If you want to treat yourself to some new household furniture, you may be focusing on your living room. Yet it's been a long time since you bought your current chairs and sofas, so you need to invest in something new. What material should you opt for, and should you get something locally made?

Home Manufacturer

When you start looking, you will see that there is an extensive array of living room furniture. Much of it is imported, but the better products are made with pride in Australia. With so much focus on the economy and recovery, it makes sense to buy local wherever you can.

Choice of Material

Having made that decision, you need to choose the specific material. The frame may well be made from timber and sourced from local forests, but you need to look at the coverage as well.

Leather

Your primary choice will be between fabric or leather. The latter is more classic and is, of course, a natural material. It will mature as time goes by and develop its own feel.

Leather is very hard-wearing, and if you have a family of small children, you may be particularly happy with your choice when they spill food all over it! Leather is very resilient, so if you also have pets, you won't need to spend a lot of time vacuuming up that dander.

Bonded Leather

You may also come across sofas that are made with bonded leather and may wonder what this is. Essentially, it is a hybrid solution that is a mixture of faux and real leather.

Microfibre

Microfibre is a very commonplace alternative to leather. It is still quite soft even though it is synthetic, and it tends to be somewhat cheaper. You need to be careful to clean any stains as soon as they become apparent, but otherwise, it's relatively simple to take care of as well.

Fitting in

Once you have decided between leather and fabric, look at the design configuration. There's a large variety here as well, and you should find something that will fit in your particular space.

Making Your Choice

As you begin your search, you should make sure that you deal with companies that have experience in this area. They will be able to source Aussie-made sofas and tell you all about the quality of manufacture. If you have any questions as you choose between fabric, microfibre or leather and how each would stand up to your busy household, they can answer those as well.