Rules for the care of upholstered furniture

Fabric upholstery brings attractiveness, individuality and convenience to the furniture design. Therefore, it is worth paying attention to proper care for it. If you follow the basic rules, the upholstery will last a long time and will look like new. Crumbs, dust and other dry dirt are best collected with a vacuum cleaner using softening attachments with soft bristles. In this case, there is no additional load on the fabric in the form of friction and clogging of its structure when the crumbs are swept away with a rag, or worse, by hand. You can also remove them from the surface with a soft brush, with long bristles, since the structure of the upholstery fabric is quite delicate, despite its direct purpose — to withstand a constant load in the form of scraping.

Upholstery fabric does not tolerate liquids on it, and sometimes it does not even have a waterproof base, and moisture is deeply absorbed into the furniture. When a wet spot forms, you need to collect moisture as quickly as possible by blotting, and then leave to dry naturally or speed up this process with additional exposure. To do this, you can sprinkle the wet place with salt — it will quickly absorb moisture, and then collect the salt with a vacuum cleaner. Particularly scrupulous owners of upholstered furniture even dry wet places with a hairdryer or vacuum cleaner in reverse mode. In principle, this to some extent will help speed up the process of drying your favorite ottoman or sofa, but the main thing is not to use hot air. Otherwise, ugly stains may remain on the flooded place.

Especially dangerous is the ingress of liquids on the upholstery of furniture, consisting not only of pure water, but having a complex composition, for example, tea, coffee, drops of fat or artificial or natural dyes. It can be ink or, for example, fruit or vegetable juice. Although you can try to remove such stains on your own with the help of folk remedies, but if the furniture is expensive, then it is better not to risk it, but to entrust this matter to a specialized dry cleaner. Professionals with special equipment and stain neutralization tools can go to the client’s home on a call. Either way, it’s cheaper than replacing upholstery fabric.

It is worth remembering the elementary things that we often neglect in a hurry or because of inattention. Mechanical damage to the fabric in the form of cuts and scratches is quite difficult to eliminate without removing the upholstery from the base. It is better to use scissors or other traumatic items away from the chic upholstery of furniture purchased for “decent” money. You should not iron linen on a sofa or bed, even placing a tablecloth or blanket as a base. One careless movement, and the iron on an unstable surface will touch its hot sole to the upholstery, and, write — it’s gone! Even a hair dryer left on an ottoman, armchair or sofa can bring a lot of trouble, leaving a yellowed spot after contact with furniture. It is almost impossible to remove “burns” on fabric, so you have to prepare for serious expenses. It is unlikely that sophisticated upholstery will easily endure contact with a washing vacuum cleaner, so it is better not to implement this idea. It is categorically undesirable to combine brute physical force with the desire to remove stubborn dust from the upholstery.

Knocking out, even very carefully, fabric-covered furniture places, you can simply swallow dust, and what is even more unpleasant, “tamp” dirt into the structure of the fabric and get already thoroughly “spoiled” areas on the upholstery.