Upholstered furniture is both beautiful and comfortable – and there’s a wonderful selection of textures, colours and patterns available to suit every décor style and budget. No matter what is affordable for you, upholstered furniture is a significant investment and you want to get the most for your dollar and to keep your furniture looking its best for many years.

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Fabric

Choosing the best furniture for your lifestyle will help make maintenance easier. Here are some of the questions you should ask:

• Do you have children or pets?
• Do you frequently have guests?
• Do you eat and drink while using the furniture?
• How much time (and money) are you willing to spend on cleaning?

A Basic Lesson on Fabric Choices

Within upholstered fabrics, you have two main choices: natural and synthetic.

NATURAL: Natural fabrics include cotton, linen, wool, silk and leather. There are pros and cons to all natural fabrics, but generally linens, silks and pure cotton are best for areas with low-wear as they stain and wrinkle easily (although very beautiful!). Leather is an excellent choice for durability – more below. Wool and cotton blends also make excellent choices as they wear well and stains are easily removed.

SYNTHETIC: Synthetic fabrics include acetate, acrylic, nylon, olefin, polyester, rayon and vinyl. Some of these like polyester and nylon are generally blended with cotton to make a durable upholstery choice. Many synthetics are simple to keep clean and look quite good, but may not have the same feeling of luxury and quality as natural fabrics.

LEATHER: There are many grades to choose from but overall a very good choice for families. We will talk more about leather furniture in a future blog. Stay tuned!!

SUMMARY: If you are looking for a sofa that will wear well, present well and be relatively easy to care for, a blend of synthetic and natural fabrics may be your best overall choice. If you expect little wear, by all means indulge in a gorgeous natural fabric like silk, linen or nubuck leather.

General Cleaning and Maintenance Tips

• The proper care, cleaning and maintenance of your upholstered furniture will depend of course on what fabric you choose and how much use the piece gets. Here are some guidelines:
• Before you try to remove a stain or soil from your upholstery, you should determine the type of fabric involved and follow the Fabric Cleaning Codes indicated with the fabric.
• Vacuum your upholstered furniture weekly. Get into the nooks and crannies and reach into corners for crumbs and dust.
• Direct sunlight will fade your upholstery, no matter what fabric you choose. Always keep the furniture out of direct sunlight.
• Rearrange the furniture in your room from time to time, so that one piece of furniture won’t wear out much more quickly than the others in the room.
• Rotate and plump seat and back cushions frequently. This will distribute normal wear evenly on both sides of the cushions and the fabric and it will reduce flattening of the fibers.

Never remove cushion covers for washing or dry cleaning. The zippers are there to put the cushions inside the covers during manufacturing. Washing or dry cleaning the covers will cause them to shrink or stretch and you will not be able to put them back on.

Remember, it all starts with what fabric you choose. My #1 recommendation is to always, always choose the best quality that you can afford. And my wish for you is that you spend many happy evenings reading, watching TV and chatting with family and friends on your upholstered furniture. Enjoy!

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