Expert: Mark H. Miller - 4/20/2004

Question
I was delighted to find your name associated with my recent purchase of a second-hand Domar upholstered Suede sofa in good condition!  I am eager to learn more of the origins of this sofa and age/value?  It is a 3 seater, down filled, rolled arms, studs on front of arms with wooden feet.  Only problem is that there is quite a lot of fading of the beautiful tan color as well as some marks.  Any suggestions of how to restore this to a more even tone or even remove some of the marks?
Thank you for any information you can provide!
Kind regards,
Laura

Answer
Hi,  I'm glad that you have a Domar sofa,  and that you like it so much.  Domar was in business 20 years and we had quite an impressive list of clients.  It's an alderwood double doweled frame. Domar went in business in 1980 it could have been made any time after that.  All our furniture was custome made to client specifications.

There is nothing that I know of that you can do to restore suede.  We always upholstered in c.o.m.  (customer's own material) the clients supplied the materials we upholstered in so I have no way of knowing the specifics.

Keep the sun off the sofa as it will dry the suede and damage the suede.  I don't know if saddle soap is suitable.  When the fabric wears out the sofa will be well worth reupholstering.  Domar was wholesale,  our sofa's were in the $3000.00 dollar wholesale range,  6000.00 retail plus c.o.m. could add another 2000 for the suede.  So conceivably your sofa could have cost $8000.00 new, retail.

Mark Miller