Caring for Nubuck
A regular routine of protection and cleaning will not only help protected your furniture from stains and damage, it will also add years to its life. Some types of soiling only affect the way your furniture looks, others can actually damage the leather. Dust and perspiration are both particularly damaging. Dust is abrasive: it acts like sandpaper. Over time dust can cause serious damage to the furniture’s topcoat. Perspiration and body oils contain salts, enzymes and fatty acids, all of which can stain and damage leather and its topcoat. It is important to prevent perspiration and body oils from building up. Particular care needs to be taken if you regulalry take medications, as they can increase the damage caused by perspiration and body oils.
Because it is a buffed leather, nubuck needs more care than any other type of leather. Buffing gives nubuck leather its unique look and feel, but it also changes of the characteristics of the leather. Buffing removes the grain of the leather, this makes the leather much more absorbent. Because nubuck is so absorbent it stains easily and is highly prone to fading, spotting and water marks. To protect your nubuck furniture from staining and damage it is very important that you maintain the furniture correctly and only use care products specifically designed for nubuck leather.
We recommend that you:
Protect your furniture
Before you use your new furniture, protect it with Nubuck Eco Protector. It's a good idea to apply two layers of protection to all the contact areas - arm rests, head rests, seats etc. Why does leather need protection?
Clean regularly, but not excessively
Every Week: Dust. The best way to dust your furniture is using a vacuum cleaner. Use a soft brush head or upholstery attachment and set the vacuum cleaner to low suction.
Every Month: Dry Clean. After vacuuming, clean the contact areas – arm rests, head rests, seats etc – using a Nubuck Cleaning Cloth, this will clean the leather and restore its nap.
Every 3-6 Months: Thorough Clean. You can use the Nubuck Cleaning Cloth to thoroughly dry clean your furniture. However, if your furniture is heavily soiled you will need to use a liquid cleaner, we recommend Nubuck Cleaner. When cleaning nubuck with a liquid cleaner, you will need to clean the entire piece of furniture to make sure the colour remains even. Whenever a liquid is applied to nubuck, even water, the colour of the leather will darken slightly. The leather will remain slightly darker even after it has dried. How often you need to clean your furniture will depend on its colour and how quickly it becomes soiled. If you have light coloured furniture or if your furniture is heavily used (particularly by pets and small children) you will need to clean your furniture more often. Do not clean your furniture more than necessary, excess cleaning causes unnecessary wear and even the gentlest cleaning products can cause leather to dry out if they are over used.
Re-protect
After every cleaning (with either the Nubuck Cleaning Cloth or with Nubuck Cleaner) re-apply Nubuck Eco Protector. Every time you clean your leather with a leather cleaner, even the Nubuck Cleaning Cloth, the protective layer is removed.
Attend to spills immediately
The fresher a stain is, the easier it is to remove. You can follow the same care regime for aniline and pigmented leather, but not all stain removal products are suitable for aniline leather. Consult the Product Selection Guide for information on which stain removal products are suitable for your leather type.