How to choose the best sofa upholstery
Buying a sofa involves quite a few decisions, from choosing a budget and picking the ideal colour to selecting a size and shape. If you’re stuck on any of these things, you can read my handy guide to choosing the right sofa. But if selecting a upholstery or fabric is your current dilemma, you’re in the right place.
The fabric you choose for your sofa could make you love it forever or despise the fact it’s hard to clean and shows up all the dog’s hairs. So, getting this decision exactly right is important. Below, you can find the top 4 things to consider when choosing the best sofa upholstery.
1. Wear and Tear
It’s necessary to think about the kind of wear your sofa will get. Is it for a kids’ room, will the dog be jumping on it or the cats be sleeping on it, is it for a formal lounge that rarely gets used?
In the latter case, you could go with something a little more luxe, knowing that the sofa won’t be used that often, but in the former cases, the fabric should be able to withstand a lot of wear and mess.
For rooms or sofas that are rarely used, luxurious wool blends can be best, as can cotton with a high thread count or velvet. Many people love the look of velvet, but it requires regular cleaning, brushing and maintenance. If you don’t want to be undertaking these tasks on a weekly basis, choose velvet for a home office sofa or formal reception room.
For well-used sofas that get a lot of wear, woven patterns, corduroy and cotton can be best. When going with a pattern, it’s best to choose a pattern that’s woven into the fabric instead of printed on to it. This will cause less fading over time.
If pets are allowed on the sofas in your home, avoid very long fabrics, or fabrics that will trap hairs, and instead choose something that will be easy to clean or hoover. Leather is an exceptionally good option for this.
2. Budget
Budget always comes into account when you’re purchasing a sofa. Generally, the sofa itself has a set price, and then the price can go up depending on how luxurious you want the fabric to be. While sometimes, a more expensive fabric can be harder wearing and will last longer, they can sometimes be trickier to clean, and obviously it’s more devastating when they get ruined with hair, mud or drinks.
When buying a sofa, I’d usually recommend getting a good quality sofa (with a strong structure and foam-filled cushions for less faffing) with a mid-range fabric. Many sofa manufacturers allow you to really filter what you do and don’t want on the website. For instance, Furniture Village allows you to filter by colour and material. Then, you can filter the options even further by price (low to high, high to low, etc.) so you can find the perfect sofa for you.
3. Location
Where the sofa will go in a room could have an impact on the fabric or colour you choose. If you want to go for a dark coloured sofa (remember though, these don’t always hide dirt but can even show it more), direct sunlight can fade the colour over time. This is particularly the case in brown or black leather sofas.
Therefore, when choosing a sofa for a conservatory, lighter fabrics may be a better option, or you could choose a fade-resistant fabric.
4. Aging
If this sofa is one that you want to have for a long time (5 years, 10 years), it’s important to think about how the fabric will age. Will you still love the look of worn, faded leather as much as the glossy, deep colour it was when you first got it? If the pattern is printed, it might begin to fade in certain places over time.
To check how the fabric will age, and whether you’d still love it as much this happens, you should check the label and ask plenty of questions when in the showroom. They should be able to fill you in on the material’s cleaning needs and how it could age.
When choosing the best sofa upholstery, these are the top things you should keep in mind.
Absolutely do make sure you see the fabric in person. This can usually be done in store, by flicking through the fabric swatches book for the sofa you’ve picked, or online by ordering samples. Getting your own samples can be a great idea if you want to experiment with cleaning products to test for fading and getting stains out.
