Question

I’m looking at leather furniture again after purchasing bonded leather evidently. Terrible experience.

I’m looking at two different sets. One is made out of top grain leather where the body touches & polyurethane fabric sides & back. The other set (more expensive one) is made out of 81% polyester leather & 19% polyurethane.

Which one do you think will last?

Amber

May 16, 2020

Answer

The first sofa you described is known as “leather-match.” Although not as bad as bonded leather, it does have its own problems after several years.

When new, the leather and the polyurethane will match up perfectly. Over time, the leather and polyurethane (or vinyl) age differently. This can cause the seams that hold the two different materials together to pull apart. The colors of the two materials fade at different rates and may not match up perfectly after several years.

Polyester/polyurethane/vinyl blends are a new type of lower cost faux leather that has become popular only in the past two years. Many of the larger companies are using these composite faux leathers as a replacement for bonded leathers.

They are too new to know whether there will be any long term problems, but so far they seem to be successful.

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