Biro on leather sofa

[GhoulWithADragonTattoo]

Whilst watching TV last night I looked to see three happy smilie faces looking up at me. Usually very cute. Unfortunately this time they were drawn in biro on my brown leather sofa.

Over breakfast I conducted a cross-examination worthy of Kavanagh QC. It turned out that the guilty party was my 4 year DS, not my drawing mad 6 year old DD. Although I am impressed with his skills in drawing faces I am left with the problem of how to get ink of leather. I've google but there are a lot of solutions usually follow by a disclaimer that a particular product should not be used on leather. Does anyone have any tried and tested methods for getting the ink off?

Hairspray might work. I'm not sure what it would do to the leather though so try it on the back!

This might sound silly but I got blue Biro ink off a cream sofa using furniture polish and a bit of scrubbing. Sofa was fine after.

I used nail varnish remover to get marker off my brown leather. Test an unseen part first though!

Babywipes. Patch test first somewhere unseen.
Failing that, neat washing up liquid on a damp cloth.

Hairspray works but do check in a non conspicuous area first.
I have much experience of removing biro from everything

Thanks everyone. I've got all of those in the house (except perhaps the hairspary). I'll give them a try and let you know which works.

I was wondering about sugar soap that you use before repainting. Does that sound stupid?

sugar soap is too rough, either use a baby wipe or spray a tiny bit of perfume on it (test on an out of sight bit first)

OK thanks Nancy I won't try the sugar soap.

Baby wipes and neat Fairy Liquid aren't touching it. Furniture polish has taken some of the colour out of the leather so I'm getting a bit nervous now.

alcohol gel works wonders too!! xx

yes I think it's the alcohol in perfume that makes it work, so probably the same as the gel.

I know the perfume things sounds mad but there was a poster on here years ago that discovered permanent marker right across her table - I know it worked for her!

Yep perfume will take of permanent marker thanks to ds2 for helping me test out that particular tip on the television