How to Know If a Sofa Is Real Leather?

Identifying real leather

• 1

  Examine the furniture tag to see if it identifies the materials used in the manufacturing of your sofa. There are many names under which fake leather is disguised. If the tag says faux leather, pleather, leatherette, naugahyde, corfam, ultrasuede, fabrikoid, permeable leather, artificial leather or American leather cloth, odds are that it is fake.

• 2

  Look for a furniture tag that says genuine, aninline, nubuck, pigmented, sauvage, suede or bycast leather; these are the real deal.

• 3

  Look at the cut seams on the underside of the sofa. If they are smooth and plastic-like, then the fabric is not real leather.

• 4

  Feel the leather sofa. Is it soft and pliable or cold and smooth? Real leather will be softer than fake leather.

• 5

  Smell the leather sofa. Real leather has a distinctive smell that cannot be duplicated.

• 6

  Examine the grain on the leather sofa. If the pores on the sofa are arranged in an identifiable pattern, the leather is probably man-made.

• 7

  Identify vinyl products by examining their backing. All vinyl is backed with cloth. The cloth backing can also be spotted on cut edges or on rips or tears.