The fabric of an upholstered piece is the most visible indication of quality and design. Upholstery material also is the part probably to reveal wear and soil. When picking upholstery, you need to be aware of its resilience, clean-ability, and resistance to soil and fading.
How will your upholstered pieces be utilized in your house? Couches, chairs, and ottomans receiving only moderate amounts of wear will do great with a less long lasting material.
However, pieces subjected to daily heavy wear need to be covered in difficult, long lasting, tightly woven fabrics.
When purchasing upholstery fabric or upholstered furnishings, know that the greater the thread count, the more tightly woven the fabric is, and the better it will use. Thread count describes the variety of threads per square inch of material.
Natural Fabrics
Linen: Linen is best suited for formal living rooms or adult locations due to the fact that it soils and wrinkles quickly. Stained linen upholstery need to be professionally cleaned to avoid shrinkage.
Leather: This difficult product can be carefully vacuumed, damp-wiped as required, and cleaned up with leather conditioner or saddle soap.
Cotton: This natural fiber provides good resistance to wear, fading, and pilling. It is less resistant to soil, wrinkling, and fire.
Wool: Sturdy and resilient, wool and wool blends provide great resistance to pilling, fading, wrinkling, and soil. Normally, wool is mixed with an artificial fiber to make it much easier to clean up and to lower the possibility of felting the fibers (triggering them to bond together until they resemble felt). Blends can be spot-cleaned when necessary.
Cotton Blend: Depending on the weave, cotton blends can be tough, family-friendly materials. A stain-resistant surface needs to be looked for daily usage.
Vinyl: Easy-care and less costly than leather, vinyls are perfect for hectic household living and dining-room. Sturdiness depends on quality.
Silk: This delicate fabric is only suitable for adult areas, such as formal living rooms. It needs to be expertly cleaned up if stained.
Artificial Fabrics
Acetate: Developed as replica silk, acetate can stand up to mildew, pilling, and shrinking. However, it offers only fair resistance to soil and tends to wear, wrinkle, and fade in the sun. It's not a great option for furniture that will get tough everyday use.
Acrylic: This artificial fiber was developed as imitation wool. It resists wear, wrinkling, soiling, and fading.
Nylon: Rarely utilized alone, nylon is generally combined with other fibers to make it among the strongest upholstery fabrics. Nylon is very resilient; in a mix, continued it assists remove the squashing of napped fabrics such as velvet. It doesn't easily soil or wrinkle, however it does tend to fade and tablet.
Olefin: This is a great choice for furniture that will receive heavy wear. It has no noticable weak points.
Polyester: Rarely utilized alone in upholstery, polyester is mixed with other fibers to add wrinkle resistance, eliminate crushing of napped materials, and lower fading. When mixed with wool, polyester intensifies pilling problems.
Rayon: Developed as an imitation silk, linen, and cotton, rayon is durable. However, it wrinkles. Current advancements have actually made top quality rayon very practical.
For more information, contact:
Ultra-Guard Fabric Protection | Chicago Service Center
1807 W North Ave #387
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 761-1227