Choosing upholstery fabrics
How many rubs your furniture needs and what to consider with children, pets and sunlight.
An upholstery fabric has to suit both the piece of furniture and your everyday life. The most important value is the Martindale abrasion resistance, which you will find in the product details of every upholstery fabric. The article Durability of fabrics – classification explains how the test works.
Which Martindale value for which piece of furniture?
| Use | Examples | Recommendation (Martindale) |
|---|---|---|
| Rarely used, decorative | Headboard, bedroom stool, scatter cushions | from 10,000 |
| Daily domestic use | Armchair, dining chairs, sofa in a two-person household | from 20,000 |
| Heavy domestic use | Family sofa, favourite armchair, kitchen bench, household with pets | from 30,000 |
| Commercial use | Hotel, restaurant, surgery, office | from 30,000, often 40,000 or more |
Our Upholstery Fabrics category only contains fabrics with at least 20,000 rubs.
Besides Martindale, these also matter …
- Weave: Tightly woven, smooth fabrics are more hard-wearing than loosely woven fabrics with loops or long floats. Zips, jewellery or claws can catch on bouclé and open textures.
- Pets: Choose dense, smooth weaves without loops. Hair is easier to remove from smooth surfaces.
- Velvet: Velvet is often very abrasion-resistant, but shows seat marks and pressure marks. This is part of the material’s character. Read more in the article Using velvet correctly.
- Colour and pattern: Patterned fabrics and mid-tones hide stains and signs of use better than very light or very dark plains.
- Sunlight: If the furniture stands by a window, look for high lightfastness. Read more in the article Light and sun.
- Care: Check the care symbols in the product details. Many upholstery fabrics are only approved for dry cleaning.
Tips for making up
- Order a fabric sample in advance and show it to your upholsterer. They are best placed to judge suitability and the amount of fabric needed for your furniture.
- Patterned fabrics need more fabric, because the upholsterer aligns the pattern on the seat, back and cushions. You will find guide values in the article Calculating fabric requirements.
- Order the full quantity in one go. That way everything comes from the same production batch (see Ordering fabric by the metre).