How to get blood out of a sofa

The short answer

Check your sofa's care label first. Wearing disposable gloves, blot fresh blood with a clean, dry, colourfast cloth — don't rub. If the care guidance allows water, dab with a cloth lightly dampened with cool or cold water, not hot, and don't soak the fabric. If a mark remains, use only an upholstery product whose instructions cover your fabric. Judge the result once it's fully dry. Dried blood is generally harder to shift, and sometimes stopping is better for the sofa.

Before you start

This guide is for ordinary fabric sofas and upholstered chairs. It doesn't cover leather or faux leather, suede or nubuck, silk, vintage or antique upholstery, or anything dry-clean-only or solvent-only, or coded S or X if your label uses letter codes; nor unknown fabrics or fabric that isn't colourfast. For those, follow the maker's guidance or ask a professional. Velvet needs extra caution, covered below.

If you're not sure the mark is blood, our guide on how to get stains out of a fabric sofa is the better starting point. Before you begin, check:

Your sofa's care label or the maker's instructions, and the separate label on a removable cover if there is one
What the fabric is, if you know, and whether it's velvet or another pile fabric
Whether the blood is fresh or dried, and whether it seems to have soaked through
Whether anything has already been used on the mark
Disposable gloves, clean white or colourfast cloths and cool or cold water

We drew on guidance from Aquaclean, Sofology, Furniture Village, DFS and Loaf, blood-stain guidance from UGA Extension and BISSELL, and GOV.UK for hygiene context. We last checked the DFS, Loaf and Sofology care-kit pages on 23 September 2026. Most of it comes from companies selling sofas or cleaning products, so we say where advice applies only to one maker's fabric.

We don't claim to test what we haven't tested: we haven't physically tried any method or product here. See how we assess guidance.

What to do while the blood is fresh

Check the sofa's care guidance firstLook for the care label and any maker's instructions. If they rule out water, or you can't find any, stop after blotting.
Put on disposable glovesParticularly if the blood isn't yours.
Blot with a clean, dry cloth — don't rubPress a white or colourfast cloth onto the blood and lift, working from the outside towards the centre, and move to a clean part of the cloth as you go. Rubbing or scrubbing can spread the mark and damage the fabric.
If water is allowed, dab with a cool, damp clothLightly dampen a clean cloth with cool or cold water — not hot — dab the mark, then blot with a dry cloth. Never pour water onto the sofa or soak the upholstery.
If a mark remains, use only a compatible upholstery productThat means your sofa's care kit, or an upholstery cleaner whose instructions cover your fabric and this kind of stain. Follow them exactly, including any hidden-area test and how to remove residue.
Blot, let it air dry fully, then reassessPress out as much moisture as you can, let the area dry naturally without direct heat, and judge the mark only once it's completely dry.

For blood, use cool or cold water rather than hot, and only if your sofa's care guidance allows water. Aquaclean, UGA Extension and BISSELL all point to cool or cold water, and several sources warn hot water can make blood harder to remove. General stain advice that suggests warm water isn't written for blood.

What changes once the blood has dried?

Dried blood is generally harder to remove than fresh blood, and it may not come out completely.

If loose dried material is sitting on the surface, lift it away gently, but only if your fabric can take it — don't scrape at the weave or pile.

If your care guidance allows water, cautiously re-moistening the mark with cool or cold water on a cloth may help, in small stages with blotting in between. Aquaclean recommends re-moistening for blood more than 24 hours old on its own fabric; that's one maker's advice, not a method for every sofa.

Repeated wet treatment brings its own problems. Stop if the colour, texture or pile changes, a ring forms, the fabric is getting too wet, or progress stops. A professional upholstery cleaner may be worth asking, though we can't promise they'll remove it.

Care labels, covers and fabrics

The maker's instructions override general advice, including this guide. If your label uses letter codes, W usually means water-based cleaning, S solvent-based only, WS either, and X vacuuming or brushing only. If yours rules out water, or there's no guidance, stop at blotting.

Removable doesn't mean washable

A removable cover isn't automatically machine washable. Furniture Village says not to wash covers unless the maker's instructions say you can, and Loaf tells owners of its removable-cover sofas to use a dry cleaner, not a washing machine.

