Placing your leather sofa close to the radiator is not a good option if you want to preserve the quality of the leather. The warm air created from your radiator can heat up the surface of your leather sofa which can degrade the leather over time by drying it out.
This can cause your sofa to lose its natural texture, strength and finish.
There are a few horror stories of people’s sofas catching on fire from radiator heat, but this would require an ignition source and is highly unlikely to occur.
This may make it seem like losing the quality of your leather isn’t so bad, but it is still something you can easily prevent. We advise you to keep your leather sofa around 8 inches or so away from your radiator to prevent any damage.
What you can do to keep your sofa away from your radiator
On your part, you should take all care to ensure that your leather sofa is not placed close to your radiator. Sometimes, there is no way you can escape from this situation, especially when the room is small. If there is no way you can place your sofa away from the radiator, you can use a foam board wrapped in aluminium foil on one side to deflect most of the heat away from your sofa; although this will affect the aesthetic of your sofa greatly.
Make sure your sofa doesn’t move around
But even if you have been able to place your sofa sufficiently away from the radiator, there is still a possibility of it getting near to it again. This occurs on laminate or tiled flooring where a sofa can easily move around if it gets pushed.
In this situation, the sofa may get close to the radiator even without anybody noticing it. It can even happen during cleaning, and you might not even notice that it has been moved.
To prevent this from happening, its always worth checking if your sofa has rubber soles on the legs that make sure it won’t move out of position easily. Remember, if you have a carpet floor then this is much less likely to happen but its worth checking every now and then.
What distance is safe?
Your sofa should be at least eight inches away from the heat source — the more, the better. This minimum distance will ensure that there is no fire incident(highly unlikely) or damage to your leather sofa. Water heated radiators are not as much of an issue as some other types because they do not typically get too hot.
Try a different layout for your room
If there is no way you can avoid placing the sofa close to the radiator, you can try placing the sofa in another part of the roof, at an angle so that the distance between the sofa and the radiator is safe enough.
An angled placement can give you up to 2-3 feet of distance between your sofa and the radiator. If you use some imagination, you can implement a smart layout by placing the furniture away from the walls and creating a walkway behind the sofa. This can be both a pleasant and more functional layout; it will allow you to place the sofa away from the walls and place a coffee table in front of it. You can even add a few chairs to the table as well.
Is a fire a possibility?
In the UK, almost all radiators that you will come across are water based. These do not get near a temperature that could cause your furniture to set on fire. Its worth approaching your radiator with a bit of caution regardless, by keeping highly flammable items well away.
As mentioned before there is far more chance of your leather becoming degraded than any fire starting.
Can you use radiator foil?
We highly recommend not using radiator foil at all, as the benefits you will gain will be quite immeasurable.
As we mentioned before you can pick up some foam board and wrap one side in aluminium foil if you so desire. It will have a greater impact than radiator foil on its own but be aware that it will look quite unusual, so this is normally a last resort.
Preventing damage by using leather conditioner
Another option is to decrease the rate of damage to your leather sofa by regularly using conditioner.
This works because a decent leather conditioner, like the ones listed in our review of the top 5 leather sofa cleaning products, will act to moisturise and maintain the condition of the leather.
This is the best option if you are stuck for space but want to preserve your sofa as much as possible without using any foil.
Final Thoughts
Keeping your leather sofa close to your radiator will cause some long-lasting damage to the finish of it and is highly unadvisable to do.
If you are stuck for space it might be worth investing into a different type of sofa as the main alternative – using some type of foil – will look ridiculous in most cases.
You can work wonders with a good leather conditioner, which will slow down the rate of wear of the sofa. Remember though that this will only slow it down, it will not stop the inevitable outcome of your leather becoming worn and dry.
