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Caring for Upholstered Furniture
Home » Furniture » Upholstery » Caring for Upholstered FurnitureTo clean dust, crumbs, and minor soils from upholstered furniture, remove all loose cushions and vacuum all surfaces of the upholstered furniture, using a soft brush attachment on your vacuum cleaner hose. A long, narrow nozzle attachment may also help you get deep down between cushions and the frame of the piece.
Weekly vacuuming is all most upholstered furniture will ever need, but if your family snacks in the living room or you find a stain after entertaining, prompt cleaning and care is essential. When an upholstered piece needs more intensive cleaning than the vacuum can manage there are many commercial products available for spot cleaning upholstery. However, before purchasing a cleaner at the local discount store, check with the manufacturer of the upholstery fabric before attempting any cleaning. If no recommendations are made and you have a cleaning product that you trust, spot test the cleaner on an inconspicuous spot of the fabric and allow it to dry for at least 24 hours before cleaning the entire piece. If discoloration, fading or other conspicuous spotting occurs, do not proceed, but rather call a professional upholstery cleaner for their recommendations.
If your upholstered furniture is leather, suede, cotton or other natural material, the manufacturer will most surely have made recommendations about cleaning and those instructions should be followed. If you cannot find a tag or cleaning instructions from the manufacturer, it would be wise to call a local furniture company and ask about any general cleaning instructions they can offer for your type of upholstery.
Steams cleaning is a very effective type of upholstery cleaning, but beware of cleaning any upholstery before doing a spot test in an inconspicuous area. The cleansers typically used in steam cleaning are caustic and can cause water spots on wood, fading and bleeding of colors.
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- Caring for Upholstered Furniture
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