My husband feels that he and our old furniture (purchased circa 1976) have come to a parting of the ways, and he has his heart set on replacing it with a leather couch. I have my doubts about this (I love our antiques!), mostly because we have two cats and two dogs.
When asked if a leather couch would stand up to teeth and claws, the saleslady said something that struck me as wise. “Upon the animals it depends, not upon the furniture.” (Well, something like that).
The dogs are large, and spend a lot of time wrestling and chasing each other around the house. When they really get going, they launch themselves off the current furniture with great force. Also, one of them chews the wooden corners of the coffee table.
The cats don’t sharpen on the furniture, but their claws have put a lot of tiny holes in the vinyl covering on the pool table.
If we spend this money, I hope to still be sitting on the same leather couch thirty-three years from now. (or at least ten). Will it be mostly duct tape by then?
2 cats, 2 leather sofas. No rips or holes in the sofas, but plenty of little scratches. I like that leather doesn’t retain the obligatory fuzz, it just brushes off…
One of my sofas was a floor model and the other came with the house, at least they were pre-scratched : )
Brown leather with do better than black leather. The latter doesn’t look good with scratches while brown leather gains character and scratches can usually be easily buffed out with leather polish.
Five cats and around 8 years later, we still have the leather recliner, but it is scratched (though mostly surface scratches).
You need to decide what your living style is. Do you entertain? Do you flop on the furniture, sleep on the couch, etc? We LIVE on our furniture and we LOVE our cats. We can deal with the level of wear they inflicted on the chair. It’s a trade-off we’re willing to make.
Actually, the worst wear came from my niece hugging someone in that chair while they were holding a glass of red wine. It spilled and stained. :smack:But at least we got that over with in the first year or so.
I would say it would depend on how particular YOU are. If you can live with the defects your pets will cause, go for it. If you are super-picky about your home furnishings, get something else.
I’ve had two leather couches; the last was given to us. All I can say is I’m glad I didn’t pay for it, because after the first leather couch I wouldn’t have chosen it again. Yes, they will mark it just by being on it. I can definitely tell where my cats jump up to lay on the blanket that we keep on the couch.
I value my pets over my furniture, hands down, so little things don’t bother me. Someone more anal would have a fit.
My advice would be slipcovers, removing them when you entertain, want to show off the furniture, and are willing to lock up the pets. Cat claws will damage leather furniture just by jumping up on it–they don’t even have to sharpen.
