started to dry on the finished areas before I removed it, a bit of saliva on the paper towel and rubbing it well removed it. A wet paper towel as back up might do the same thing. The back cushion has a bit more texture to the leather and the back and arms are smoother, so the scratches are still more visible on the back cushion because of the texture was interrupted.

    I will try to wait a couple more years and then consider weather to invest in replacing any of the cushion casings. That will depend on the condition of the rest of the sofa, how active the cats still are, etc. I will be keeping an eye on whather H&M keeps my sofa and the leather in stock in case I want to replace any before they discontinue it, if they do eventually. I wanted to share this because I found little information available about this when I was looking for it. I hope it helps.

    I need to do my cleaning and conditioning in the near future, I have done it a couple or 3 times, but need to do it more often. I will be interesting in seeing if the cleaning removes any of the "touch ups" I did. I wanted to apply the dye before the cleaning and conditioning because I didn't want the conditioner to prevent the dye from being absorbed into the scratched areas. Not sure if that would be an issue or not. I will be covering any remaining little areas before doing it in any case.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
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    Alexandria VA
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    15,887

    Default Re: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    Have I got a deal for you.

    I had a # 9840 City Sofa in Cavalier Mocha set up on the floor as a cushion tester, with Ultra Down Seat and Back in the Center, and Extra Firm / Extra Full on the right side as you are standing in front of the sofa. The sofa sold recently to someone who wanted one quickly and I put the standard casings and cores back in it. So, I have four casings left over and am not going to set that demo unit back up again. Those casings are $ 310 apiece to order, how about $ 30 each and free shipping? Instead of $ 1,240 you can have four of the six that are on the sofa for less than 10% the cost of new ($ 120). I can't recall what I paid H&M for the extra casings, but they are just in the storage closet at the store taking up space. You would NOT get the seat and back on the left side of the sofa. They are in excellent condition. Like that deal? Just PayPal to me at keepingroom@gmail.com and be sure to put your address in the PayPal.

    Anyone local to my store in Alexandria VA that wants the cushion cores inserts can have them free of charge, I will just put them in the dumpster otherwise. They are for a # 9840 City sofa, (1) Ultra Down Seat, (1) Ultra Down Back, (1) Extra Firm 21 oz Qualux, (1) Extra Full Fiber-Fill Back. I am not going to ship the cores, nor measure them for other use, so don't ask if they will fit your Pottery Barn sofa or any of that nonsense. Pickup at the store but don't wait too long, as once the casings go the cores will be in the trash in short order.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    595

    Default Re: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    That is AWESOME, and I will take you up on it, lol. On my way to Paypal! oops, I need to wait until tomorrow so I can transfer money into that account. I almost forgot and used the credit card I have linked to that account and I sure don't want you to end up paying credit card fees on that! Tomorrow when I get home from work. By the way, is it the left side when you are facing it or the left side when you are sitting in it that are not included? Thank you so much!
    Last edited by SueCT; 09-03-2020 at 09:45 PM.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  5. #5
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    595

    Default Re: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    Perfect, the scratched one is on the right in this picture. I am going to put these away until the cats are a bit older anyway.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    Shipping out today, USPS Priority Mail.
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    What a bargain, thank you!

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    Glad to be able to help out....
    Duane Collie
    Straight answers from thirty-six years in the business.
    My Private Messages are Disabled - Please ask questions here in the forum.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2010
    Location
    Columbus, OH
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    563

    Default Re: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    That was awesome of you Duane, great deal!

    Sue, my cats did similar on my leather sofa. It isn't a painted leather so they don't 'pop' like uncolored lines but you can definitely see them. Beyond what you are doing the only other thing I would recommend is keep their claws trimmed. Most of our scratches were from their back paws when they did jumps onto and off of the arms, keeping them trimmed regularly made a difference.

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Covering scratches in leather, AKA: Cats and leather

    I don't know what happened, I changed my paypal payment to you from credit card to a direct payment from my bank account but it looks like it went to my credit card anyway. You might want to double check it, and if you would like me to send more money to cover any credit card charges you might be charged, I would be happy to do that. So sorry!

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