There is a plethora of furnishing fabrics in the market and most of them might look perfect for your home; however, they all have some inherent characteristics that could make certain fabrics more suited for your needs than others. Below you’ll find three important considerations for choosing the right kind of upholstery fabric for your house.
Usage
Different fabrics have different durability and resistance to scratches, stains, pilling, wrinklesand fading (due to sunlight exposure & cleaning). Hence, it becomes imperative while buying a furnishing fabric to know where you are planning to use it. If the furniture in question is used frequently or you have kids/pets, it’s better to go for something more durable such as leather, velvet, polyesterand Mohair.However, it’s best to stay away from the royal charm of silk. You can use silk for drapes, but only if you can avoid direct exposure to sunlight.
Personal Taste & Aesthetics
Personal taste and aesthetics is one of the primary reasons for anyone to choose a particular type of fabric.Though usage is a big factor in the decision making process, your taste and preferences must dictate what you are going to buy eventually. Some people love prints & embroidered fabrics in a polychromatic scheme and others like plains in neutral colors.So, go for a fabric that you love because it’s not something that you can change on a daily basis.
One important thing to keep in mind while purchasingis to choose a fabric thatperfectly complements other things in the room. For example, you could go for a single color theme for the entire room or experiment with rich and contrasting schemes for different partitions. If you know beforehand what you want for your furniture, you’ll have an easier time finding the right furnishing fabric.
Cleaning
Keeping an upholstery fabric clean is not an easy task,especially when it has a high affinity for dirt and stains. Some of the harder to clean fabrics are linen, silk and rayon.If you’re unable to do regular upholstery cleaning, then it’s better to stick with those fabrics that have a better stain resistance capability like leather, chenilleand other coated variants.