Velvet and delicate fabrics

Velvet and other pile fabrics need extra care: Sofology's velvet guidance warns against rubbing and against using too much water. Blot gently and follow your maker's velvet instructions closely.

Stop if colour transfers onto your cloth. If you don't know what the fabric is, stop at blotting rather than experiment.

Watermarks and overwetting

A damp patch can dry with a ring around it, and DFS says watermarks can be difficult to remove, recommending professional upholstery cleaning for them. Some retailers, such as Sofology, advise wiping the whole panel from seam to seam to reduce watermarks. Follow your sofa maker's method.

If a ring is left once the area has dried, see how to remove water marks from a sofa.

What can you safely use?

Cool or cold water on a cloth, where the care guidance allows water.

Your sofa's care kit or a compatible upholstery cleaner, if its instructions cover your fabric and the situation. Sofology, for example, publishes instructions for its own care kits.

Neutral soap. Aquaclean permits a neutral soap for blood on its own fabric. That's maker-specific, so don't assume it applies to yours.

Washing-up liquid. Not as a general method — Furniture Village, for example, says not to use washing-up liquid or detergents to remove stains.

Enzyme cleaners. Only if a product compatible with your upholstery specifically permits use on it. We found no basis for calling them superior.

Hydrogen peroxide, bleach, ammonia and alcohol. We don't recommend any of them as general sofa treatments. Their compatibility varies by material, and the sources we checked don't support treating them as universal options.

Bicarbonate of soda, vinegar and salt. Not methods we recommend for blood on a sofa. Salt-soaking advice is for laundry, not a fixed sofa.

Never mix cleaning products.

What about the cushion or filling?

Liquid can spread beneath upholstery fabric, which is another reason to use as little water as possible. A visible mark doesn't mean the filling is affected.

But if the blood clearly soaked through, the underside is damp, the filling stays wet, or you don't have care instructions, stop and consider professional advice. We don't give a method for washing foam or filling, or removing a fixed cover.

Cleaning isn't disinfecting

Wear disposable gloves, avoid direct contact with the blood — particularly someone else's — and wash your hands afterwards. Stain removal isn't infection control: nothing here disinfects or sanitises a sofa. If you have a health concern, get medical advice.

Should you use a machine or steam?

Neither is the default, and we don't claim an extraction machine gets a better result. A spot cleaner or upholstery tool is only worth considering if your sofa's guidance permits water-based cleaning and the machine's instructions cover your fabric. These machines add liquid as well as removing it.

We don't recommend steam for blood. DFS currently advises customers not to steam-clean its sofas at home, and Loaf's guidance on steaming velvet is about pressure marks, not stain removal.

Our guide on whether you can use a carpet cleaner on a sofa covers those checks.

Mistakes to avoid

Using hot water. Several sources warn it can make blood harder to remove.
Rubbing or scrubbing. It can spread the mark and damage pile fabrics such as velvet.
Soaking the fabric. Extra water can spread the mark, leave a ring and reach the cushion.
Assuming a removable cover is washable. Follow the cover's own label.
Reaching for bleach, hydrogen peroxide or a mix of products. Furniture Village says not to use bleach, and BISSELL warns peroxide can discolour some fibres. Never combine products.
Repeating treatment on a mark that isn't improving. Each round adds moisture.

When to stop

Stop, or pause and reassess, if:

Colour comes off onto your cloth, or the texture or pile changes.
A ring appears, or the mark is spreading.
The fabric is getting too wet, the blood has soaked through, or the filling stays damp.
The care guidance rules out what you were about to try, or you don't know the fabric.
Careful attempts have stopped making a difference.

A professional upholstery cleaner, or the sofa's maker or retailer, is a reasonable next step for delicate or unknown fabrics, a label that specifies professional cleaning, blood in the cushion, or a mark careful attempts haven't shifted. Check any warranty or protection plan first. Complete removal can't be guaranteed.

For marks that aren't blood, see how to get stains out of a fabric sofa. For blood on other surfaces, see how to remove blood from carpet and how to get blood out of a mattress. You can also browse the Upholstery section →