The covering is peeling: is it a defect in the furniture, or is it the material?

In short. A covering that flakes away and lets a woven backing show through is not failing the way a hide fails: it is losing a layer applied over a support. Before asking whether the sofa gave what it should have, it is worth establishing what the material was — and that can be seen on the piece itself, in a few minutes.

Why does a covering flake away, and a hide not?

They are two different constructions, and they fail in different ways. A tanned hide is a single fibrous structure: the fibres interlace through the whole thickness, and the finish is the thinnest of veils on the surface. When a hide wears it does so by degrees — it loses colour where the body rests, it marks, it crazes into a network of very fine lines — but underneath it is still leather. There is no sharp boundary between one layer and the next, so there is nothing that can come away in flakes.

Coated materials are made the other way round: a support, usually a knitted or woven textile, and over it a film that gives colour and appearance. The bond between the two is an adhesion, and an adhesion has a life: heat, humidity, repeated flexing and body oils weaken it until the film lifts. And when it lifts it does not wear away: it detaches in strips, leaving the support exposed. This is what people describe as peeling, flaking, shedding. Sheets reconstituted from ground leather fibres belong to the same family, since they too have an applied surface and a support.

The practical consequence: the shape of the failure tells you what was there. A surface that lifts in strips and shows a woven backing is not a hide that has had a hard life; it is an applied covering that has reached the end of its own.

How can you tell, on a piece already in use, which material it is?

No instruments are needed: two looks are enough, and they work better on the damaged piece than on a new swatch.

• The edge of the damage. Look at the margin of the ruined area, where the layer has lifted: if a regular fabric appears under the flap, woven or knitted, the surface was a film on a support; if instead there is a continuous material, felt-like and of the same natural colour in depth, you are looking at the thickness of a hide.
• The raw cut. Every upholstered piece has at least one cut edge out of sight: under the seat, inside a seam. In section a hide shows a dense fibre and, on the reverse, the difference between grain and flesh side; a coated material shows layers one on top of the other and the orderly knit of its support.

Neither look is an expert report and neither replaces a document: they tell you which question to ask. The difference between a hide, a coated hide and a sheet made from fibres is set out in the guide on which leather to choose for a bespoke sofa.

So is it always a manufacturing defect?

No, and here is the step almost nobody writes down: a covering that flakes away raises a question of identity before it raises one of quality. There are three questions.

The first: which material was ordered, and which material was supplied. This is answered with documents — the order confirmation, the approved swatch, the covering’s data sheet. If what was delivered is not what was agreed, the discussion ends here and has nothing to do with durability.

The second: if the material is the one agreed, was it suited to the intended use, and whose choice was it? A coated material on a small armchair in a bedroom is a reasonable decision; the same material on a sofa in a lobby, cleaned every day, is another matter — and if the choice belonged to the design, it is in the design that it has to be looked for.

The third: if the material was the right one for that use, what remain are maintenance and environment. It is the least comfortable route, because it brings in whoever uses the piece, but it is a real one.

What part do cleaning and environment play, and why does it happen sooner in a hotel?

A large part, and one measurable in years. Applied surfaces are more sensitive to solvents than hides are: alcohol-based disinfectants and strong degreasers, used every day on the same spot, attack the film before anything can be seen, and by the time the damage appears the cause is months old. The dry heat of a nearby radiator, direct sun over whole seasons and the oils of human skin on armrests and headrests work in the same way: these are the places where the flaking almost always begins.

The sign that separates the causes is the distribution: a failure concentrated where hands and heads rest speaks of use, one spread even where nobody sits speaks of the material.

In a hotel every quantity involved changes — more people, more hours, daily cleaning with products chosen to disinfect and not to preserve — and the piece exhausts in a fraction of the time a life that in a house would be long, in all the rooms at once, because the pieces are twins and age alike. It is the same reasoning as the abrasion resistance of fabrics. And it is why the mock-up room is not a formality: it is the only occasion on which the material is put in the hands of the people who will have to clean it, before there are fifty rooms of it.

What the order and the specification should say

A few lines, and none of them about durability.

• the material by name and by composition, not by a commercial formula: «leather covering» and «covering in a coated material on a textile support» are two different orders, and the difference is written by the seller;
• the approved swatch, dated and signed, kept by both parties: it is the only piece of evidence about what was chosen that cannot be argued with;
• the cleaning methods permitted and the products forbidden, handed to the people who do the cleaning and not only to the technical office: it is the line most often missing, and it is free;
• the intended use of each piece — bedroom, lobby, restaurant — because it is the use that makes a choice suitable or unsuitable (how to write a requirement that can be verified is in the guide to the specification clause);
• the terms of the warranty, which in a supply of furniture are not those of a works contract.

Can it be recovered, or is it thrown away?

A well-built upholstered piece can be recovered, and often that is the right route: frame, webbing and fillings may still be sound when the surface no longer is. In a hotel, though, it is not only upholstery work: fire compliance concerns the assembled article and not the covering alone, so changing the surface means going back over that position, as the guide on reupholstering an upholstered piece explains.

How we work

We make our sofas and armchairs in-house, and that moves the moment at which the question arises: not when the covering fails, but when the order is written. On a bespoke piece the covering is a declared choice, with a swatch kept on record and the intended use written beside the piece. On a hotel contract the value that counts for more than any other is time: furniture that is compliant, certified and delivered on the agreed dates allows an early opening, and a hotel that opens early starts invoicing early. A covering chosen for the wrong use, by contrast, comes back precisely in the years in which the property should only be working. The route for a contract is the Contract section; the contacts lead to the people who follow the work, and the collections show the pieces.

Frequently asked questions

Can real leather peel?

A hide does not shed layers in flakes leaving a woven backing in view, because it has no backing underneath. It can lose colour, mark and show very fine crazing in the finish: those are forms of wear, not detachment.

After how many years is a flaking covering «normal»?

There is no figure that holds for every material and every use: anyone who gives one is giving an opinion. The useful question is not how long it should have lasted, it is what the material was and for which use it was chosen.

Can cleaning products really ruin a covering?

Yes, and not immediately: solvents and strong degreasers act by accumulation on the same spot. That is why the permitted cleaning methods have to be handed to the people who clean, not filed away.

Talk to us The contract division

This page describes criteria for identification and selection and does not replace an expert report or a design. It quotes no prices, no expected service lives, no percentages and no company case histories, and it cites no technical standards: the designation of materials and the terms of the warranty have to be verified on the documents of the individual supply.