I haven't been here in a while. But I use to post here a lot. I redecorated my den about 5 yrs ago or more and posted some pics then. The walls are Ralph Lauren suede paint in "rattlebox" and the furniture is a distressed leather. I also replaced all my carpet with tile (heat mats under the tile). I have 3 dogs that are respectively 100, 85, and 65 lbs in and out of my den all day long every day.

Below are Mocha and Rusty on the loveseat.. and a pic of Ginger on the chair. My husband and I usually take up the sofa. Remember, nail marks make "distressed" leather look even better.

For a note, the window treatments are blue silk. Its dog friendly, but I honestly just wanted something pretty that I liked, and something that was not high maintenance.

Definitely look for distressed leather. My leather sofa was not distressed and the wear it shows from a dog (a small, dainty dog) makes it look just crappy.

I think leather furniture holds up best when you take the time to treat the leather with a good leather "moisturizer", and I think once every other month with teenagers and dogs probably isn't too often. Teenagers can do this chore! There are several brands that come in tubs and you apply them just like furniture polish or wax in the tubs. Leather treatment products aren't thick or greasy and smelly and really are more like moisturizers that soften the leather, disguise a little too much distress on distressed leather. It will really add years to the life of leather furniture by protecting it and making it more supple so it won't split or tear under stress. Dogs+kids=stress. Another way to go is to cover furniture with one of the hundreds of new patterns and textures in indoor/ outdoor upholstery fabric. You can wash removable cushion covers in the machine and they will come out clean and looking and smelling like new! You'll never know it isn't regular upholstery fabric until you need to get the dog hair and cheeseburger grease stains out. And out they come in the washing machine and they're back on the sofa before school's out. No upholstery cleaning bills. Seems clear to me that Cindy's Mocha, Rusty and Ginger are perfectly comfortable and love their leather seats!

I second the suggestion of lower grade distressed leather. When we bought our Natuzzi leather sectional, we got the higher grade softer leather, and it has shown every cat scratch or dog toe nail mark. I'm livid with the salesperson who didn't advise us about this, as we were really clueless about the grades of leather at the time and didn't realize the animals would leave such marks. If we'd had a distressed finish it wouldn't have looked so obvious.

Thanks everyone! I am so glad for your advice. Cindyandmocha, those are gorgeous dogs and they sure seem happy with your furniture choices!

New twist on the question....how about microfiber? I'm just back from the furniture store and my head is swimming. I had to leave to think things through. I originally was not looking at microfiber but found a sofa and l/s with fabric that was leather looking (though clearly fabric) with faux grain, somewhat distressed in appearance.

But....how does microfiber hold up in comparison with leather??
I borrowed a pillow and have to take it back so any information would be so helpful!

We have 2 large labs and black leather furniture. The leather seems to have been the most dog-friendly furniture we've ever had. Now the yellow hair and the black leather is another story. It is very easy to wipe or vacuum the leather, but the hair gets down under the cushions and sticks like crazy.

One tip - use a latex glove to get the hair up while vacuuming. It breaks the static barrier and will allow you to get most if not all of the hair up. My dogs' hair just sticks into/onto any type of material. I've started using the glove as well as a shoe with a rubber sole to get the hair up from the area rugs. I can vacuum till the cows come home, yet when I take the glove or use the bottom of my shoe to gather the hair, I get huge amounts that the vacuum just doesn't.

Hey Work_in_progress... that would have been my only question: How hard is it to get the hair off. My three have thick double coats and so they "chunk coat" quite often. I hate picking up all that hair (thus the tile and not carpet). The leather doesn't hold any at all, but I've been eyeing a loveseat for my bedroom in microfiber. The less work for me the better.

We have an almost 80 lb yellow lab and a leather sofa. (2 little kids also). It is the most family and dog friendly thing ever, it cleans up so well, and does not show scratches. Our sofa is from Ethan Allen - it was their least expensive leather and it was deemed "family friendly" in the description. I concur! It probably comes in a distressed finish also, but we did not choose that option.

I personally would not choose microfiber.

I love leather but disagree with annathome about its needing so much maintenance! We have some Bradington-Young leather furniture, almost 7 years old now, and I think it got the whole leather-cleaner-and-conditioner routine a couple of times a year for the first few years and after that nada. Still looks good, the leather's not dry or cracking. We too chose a semi-distressed leather with a somewhat variegated color because of a cat and dog with "turbo growth" nails and lots of hair, and two clumsy humans with a propensity for spills. Thankfully our salesperson encouraged us to scratch and dig at the leather samples with fingernails, keys, etc. (For those in eastern MA, NH, and southern ME, Currier's Leather in Hampton Falls, NH is worth the trip.)

I wish we'd been able to afford leather for the Flexsteel sectional we recently purchased, but it would have sent it a gazillion miles out of my budget. (As it was it was kind of "yikes!") We looked at a sort of suede-ish stain-resistant synthetic material they offered (I think it might have been the same fabric fussy_chicken was looking at, because it had a leather-grain-like finish embossed on it) but I thought it looked VERY fake, and I've developed a serious dislike for regular microfiber despite its practicality (I'll grant that the hair does just wipe off) because of the streaks and "butt prints". I picked a firm, tightly-woven fabric that is sort of like chenille but less plushy, and so far it isn't presenting any problems with holding onto my long-haired, double-coated dog's hair, even in the corner that the dog has decided is his. I got permission from the salesperson to rub my fabric samples all over the dog, who was blowing coat at the time and thus dropping downy fluff by the handful. ;-) (I cleaned them off before returning them!)

Cindy, that picture of Ginger always makes me chuckle.

As an aside, we purchased an "undercoat" brush and have noticed a great reduction in the hair in the house since we starting using it on the dogs. It actually pulls from underneath so you are not just brushing the top of the coat.