5 Ways To Remove Ink From Leather

Children and ink: two peas in a very volatile, destructive pod. "Get a car with leather seats," they said. "Get a leather couch," they said. "It's SO much easier to clean," they said. "They" do not show up to help clean the "easy to clean" leather when the kids find a marker and go all Picasso on the furniture, it turns out. Anyone who has small kids has, unfortunately, learned the hard way that, despite our best efforts, kids get into everything, which means that parents do a LOT of cleaning.

Make sure when you're cleaning up any sort of spill or stain, you're using a white fabric. White terrycloth or cotton cloths are great, but paper towels also work well. This ensures you can see the spill being picked up (the cloth/paper towel will show the pigment), plus you can bleach it after — this prevents the stain moving from one fabric to another!

5 Successful Ways To Remove Ink From Leather — Via Bernard Hermant / Unsplash

Try to avoid spreading ink around by using a small surface area to clean it. Cotton swabs work great! Trace the ink with the cotton swab, and then once the ink is gone, clean the entire area with a larger product like a cotton pad, piece of paper towel, or a washcloth, so that any mild discoloration blends into the rest of the fabric. This way it will look like natural wear on the leather instead of an obvious spot.

Also, cleaning up anything ASAP is important in order to get rid of as much of the staining product as possible. This is especially important with ink on leather, because it will stain quite quickly — when it stains, it's much harder to get out (read: pretty much impossible).

Thankfully, all that leather furniture you bought is not a waste once kids have gotten hold of it. There are a few foolproof ways to remove ink from leather (since removing children from the situation is considered frowned upon, etc., etc.) when you can't afford to call in the pros. Here are 5 tried-and-true ways to remove ink from leather:

1. Leather Cleaner

Always, always, always go this route first. Some leather-loving-chemist somewhere has small kids, because there are actual ink removers specifically made for leather. Your best bet is definitely to buy some leather ink remover when you buy leather products just to be safe. Call it 20/20 vision. The nice thing about leather cleaner is that it moisturizes and adds a protective layer to your leather products, so they end up being more durable. For any cleaner, always make sure to use the product in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions on the label. If you don't have a leather cleaner, try these other ink removal techniques, instead.

2. Soap and Water

A classic cleaning solution: soap and water. But first! Use a dry paper towel to soak up the excess ink. Make sure you don't rub the spot at all, because that will spread it and set the ink. Once you've got all the excess ink off, take a damp paper towel with moisturizing soap on it and gently clean it. Use dry paper towel again to soak up the rest of the ink. Continue these steps until the ink is gone. This is clearly not the most environmentally-friendly option, but, hey, expensive couches are at stake.

3. Rubbing Alcohol

Is there anything that rubbing alcohol can't clean? A friend of mine is a mortician and she swears by rubbing alcohol to clean even postmortem fluids. Ink? A walk in the park. The key with rubbing alcohol is to use cotton to soak up the alcohol along with the offending product (in this case, the ink), so make sure you have a cotton swab or ten handy to help make this process easier. Also, make sure you dry it quickly (a blow dryer works great), because the alcohol will eat away at the leather if it's left on too long. If you don't have a blow dryer, don't go this route unless you're wanting to turn your leather couch into a suede one.

4. Hairspray

Hairspray is a cleaner's best-kept secret; it's great for cleaning numerous spills on so many fabric types. It's not the most environmentally friendly option, but, hey, neither are children. Spray the inked-up area with hairspray until it's saturated, then blot the area immediately until the hairspray is soaked up. Clean up the residue with moisturizing soap and water.

5. Perfume or Nail Polish Remover

If you don't have hairspray or rubbing alcohol handy and soap and water isn't doing the trick, try perfume, cologne, or nail polish remover (make sure it's acetone-based). Use a cotton swab to clean the ink, and then wipe it down with soap and water to prevent the alcohols from eating the leather. Bonus: this option smells pretty good.