What is Bonded leather?

What is Bonded Leather? 
It can also be called Enviro Leather or Eco Leather.
Conventional tanning techniques include the use of chrome and other heavy metals which transform the perishable raw hides into durable leather, but at the expense of our natural resources. The chrome and other metals pollute and contaminate our air and water.

Enviro-Leather is made by bonding tannery leather fibres which would otherwise go into landfills. Bonded, Eco or Enviro Leather use processes to create high quality products using environmentally friendly recycled content.

Bonded leather is made from small pieces of genuine leather that have been infused into the fabric’s backing. Bonded leather looks and can even smell like genuine leather.
Bonded leather has the same look and feel as genuine leather. On high quality bonded leather fabric you can hardly tell the difference.

Bonded leather can smells like real leather. It’s so similar it can be hard to tell the difference.


Bonded leather is good for the environment. Leather scraps that wouldn't have been otherwise used are recycled to create bonded leather.

Bonded leather is a material that consists of recycled leather that’s combined with other materials to create a 'bonded' leather. Bonded leather or Enviro leather is used to upholster furniture, bind books, and create clothing and fashion accessories.

There are several different types of bonded leather that are created for a variety of uses. Bonded leather is commonly used to upholster furniture and contains recycled leather. The amount of leather used depends on the manufacturer and quality of fabric.

The material is leather that is "left over" or otherwise not in its original form, pressed together and adhered to other leather via a bonding agent. This type of leather, sometimes referred to as reconstituted leather, is an alternative to what is known as genuine leather, which are whole pieces of animal hide.

Some may confuse bonded leather with artificial leather or synthetic leather, which should not be done. In some cases, a bonded leather product is 100 percent leather. Those looking at bonded leather should understand this is an option that does include realleather. Some may appreciate that fact, while others may not.

The difference between bonded leather and genuine leather, in terms of quality and looks, can be hard to see. If it is done properly, the grains and textures of bonded leather should look very close to that of genuine leather. In some cases, the only different may be that the texture of the bonded leather may not be quite as pronounced as that of natural-grained genuineleather. The function, smell, and overall appearance remains much the same.

As with all types of leather, the material remains very durable, able to withstand a number of conditions, including heat and moisture. This is a hallmark of leather and why it is used in applications such as Bibles, shoes, belts, and even sports balls. In the end, the choice will usually come down to a personal preference.

Bonded leather is produced in a similar process to paper manufacturing. Leather scraps are dispersed in water and are shredded and milled by special grinders to free the leather fibres. Mixing these fibres with natural latex binders and other additives, a leather fibre pulp is produced.

The pulp is then continuously poured and processed on a web, which is then dried and reduced to a uniform thickness.

The surface is then embossed with a grain to make it look like natural leather and finally a polyurethane coating is applied to give a soft feel and rich colour.

8 Top Tips for Choosing Office Furniture

8 Top Tips for Choosing Office Furniture

Many people work from an office, whether it be at home or in a corporate establishment. Such offices need to be furnished for it to work effectively and to optimize the comfort of the office bearers. Research has demonstrated that smartly designed office furniture, coupled with an effective personalized work-space usually reflects the overall productivity and effectiveness of such an office and its bearer.

It is therefore vital to make the right choice when it comes to the choice of office furniture. Below are top tips on choosing office furniture to achieve the best out of your office.

Don’t ‘stuff up’ The Office

Before you bring in furniture to set up in the office, ensure that you create space for them. The kind of furniture you choose should fit in the room in such a manner that leaves enough space for your clients to move around and facilitate activities such as opening the doors, cabinets and drawers. Such furniture such also be arranged to allow corridors for easy evacuation in case of accidents and other disaster.

Choose Furniture that Depicts The Specialty of The Office

Furniture is always engineered to depict what is going on in the office. Make sure you choose only the furniture that gives the office the right image. For instance, you cannot expect to use pieces of furniture designed for legal firm offices for a cafe.

Take Ergonomics Into Account

Since you will be spending most of the time on your office desk; comfort, safety and style must be guaranteed. The furniture as well as the workplace must be design in a manner that boosts productivity by minimizing operating fatigue as well as discomfort. Such must comply with safety and health requirements. Poor ergonomics can lead to strains, aches as well as work-related injuries.

Add Accessory Furniture

Beside the main office furniture such as the office chairs and desks, other accessory furniture pieces are important. These include book shelves, storage cabinets as well as computer stands. These extra pieces of furniture serve to optimize office efficiency and reliability.

