100% polyester sofa?

DrPhil

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Anyone had 100% polyester furniture? I was browsing a furniture shop yesterday and spotted a lovely curve style "cinema suite". 4 seats, both ends reclining, with arm rests and drink holders built in. at first glance it looked like a soft leather, but the salesman said it was 100% polyester.

I will be building a home cinema in the next few months and had planned on getting 2 x 2 seater leather sofas bit this one caught my eye.

Any thoughts on this material? it looks quite fine and fragile.
 
Sounds like PU leather which I think is polyurethane rather than polyester. But it's quite common to here the different polys being used interchangeably when talking.

It can be made to reproduce the soft leathers (like nappa), retain most of the properties (like be breathable) but be stronger and cheaper.

Don't think there is anything wrong with it - it is very hard to tell the difference - many of the cheaper 'leather' phone, kindle, tablet cases use it, and for those I have seen I would have sworn they were leather had I not known otherwise.

As for whether you should get it - I don't think there is any objection from a durability, longevity point of few. It will probably hold pigments better than genuine leathers, you like the style - so it comes down to whether you would be happy with articial leather or want the real thing.

Compared with the more common thicker cow leathers I suspect the PU won't be as durable so you will have to be careful, especially if you have pets or young children.

One point, if you like the softness, bear in mind that you probably won't find the same in real leather, simply because it would be very expensive and those types of leather really aren't durable enough for furniture.

Personally, if I liked it, I would have a problem. But I can understand that many would, especially those who put great store on what people that visit might think or say.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
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Shopped around an found an identical style sofa, but in a nice dark chocolate. £250 more but I think I'd prefer it. The polyester one only came in black, which looked more like a dull grey.

The polyester thing isn't particularly putting me off, more the fact that it does look a bit cheap if you look closely. I like leather too(not like that) so I think the extra few quid is worth it, plus it's from an independent local shop rather than one of the big chains with their bad reputations.

Thanks for your post though, extremely helpful and informative!
 
Vinyl (as I call it) is fine, after all car and motorcycle and bicycle seats have been made out of it for decades. A good vinyl will probably last longer than cheap leather, but once the surface is damaged, that's it. But the same is true of cheap leather.
 

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