Olympia Furniture

Olympia Furniture sells home furnishings from Sunset Boulevard in St. George. Leather is the material in a furniture showroom that most rewards knowing the vocabulary, partly because the terms sound like grades of quality and partly because leather behaves distinctively in this climate.

How it works

A hide is split into layers. Full grain is the outermost layer with the natural surface intact, including its marks and variation, and it is the most durable because the fiber structure at the surface of a hide is the densest part of it. Top grain is that same outer layer with the surface sanded and corrected to remove blemishes, then finished and often embossed with a uniform texture - more consistent, slightly less durable. Genuine leather, despite the reassuring name, is a lower split of the hide with a finish applied. Bonded leather is not a hide at all: it is shredded leather fiber bound with polyurethane onto a backing, and it delaminates in sheets rather than wearing.

The climate matters after that. Leather is a natural material with oils and moisture in its structure, and it stiffens and eventually cracks as those are lost. Very low humidity accelerates it, and direct sun accelerates it further by heating the surface and degrading the finish, so the failure typically appears first on the cushion nearest a window. Two responses work: keep leather out of the sun path, using window coverings or placement, and condition it periodically to replace what the air takes. Both matter more here than in the places where most furniture care advice is written.

More on this: window covering companies and upholstery and furniture repair. See every listing under Furniture Stores.

Nearby: Jiffy Lube (Sunset Blvd), Sanchez Mexican Food, Precision Auto Glass.