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By White or light coloured sofa looks clean, elegant and brightens up the living room, thus making them a popular choice among home owners as part of the main soft furnished item in their home. While they are nice to have, maintaining them is always a challenge because of their light colour. Stains and discoloration on such light coloured material will be obvious thus careful care is needed to ensure they stay clean and bright!
Below are steps you can follow to maintain light coloured upholstery:
1. Attend to stains or spillage immediately.
Stains or spillages need to be removed as soon as it takes place. The longer stains remain on the sofa, the harder it will be to remove it. Place layers of kitchen papers to remove excess stains from the upholstery as soon as spillage occurs. Do not rub or wipe the spillage excessively or you may end up spreading the stain.
Then take a damp clean cloth, preferably white colour, and start blotting the stain with water. If water is insufficient to remove the stain, blot the stain with little amount of dishwashing detergent or shampoo. Then rinse by blotting the cleaned spot with a clean damp cloth. Blow dry the damp spot till thoroughly dry.
2. Do not eat or drink on the sofa.
Food and beverage stains are common stains found on sofa seats. Some of these stains contain food colouring that can potentially cause permanent marks on your sofa especially if they are left unattended for a long time.
3. Rotate your sofa set once a month if facing the sun to prevent unbalanced discoloration from sunlight.
4. Cover the fabric furniture with slipcover if you are holding party to minimise direct staining.
5. Minimise activities that may potentially leave stains when using the upholstered furniture e.g. writing, nail polishing, eating, drinking, etc.
6. Vacuum sofa frames, seats and cushions weekly to remove embedded dirt. Removing accumulated dust and dirt in the fabric upholstery not only helps to improve indoor air quality. Accumulated dust and dirt on the sofa fabric may darken the upholstery, causing the fabric or upholstery to look dull and dirty. Leather sofa should be wiped bi-weekly to minimise stains caused by body grease and dirt.
7. Do not attempt using cleaning products from DIY stores if you are unsure. Many off the shelves cleaning products do not contain sufficient cleaning instructions and may contain chemicals that are not suitable for your sofa. If in doubt, always check back with the shop manager where you bought your sofa set from.
8. Engage professional sofa cleaning service yearly, or more frequently, depending on usage and soiling condition. Professional cleaning service is needed to thoroughly clean and refreshes the upholstery, especially if there are stains that need to be removed.