The Connections Warren-Watchung Edition Feb 2020

theconnectionsnj.com • Selling • Buying • Investing • Vacation Rentals Donna Freedland Realtor Cell: 908-672-2309 Call or Text DFreedland@vandykgroup.com INC. Office: 609-492-1511 x 1102 Email: DFreedland@vandykgroup.com DFreedland.vandykrealestate.com 12800 Long Beach Boulevard, Beach Haven Terrace, NJ 08008 Since 1946 Now is the Best Time to Buy on LBI! Contact me for all the latest listings! Resort and Second Home Specialist Leather Cleaning, Repair and Restoration As a young boy, I would spend hours watching my uncle reupholster fine leather furniture and hand tool leather motorcycle saddles. From him, I learned how to work with leather including the delicate art of surgically repairing rips and tears in upholstery. Little did I know that someday I would be involved in professional leather upholstery repair and restoration. Bedminster ON-SITE Drapery Care is well known for cleaning and removing difficult stains from fine fab- rics in the home, notably window treat- ments and upholstery. Dry cleaners, decorators and collectors recognize our expertise and often turn to us for tack- ling stain issues on high risk, delicate fabric items. We have built our reputa- tion in this exclusive niche. We became involved in leather repair and restoration quite by accident sever- al years ago. One of our customers asked, after we had dry cleaned all of her drapes, if we knew anyone who could clean her aniline leather couch. Not finding anyone in the area special- izing in leather restoration, we took on the challenge ourselves. The couch came out like new and thus was born the Leather Restoration Division of Bedminster ON-SITE Drapery Care. Homeowners are usually surprised to learn that their faded leather upholstery can usually be restored. In fact, it often makes economic sense today to restore leather furniture rather than replace. This is because much of the manufac- ture of leather upholstery including frame construction has been outsourced overseas with a commensurate drop in overall quality. Consequently, replacing with the same or better new leather fur- niture has become very costly. Our leather restoration process is labor intensive and time consuming because it requires numerous steps with drying times in between. We take all the cushions with us to be worked on in our shop because they are always in much worse shape than the main part of the piece. We deep clean, rehydrate, soften and apply UV protection. Approximately two weeks later, we return to complete the rest of the piece in the customer’s home. Recoloring to an exact original match is often a worthwhile option. See before/after pictures on our website: www.draperycare.net. We strongly recommend cleaning and applying conditioner every three months to any piece of leather furniture in order to prevent wear. We recom- mend using softening products, which are the same as the tanners use rather than locally available leather care prod- ucts, which contain harmful alkaline cleaners. The product we use contains six times the collagens and proteins found in typical skin moisturizers. We can show you how to perform this peri- odic maintenance or provide this service for you. Bedminster ON-SITE Drapery Care is certified for leather cleaning and restoration through the IICRC (Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification). Bedminster ON-SITE Drapery Care (908) 722-2345 www.draperycare.net By: Mitch Frieber home & design PAGE 20