Embrace Variety 

Choosing office furniture of a single design, colour and style usually create boredom because it expresses just a single line of moods. Choose office furniture of different designs colors and fashions so that you can create mixture of moods to take care of the differences on the personality of the clients you expect to serve.

Ensure Flexibility In The Office Furnishing

You cannot expect your employee’s needs to be consistent. Some of them may require a special kind of furniture in order to work optimally. Take for example those with some kind of physical handicap such as those who have to use wheel chairs; the office must be flexible to accommodate them.

Style and Impression Is Important

With technological advancement, there are hi-tech modern furniture that make the offices look stylish while at the same time are able to stand the test of time. It would be unrealistic to buy trendy furniture that would be off the market before you know it. Invest in pieces of furniture that will remain relevant even after some time. Furthermore, such furniture must give a good impression of the company so that it is respected and valued.

Divide Office Furniture Appropriately

An office may have different departments or rooms such as the main office, the reception as well as the departmental offices. Each of these rooms may require different kinds of furniture. This will also ensure that each of the employees in these rooms choose what is comfortable for them so that they can work optimally and be more productive. The above discussed tips on choosing office furniture if you have a new office that you want to equip if you cannot do it yourself, then enlist the help of a professional to help you come up with the most effective, ergonomic and highly productive office.

October 2014 is here!

As the above title says, October is here! Halloween decorations and costumes are popping up in our supermarkets, the X Factor is in full swing (Chloe |Jasmine to win!!) and people are starting to brace themselves for the beginning of the madness that is Christmas and New Year.

I have always been a fan of this time of year, I love when the leaves start to turn that gorgeous golden brown colour and like the fact that, for the most part, the weather starts to cool but it's not yet  cold enough for gloves and scarves. The dark nights are also not with us just yet which is always a bonus!

Anyway, back to business!

Sales have been good for us this year so far. We have introduced several new lines to our range this past few months and we have had lots of good feedback from our customers. We have been able to begin and maintain several special offers in 2014 and are pleased to announce that many more will be appearing in the coming  months.

Please click here to view our special offers category, there is bound to be something there to take your fancy!

See you soon x

Obviously having a bad day!

Storms hit the UK!

Here are some stunning shots from the storm that hit the UK overnight in the early hours of 18/7/14.

All of these shots are from within London. We tried taking some shots of our own but they were not a patch on the standards of pictures shown here!

We're sure you'll agree that these shots are breath taking!

The Goliath is back!!!

We are pleased to announce this week that our immensely popular heavy duty chair "The Goliath" is back in stock!

This durable chair is designed to withstand weights of up to 27 stone and, as the name suggests, is a larger model with generous seat measurements.

Features include;

 *Heavy duty leather faced chair
* Matching padded armrests
* Rated to 27 stone (170 kg)
* Generous seat measurements
* Reclining function with tilt tension
* Gas lift seat height adjustment
* Requires easy self assembly

Dont miss out!  

Back to work!!

Hope everyone had a great Easter break!! 

Most of us are back to work now and possibly feeling the post-holiday blues. Here are some jokes that most of our office working regulars should appreciate!

See you next week!!

Our Upholstery Service...

At The Office Chair Shop we strive to offer the very best online shopping experience possible.  As well as having a large range of chairs available at very competitive prices, we offer extra services on many lines such as the popular ready built option which takes out any stress in constructing your new chair.

Another very popular  service we offer is our upholstery service.

Many businesses these days have their own logo or colour scheme (for example Morrisons which are bright yellow and Asda which are bright green).  This can be utilised in the clothes the staff wear, the decor of the building and of course the furniture.

At The Office Chair Shop we have a very large range of fabrics on offer to customise your chair any colour you want.  Being an online business we don’t have a showroom for our customers to come and see the chairs before they buy (our offices in Finchley do not have the facilities for this at the moment).  To remedy this we do, in many cases, provide swatches to give you peace of mind that the colour you finally order is definitely the colour you require.  We can also offer our  “colour match service”  where you send us details of what colour you want and we find the best match for you .

We pretty much have access to any colour you can think of and you don’t even have to have one colour, if you want a chair with a neon pink back and luminous yellow seat so be it!

One of our most popular chairs is the best selling Serenity, this is available in blue or black as standard and is also available upholstered a colour of your choice. Just below are some examples of different  colours which are available.