Is it madness to buy a leather lounge for a house with babies?

[phdlife]

It's dark colored, smooth and got a shiny sort of finish on it - hang on, here it is - it seems to me like it would weather life with a toddler and a baby and their boisterous cousins reasonably well, anyone got any experience otherwise?

Go for it. At least it is a dark colour. Liquids won't permeate it. You'd be amazed how many people with babies and toddlers have white leather suites and cream carpets!

i have a leather sofa, much better than fabric when you have children. Much easier to clean, does not get smelly etc etc.

Why would it be 'madness'? What sort of problems were you envisaging OP?

I replaced my leather sofa with a fabric one - big mistake with two cats and a toddler. As long as you are prepared for the sofa to "age" then I think leather is fab.

leather is far better - it wipes clean! When we had fabric sofas - oh dear lord! fabric sofa + 2 toddlers = filth!

thank you all - I didn't have any disasters in mind but dh was wringing his hands. He can be rather peculiar about furnishings

About to replace my fabric sofa with a leather one. Have a 23 month old and hopefully another dc soon. Fabric gets wrecked by children.

does lounge mean sofa? if so goodness me leather is far more practical than fabric.

I would love leather. My fabric one is hideous

We have leather and if DH would stop 'dropping' as opposed to sitting and stop pushing down the cushions at the back when he buries rests his arms it may well last some time!!!

lol at "peculiar about furnishings"!

Another vote for leather - we have leather sofas, armchairs and "cubes" for the girls (and me!) to sit on, and it's great, wipe clean, looks good - leather is supposed to age gracefully too, rather than just look shabby like fabric.

You can get special wipes for cleaning leather, but I find myself using baby wipes most of the time! Or muslins back when dd2 was Miss pukerama...

yeah sorry lounge = sofa. I speak 3 "english"es, can never remember which is which

do it do it do it

we have one leather and one fabric

fabric one looks permanently filthy depsite washable covers

leather one still looks fab

Swapping our fabric sofas for leather ones was the best thing we ever did. We had one with removable covers whilst DS1 and 2 were babies and it got knackered - covers seemed to be permanently in the wash, discovered banana never washes out, they got tatty very fast. The leather one that we got when DD was born was far more practical (wipe clean! Yay!)

I much prefer leather sofas to fabric. Wipe clean!

We've got leather sofa's and the times I've had children throw up on it and have people spill drinks and food, I am just eternally grateful I don't have a fabric one!

at the idea of an entirely leather lounge. Wipe-clean walls, perfect!

It madness not to imo. Mine cream leather sofa has gone through all sorts with my dc in few short months we have lived and t'is fine. God knows what state it would be in were it fabric

Babywipes wipe off most stuff. But for the pen/permanat marker/paint that dd2 likes to find lying about the house, JML magig eraser works a treat.

lol, trillian. hadn't thought of that, though now you mention it...

say, if it's hot and sticky, do you stick nastily to leather? will we be peeling ourselves off it like big slabs of warm meat?

We would love leather but our cats would dstroy it for sure. The children would be no probs.

Trillian, I have a wipe clean lounge. I got to decorate my house from scratch so is perfectly child proof. Durable paint, leather furniture, wood floors etc. The only thing in my living room that isn't wipe clean is the rug and that is machine washable.

T'is brill. 'Don't worry, it will clean' has become my new mantra.

Don't cats destroy leather?

We are thinking about getting new sofas but were going to get fabric because of the cats.

Cats destroy fabric as well btw

What is a leather lounge anyway?

Depends on the cats I suppose. Our cat is a real scratcher when there's cardboard boxes, door frames, random legs available but has never scratched the sofa.

leather much better - when an ill toddler vomites all over it - you just wipe it off, fabric it would soak in and smell - urghh