It may be easy to be fooled when looking for quality leather products. There are plastic-based materials that try to emulate leather, but don’t last nearly as long. When it comes to furniture, you want to make sure that you purchase pieces that would last you for years to come.
Full Grain It’s the most durable and highest quality leather. It contains the strongest part of the hide and includes all parts of the natural grain. This makes it more expensive to treat which also makes it cost more. This leather is like fine wine, it gets better with age.
Top Grain Unlike Full Grain, the outer layer of the hide is removed from the Top Grain which puts this at second-place for quality leather. It’s also thinner and easier to work with, which brings the cost down. Some people enjoy this leather more because it has a more uniform surface than the Full Grain.
Split Leather Suede falls under this type of leather and it’s made by splitting the bottom part from the grain. It’s textured to have a napped finish with a small pile.
Bonded Leather This leather is only 17% real leather. Bonded leather is made by taking scraps of real leather, grounding them up with plastic and attaching them to a hard fiber backing. It’s lower quality which makes the product less costly.