Maintenance & protection
Looking after it
A sofa is a ten-year purchase looked after and a three-year one otherwise. Most of the difference is a soft brush and thirty seconds after a spill.
None of this is difficult, and almost none of it costs anything. The parts that matter are the ones people skip: vacuuming a fabric that looks clean, and blotting rather than rubbing when something goes over.
The three basics
These apply to every sofa we sell, in every material.
Plump the cushions
Fibre and feather-filled cushions need plumping daily — a shake and a firm pat down after an evening on them. It is not fussiness: the filling migrates to the edges under weight, and a cushion left flat stays flat. Ten seconds a night is the whole job.
Keep it out of direct sun
Prolonged UV fades both fabric and leather, and it fades unevenly — the arm nearest the window goes first, which is far more noticeable than an overall change. If the only place for the sofa is by a window, rotate the cushions every few months so it fades evenly.
Keep it away from the radiator
At least 30cm. Localised dry heat cracks leather and can warp a wooden frame over a winter or two. This is the single most common avoidable damage we see.
Fabric sofas
Vacuum weekly with the soft brush attachment. This is the one that feels unnecessary and is not: grit works its way into the weave and then abrades the fibres from the inside every time somebody sits down. A fabric sofa that is vacuumed does not wear out where you sit; one that is not, does.
Do not machine wash the covers unless the label explicitly says you can. Most upholstery fabric shrinks, and a cover that has shrunk 3% will never go back on.
Get it professionally cleaned once a year, or after anything major. An upholstery cleaner has extraction equipment that lifts what a cloth pushes further in.
Pile fabrics — the velvets and Marble — also need brushing rather than just vacuuming, to lift the flattening where people sit. Which fabric behaves how is set out in the fabric guide.
Leather sofas
Dust it weekly with a soft microfibre cloth, lightly dampened with plain water. Nothing else on the cloth. That part is the same whichever of the two you have.
After that they differ, and it matters — the two ranges are not the same material.
Real leather — the Roma range
Condition it every six to twelve months with a proper leather conditioner. Leather is a skin and it dries out; conditioning is what stops the creases across the seat turning into cracks. This is the difference between leather that looks better at year five and leather that looks worse.
The Roma is a blend of leather and fabric, so condition the leather panels and treat the fabric ones as fabric — vacuum them with the soft brush like anything else woven.
Tech leather — the Nova range
Do not condition it. Tech leather is a coated material rather than a hide, so there is nothing in it to dry out and nothing for a conditioner to feed. At best it sits on the surface; at worst the oils and solvents in some conditioners soften the coating they are supposed to protect.
A damp cloth is genuinely the whole routine. It is scratch-resistant, it wipes clean, and it holds its colour without help — which is most of the reason to choose it.
Blot, never rub. Rubbing pushes a spill through the surface and into the filling, and turns a mark you could have lifted into one you cannot.
Spills, in order
- Get to it now. The first thirty seconds decide almost everything. A fresh spill sits on the surface; a five-minute-old one has wicked into the padding.
- Blot with a clean, dry, uncoloured cloth. White or cream — a coloured cloth can transfer its own dye into damp fabric. Press down and lift. Do not scrub.
- Work from the outside in. Starting at the edge of the mark and moving inward stops you spreading it into a bigger, fainter ring.
- Let it dry on its own, away from direct heat. A hairdryer sets some stains permanently.
- If it is still there, stop and ask before reaching for anything stronger. That is what the next section is about.
What never to use
On leather especially, this list is short and absolute. Every one of these strips the protective topcoat, and once that has gone the dye goes with it — permanently, and usually in a patch exactly the shape of the cloth.
- Baby wipes — the most common cause of ruined leather we hear about
- Multi-purpose or kitchen sprays
- Bleach, or anything containing it
- Solvents, white spirit, nail varnish remover
- Washing-up liquid, on leather
Test it somewhere hidden
Whatever you use, try it first on the underside of the sofa or the back of a cushion — somewhere that never shows. Give it an hour and look again. If the colour has moved at all, it will do the same on the seat.
Ask us first
If you have a stain you are unsure about, send us a photograph before you try anything. We would much rather spend two minutes telling you what is safe than deal with the damage from the wrong product — which, unlike the original stain, is not something we can put right.
Dealing with a stubborn stain?
Send us a photograph and tell us what went on it. We will tell you what is safe to try, and what to leave to a professional.
Structural problems — a frame or a spring — are covered by the 1-year guarantee and are a different conversation. See delivery and returns.