The Best Fabric for Furniture

By Amy Renken

Are you looking to purchase some upholstered furniture? Or maybe re-upholster some old furniture that you’ve had lying around for years? The first thing you should know is that every fabric cleans differently. It’s important to designate a place for the furniture and be honest about how much traffic that specific piece is going to get. Will it be in your living room and be sat on every night? Or, will it sit in the front room and occasionally be used once or twice a year? This will determine where you want to go next.

Once you’ve determined how often your furniture will be used, here comes the fun part – learning about the different fabrics!

Heavy Use and Pets

If you know that your pets will be on your furniture often, consider microfiber or leather. Both of these fabrics are durable and can withstand lots of traction and mess.

Occasional Use

For furniture that is only used every once in a while, you can probably stand to get printed fabric. The only reason why printed fabric is not suggested for high traffic areas is because the pattern isn’t woven in tightly like it is on other woven fabrics, therefore the threads are further apart and are not considered as durable as the others.

Furniture, just like carpet, can also take a big hit when put in sunlight. This is important to remember if you’re choosing a colored fabric – it will fade if it is in direct sunlight for extended periods of time.

When it comes to cleaning any upholstered furniture, we recommend you reach out to a professional. A professional will know exactly what materials and equipment to use for each fabric (even if your furniture is considered “stain resistant”). Call us at 1-800-880-7785 to come clean your furniture!