Choosing the perfect fabric for a chair, sofa or even a pillow can be an exciting process. Patterns, colors and textures can add finishing touches and add to the cohesive feeling of a well-designed space. In addition to the visual impact of a great fabric, there are many more considerations when selecting fabric for upholstery.
Durability
High traffic pieces such as family room chairs and sofas need durable, tightly woven fabrics that are easy to clean. Many designers are choosing indoor/outdoor fabrics for high traffic areas because they are highly durable, UV friendly and bleach cleanable. Outdoor fabrics have come a long way from their stiff, waxy roots and are available in a range of sophisticated patterns and textures. If the fabric is not specified for outdoor use, it can be treated with products such as Crypton or Nanotex for similar protection and durability.
Fine silks and linens are beautiful and luxurious, and they work best in a more decorative capacity such as a formal living room.
Delicate silks like this one are ideal in more formal settings.
A balanced weave, meaning all yarns in the fabric are about the same size and strength, will wear better than one with heavy yarns in one direction and thin yarns in the other. A twill weave resists wear and shows soil less than a plain weave of similar quality.
Flat-surfaced fabrics like damask, brocade and satin show the effects of abrasion because the long yarns on the surface are subject to wear. Pile fabrics like frieze, plush and velvet withstand abrasion quite well if they are made of wool and linen with a high density of fiber. A pile fabric with cut loops mats more easily than one with uncut loops.
With velvets for example, although they are highly durable, they are susceptible to marking, especially cotton and silk velvets. If you want to use velvet in a high traffic area, it’s best to select a poly blend with a tightly woven W weave.
The Wyzenbeek machine measures durability for residential and commercial fabrics.
We test most of our fabrics with a Wyzenbeek machine, which is a device used to evaluate fabric strength. The Wyzenbeek machine determines how many double rubs (considered one complete motion forth and back) a sample of fabric can withstand before tearing. Heavy-duty fabrics suitable for commercial use rate at 30,000 double rubs or more and residential fabrics rate at 15,000 double rubs, which is considered average. You can test a fabric yourself using your fingernail to rub a fabric sample several times to see if the yarns shift or the fabric marks.
Color
Besides the obvious considerations like not choosing a fabric color that will show dirt if you have many animals or small children, there are other rules of thumb for choosing fabric colors.
Outdoor fabrics are less likely to fade in the sun, making them popular for indoor furniture.
Selecting a fabric with fade-resistant properties will minimize the risk of fading if your fabric will be exposed to direct sunlight. Many outdoor fabrics offer UV protection, which means the dye has saturated the yarns all the way through so it will not fade. The difference between these fabrics and indoor fabrics can be likened to the difference between a carrot and a radish. With outdoor fabrics, the yarns are saturated with color all the way through, like a carrot. Yarns used for indoor fabrics are coated in color, which looks like same from the outside, but inside there is no pigment, like a radish, which means the color can fade over time.
Window treatments are another solution for filtering sunlight and offering protection for your upholstered pieces.
Backing
A latex backing often is applied to upholstery fabrics to help stabilize them. The latex forms a coating that helps keep soil from sifting through. It keeps the surface yarns from shifting, prevents seam slippage, fraying and makes precise cutting possible. Loosely woven fabrics should have an applied backing to ensure stability and longer wear. At Kravet, if our fabrics do not ship from the mill with this backing, known as a kiss coating, we ensure that a backing is applied before the fabric goes onto Kravet furniture.
Latex backing stabilizes fabrics and makes them more durable.
With so many choices these days for fabrics to suit a variety of needs and tastes, it’s more important than ever to be informed about the properties of the fabric you select. Choosing the right fabric goes beyond style and can ensure your upholstered furniture can suit your needs for years to come.
