The living room tends to be the centre of family life and the sofa is consequently a place where we all spend a lot of time, now in a perfect world our sofas would always look plump and pristine and we’d never be guilty of eating a pizza or spilling a drink on our sofa, but, life being what it is I’m sure we’re all guilty of getting food and drink stains and much worse besides on our sofas!
This all leads us to the big question, what can I clean my sofa with so it looks beautiful and new once again?
A great starting point is to check your sofa for any care labels that it may have or failing that to check the website for your sofa manufacturer or contact them directly asking for advice on how to clean your sofa.
Once you are armed with this information you can embark on the cleaning process, this is likely to be dependant to a large part on the composition of the material that you have on your sofa.
Before we discuss the specific instructions for the type of fabric that you have on your sofa we will firstly discuss the specific instructions for cleaning the frame of your sofa.
Cleaning the Frame
The exposed parts of the frame on your sofa, which are most likely to be the sofa feet, can be cleaned with a cloth and warm soapy water, make sure that you also have a dry towel to hand to mop away any excess water at the end of the cleaning process.
Cleaning the Cushions and Covers
If you are lucky enough to have removable machine washable covers on your sofa then all you need to do is remove one or more of the affected cushion covers and pop them in the washing machine whilst following the washing instructions for your sofa covers and the job is a good one!
Of course if you’re not that lucky, which unfortunately is most likely to be the case for the majority of us then you will need to undertake some sort of hand cleaning process for your sofa, however, before embarking on that we can’t stress how important it is to firstly do a “spot test” on your covers. This is where you apply your cleaning solution to a small out-of-sight part of the stain or sofa to ensure that the fabric is not damaged by the process.
We will now run through the procedure for spot cleaning the most common types of fabric that you are likely to find on your sofa.
Polyester – this is one of the most common fabrics used in upholstery and is easy to clean; it also features in the Faux Suede, Jubilee, Turin, Holland, Max, Lisbon, Regus, Rhodeo, Conway and Carlton ranges at Nabru.
Regular stains on polyester can be easily cleaned by gently rubbing the fabric with warm soapy water using a cloth or a small amount of rubbing alcohol with a soft brush or sponge, for stubborn stains rub liquid laundry detergent on to the stain and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Polyurethane Fabric or PU – which is commonly used in faux leather fabrics is very easy to clean, regular stains can be simply wiped off the sofa by using warm soapy water and more stubborn stains can be removed by rubbing liquid laundry detergent into the stain and letting it sit for 10 minutes, be sure to rinse thoroughly with warm water afterwards.
Viscose – this is usually mixed with polyester and features in Nabru’s Opus range of fabrics, Viscose is a delicate fabric which needs to be treated with care, you can gently spot wash small stains using cool water with a little detergent, do not wring, rub, or squeeze the fabric.
Wool – is resistant to stains, but some extra care is needed, for normal stains soak the fabric in cold water for an hour and then brush gently, for stubborn stains purchase some wool shampoo and follow the product’s instructions
Cotton – Many types of linen are comprised of cotton, rubbing a stain will grind it into the fibres so your best bet is to use a chemical cleaner. For light stains sprinkle baking soda and a few drops of vinegar and blot the stain with a paper towel. For dark stains apply lemon juice and let it sit until the fabric’s colour lightens, then rinse with water. Let the fabric dry without using heat as that will cause the stain to bake into the fibres. If in doubt, purchase a linen-targeted cleaning solution and follow the instructions.
Upholstery fabric can also be cleaned by removing the covers and taking them to a dry cleaners or specialist upholster dry cleaning companies that will come to your home and dry clean the fabric in situ whilst it is on the sofa, whilst the latter technique can be expensive it has the advantage that it will not strip any specialist fire retardant backings from the fabric which is obviously an important consideration for health and safety.
Can’t shift the stain or you simply just don’t have the time to clean your sofa?
Don’t despair. The good thing about having a modular sofa is that spare parts are never in short supply. Order a replacement cover and simply swap out the stained fabric and your sofa will be as good as new!
