Leather is the one thing you should not choose from a screen. To request samples, call 833-566-6526 or email operations@uptownsebastian.com with the piece you are considering and the grade and colors you want to see. Tell us the model and the grade, and we will get the right swatches to you.

A dyed hide has depth that a photograph flattens, and your own light will change it again once it is in the room. Samples cost you a phone call and they prevent the one mistake that cannot be undone: made-to-order furniture is non-returnable and non-refundable, so the color you choose is the color you keep.

What to tell us

The more specific you are, the more useful the samples will be. Include:

• The model you are considering, or a link to the product page.
• The leather grade -- Standard, Premium, Signature, Elite or Supreme. The colors available depend on the grade, so this determines what we can send.
• The colors you are choosing between. Three or four is a decision; a dozen is a stall.
• Your timeline, if you are working to a date. Made-to-order furniture averages 8-10 weeks to build, so samples need to happen early.
• Your delivery address.

If you are not sure which grade you want yet, say so and describe the room instead -- the light it gets, the flooring, the wood tones, whether there are children or dogs. We would rather send the right three swatches than the wrong ten.

How to judge a sample once it arrives

Do not decide in the first ten minutes. The point of a physical sample is to see the hide behave across a day.

• Put it where the furniture will go, held vertically against the wall rather than lying flat. You will be looking at the sofa from standing height, not from above.
• Look three times -- morning daylight, mid-afternoon, and at night under your own bulbs. Warm bulbs push tans and browns toward orange; cool daylight pulls them gray.
• Hold it against what stays -- floor, rug, wall color, wood tones. The hide only has to work with those.
• Touch it properly. Warm it in your hand, press a thumbnail in, rub the surface. An uncoated aniline hide will mark and then recover; a protected finish will not mark at all. That one test tells you which family of leather you are actually buying.

There is more on what separates one hide from another in our guide to choosing leather color, finish and feel.

A note on natural variation

Your furniture will be the same hide and the same color as the sample, but leather is a natural material: shade, grain and markings vary from panel to panel and hide to hide. Expect a close relative, not a photocopy. Healed scars and grain variation are evidence of a real hide rather than a coating, and on an aniline leather they are part of what you are paying for.

Outdoor fabric

Outdoor pieces use Sunbrella cushion grades -- Signature, Elite and Supreme -- with their own pattern and color ranges. Ask for these the same way, and mention that it is an outdoor piece so we send fabric rather than hide. Browse outdoor furniture.

Specifying for a client

Designers and trade buyers working to a client presentation should tell us that up front -- it changes what is useful to send and when. See the designer and trade page.

Next steps

Once you have chosen, work through the rest of the build in how to design a custom leather sofa, or go straight to the range: leather sofas, sectionals, accent chairs.

Call 833-566-6526 or email operations@uptownsebastian.com to request your samples.