LEATHER

Animal Hide Fabrics are some of the oldest manufactured materials, the use of skins for clothing and shelter date back more than three thousand years, it’s no wonder leather is so commonly used even today. Leather is a material that can come in almost any color; it can be dyed, tanned, and distressed. Through ought the decade’s fads have come and gone but leather has remained a key element in the design world; weather it was the grunge of the nineties or the mod fashion from the sixties leather has remained a staple.

In ancient civilizations human’s hunted animals to stay alive, over time it became natural to not only use the animals for food but to also use the animals for clothing and shelter. Leather proved to be more durable and water resistant than previously used materials like fur and after learning how to preserve the material leather became a prominent tool for survival. Ancient humans used leather to keep them warm during the winter, to keep a shelter over their head, and many other ways; like ancient civilizations, today we use leather for a wide variety of products. Not only do we use leather for clothing and shoes but we use it for furniture and lighting.

 Leather is created be taking an animal skin and treating it with a tanning agent which allows the skin to be durable without decaying. After the hide is tanned it will last a long time and the materials strength will be increased, oil is used to enhance the richness and flexibility of the hide so that it is not so rigid. Some of the qualities that make leather so desirable are it resistance to scratching and abrasion, its resistance to shrinking and stretching, and its ability to breath. Leather is one of the only natural materials that allows for both ventilation and evaporation, this means that during the summer your leather has the ability to breath and during the summer it has the ability to keep you warm. When used in furniture design leather is one of the most dependable choices because of its durability and timelessness. The most common use for leather is shoes and shoe soles, that should tell you enough how stable this material is. When using leather in an interior there is very little worry involved; there is no need to consider whether or not leather will be in fashion in the next five years, because unless you have chosen a fuchsia leather arm chair, leather is timeless and classic. There is not much wear and tear when it comes to this product, so minimal up keep is a plus and this material is suitable for a lot of use. Let’s say you are designing a seating area for a major hotel lobby, these couches and arm chairs are going to be seeing a lot of backsides, leather is going to be able to stand up to the excessive use that an everyday lobby seating area accumulates.

There are many different types of leather, hard leather and soft leather. Hard leathers are made by scraping the hide, treating it with lime, and drying it so that it becomes durable and rough. Soft leathers have many different types such as, full grain leather, top grain leather, and suede. Full grain leather is not altered past removing the hair and tanning while top grain leather is sanded on one side and given a grain on the other to hide qualities that may not be perfect. Suede is almost completely different than any other leather as it is cut from the inside of an animal hide making it soft on both sides and very susceptible to damage.

Many different types and processes of leather allow for a variety of styles that can fit any person’s lifestyle. Any interior would be well suited to house a leather sofa or ottoman, and the longevity of this versatile material lends to its popularity throughout its lifetime. A leather arm chair is a piece of furniture that can stay in families and in use for generations without being dated and without suffering from the normal wear and tear of its owner.