Over the years, we’ve received many requests to help with upholstery projects, which prompted us to source the very best upholstery leather.

Many of you know The Tannery Row for its connection and history with to The Horween Leather Company, and now we are happy to expand our leather expertise into upholstery leather.

 The Arazzo upholstery leather truly is premium leather. It’s perfect for projects where the end product needs to feel luxurious, beautiful, and high end. But what makes this leather so special? Below is an overview of the 5 things that set this leather apart. 

1. Quality Hides from the Start

2. Environmentally Friendly Practices

3. Made to Highest Technical Specifications

4. Finished for a Luxury Appearance

5. Variety of Options  

Quality Hides from the Start

Let’s compare leather to furniture for a moment. You can have a lovely-looking table, but it’s made from particleboard. Obviously, this table just isn’t in the same playing field as a table made from a raw material like oak. It’s the same idea for leather. A better raw material creates a higher quality finished product.

 Our Arazzo upholstery leather comes from Germany and Italy. European animals are raised with a focus on quality.

• European animals are raised on smaller farms that are less crowded.

• European animals have cleaner skin—they get less bug bites and are never branded

• European hides have a larger layout—hides average 50 square feet

• European animals are given the appropriate time to reach a full weight. The skin is more uniform because it has been allowed the proper time to grow and develop. This results in stronger fibers and fewer stretch marks.

Environmentally Friendly Practices

Throughout the world the standards for leather production vary greatly. If you’re at all concerned with environmental standards, it’s best to stick with hides from either the United States or Europe with European standards being the very highest.

• The European Arazzo hides meet all of the chemical regulations of the European Union and are REACH compliant.

• European hides are a by-product of the meat industry, preventing the hides from needing to be discarded as waste

Made to Highest Technical Specifications

Our European Arazzo hides are characterized by being particularly high in durability. This is due to both the selection of materials as well as the manufacturing process. We are happy to share the technical testing results of the European Arazzo hides including:

• Lightfastness

• Colorfastness

• Crocking

• Tensile Strength

• Tear Strength

• Flame Resistance

Finished for a Luxury Appearance

Let’s return to our wood analogy. Adding the color and finish to a piece of wood can take many forms. Staining will add color, but still allow the natural grain of the wood to show through while painting will completely cover the wood. Additionally, you can have glossy or matte finishes depending on your desired aesthetic. The same idea is true for leather.

There are two telltale signs that a piece the finish on the leather might be trying to cover something undesirable—a heavy layer of paint/color and embossing. Of course, there are times when the desired aesthetic warrants these types of finishes and there is nothing inherently bad about them.

But if you’re looking for luxury, premium, quality leather, you’ll want to look for the following characteristics:

• Premium quality hides are often mill-dyed or drum-dyed (versus getting a heavy top coating of paint). Mill-dyed leather has dyes introduced during the retannage process.

• Aniline or Semi-aniline finish. An aniline finish contains no pigments. It’s essentially a clear stain that allows the natural character of the leather to be seen.

The end-result of the European Arazzo is a rich, round-feeling leather with great body. You can visually see the difference, and we invite you to visit our showroom to see for yourself!

Variety of Options

We understand that oftentimes you’re looking for something very specific for your upholstery projects. You want the quality, but you also want options. Arazzo has you covered. There are more than 20 different tannages, each with multiple color variations. You’re not limited to blacks, browns and beiges. One of the most exciting things about the Arazzo upholstery leather is there are many tannages with bright, vibrant colors.

Shop Arazzo Upholstery Leather Here 

Click here to email a leather consultant & get a fast, friendly reply.

Visit our West Loop Chicago Showroom:
1515 W Carroll Ave.

Please note:

Arazzo is a collection of upholstery leather that is curated by The Tannery Row. While we primarily focus with European hides from Germany and Italy, we have the ability to source leather from other areas of the world. This may be a good option for projects that are more cost-sensitive.

The contents in this article do not apply to the leathers that are not sourced from Europe.