There are various types of leather sold today and this can be confusing to people who want to buy living room furniture like leather couches and armless chairs. Aside from genuine leather, there are also a lot of things in the market which look a lot like leather but are not real leather. Some terminologies for leather may even vary from one manufacturer to another. The two most common types of leather are genuine leather and bonded leather.
Bicast leather vs bonded leather:
Bonded leather is made of several pieces of leather which are joined together with the help of adhesives. They are then covered with polyurethane. Only the back of the leather is made of genuine leather. Do not confuse this with bicast leather which is also pieces of leather covered with polyurethane.
Bonded leather started showing up in furniture stores in 2007. Bonded leather is much more affordable than genuine leather; it costs only 2/3 of the price of genuine leather. Bonded leather is the best choice if you want the look and feel of genuine leather without the high price tag.
Bonded leather is made of scraps of leather. So when you buy bonded leather you are basically helping the recycling process. When looking for bonded leather, the names which you should look for UltraHide, Nupelle, DuraHide Plus, PVC and polyvinyl.
Although bonded leather feels and looks very much like the real thing, it is not as durable. You might save a few bucks when you buy bonded leather but if you are thinking about the future, you’ll end up saving more in the long run if you buy genuine leather couches. If the price of genuine leather is just too much for you right now. You can try top grain leather and full grain leather instead. Top grain is next to genuine leather in level and full grain is next to top grain.
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