Seven types of Leather for Furniture you can buy
Leather furniture is classy and sophisticated. It is a great choice for either the home or office. If you have sat in a leather seat before, either in a chair or your car, you know that not every leather chair is the same.
There are varied levels of texture, durability, quality, and appeal in each model made, from your typical office chair to the highly regarded Barcelona chair. It is helpful to know what you want in a leather seat, so that you can narrow down your search of your ideal chair when you look for one in a furniture store in person or online. Here is a list of different types of leather found in furniture.
1. Full Grain
For the most authentic furniture leather that can be bought, there is 100 percent full grain leather. The animal hide’s hair is first removed, then it is soaked in natural vegetable dye. No additional treatment of the leather is applied, and it retains its natural look with no further modifications being made. This type of leather generally costs the most due to how pure it is. The leather’s texture will be tough at first, but will soften with gradual use.
2. Top Grain
Full grain leather would be the purest of leather furniture, but top grain leather will be the best looking. Many Barcelona chairs are made with top grain leather. How a leather becomes top grain is that its surface is buffed. Not only does this make the leather look shiny and polished, but it also softens the leather. Top grain leather is just as durable and comfortable than full grain leather, but looks better and is also cheaper in most cases overall, so you cannot go wrong with this option by any means.
3. Split Grain
Split grain leather is made so that the top outer later is removed and the remaining hide is used on other pieces of furniture. Split grain is inexpensive to buy, however, this leather is usually harder and less comfortable than full and top grain leather chairs.
4. Bi-Cast
Bi-cast leather is made to look very similar to top grain leather. This leather costs less money, but without the proper treatment, bi-cast chairs will not age well, and will peel and crack. Bi-cast leather is a split grain with a coat of polyurethane to imitate the spiffy look of top grain leather.
5. Bonded
Bonded leather is made of scraps of other leather furniture and rolled up using adhesive materials. Bonded leather will look and smell great in the end, but you would be disappointed to find out that these chairs only contain less than 20 percent leather.
6. Nubuck
Nubuck leather is made from using just the rawhide from cattle. This rawhide is sanded to give it a soft appearance similar to suede. Instead of classy and sophisticated, nubick leather looks rather warm and homely. This leather is appealing in its own ways, great for primitive, country, or bohemian themed homes. The caveat to this type of leather is that every chair that is made of nubuck leather requires waterproofing.
7. Faux
Faux is a leather that does not come from the hide of an animal. “Faux”, as you can tell, means “fake”. Our furniture making technologies have not made it yet capable for artificial leather to be as pure as real leather, but that is not to say that faux leather cannot look or feel great. If you are an animal lover, who still wants a chair similar to leather, look into getting a faux leather chair for your room.