Give your lounge suite a good clean
The hot sunny weather is the perfect time to get your lounge suite outdoors for a well-deserved clean. With three small dogs, my lounge suite is looking considerably grungy. There are 'pup dew' marks all over the arms, back and front and it's starting to smell like a kennel...!
Although I wouldn't recommend this method for every lounge suite, and definitely not for leather or suede, my suite is faux suede and you should be able to clean most fabric lounge suites in the same way. If in any doubt, try it on one section before tackling the entire suite.
The first step in cleaning the lounge suite is to get rid of as much dust as possible. You might vacuum the suite every day, but dust gets into the padding and a good whack with a squash (or tennis) racket loosens and releases the dust. As you can see I did this in the garden.
When I said my lounge suite is looking grungy - I meant it. The arms are really disgusting and I have been putting off the cleaning for a day like today... not a cloud in sight, sunny and hot.
You will need two buckets: one with hot water and upholstery cleaner, and another with cold water. Use a scrubbing brush to liberally wet where you are going to start. A light scrubbing should be sufficient and won't damage the fabric.
After scrubbing, use a clean, lightly damp cloth to wipe away as much wetness as possible. You will now be able to see whether or not more scrubbing is required.
The couch arms needed a couple of scrubs and wipes before they looked clean. There is a big difference between how they looked before and after cleaning.
If you have a wet/dry vac, you can use this now to suck excess moisture.
Leave the furniture out in the sun until completely dry. If you are worried about fading, place the furniture in a shady spot to dry. Don't worry about how saggy the fabric looks, as it dries it will shrink back into it's original shape. After drying, if the fabric feels a bit stiff, use a suede brush or soft brush, to loosen up the nap.
In the next installment I will be discussing minor repairs on a lounge suite. Mine has a 'sinkhole' in one spot and I am going to be fixing this up.
