And do you dare? A pronounced shade of uni or maybe even velvet? Last spring we chose a corner sofa this olive green velvet for our showroom in Zaandam. Velvet is really back and no longer limited to classic sofas. Velvet, also called velvet, is a pile fabric which makes the fabric feel wonderfully soft and creates a light/dark effect, also called shading or hint. If you don't like this whiff and have a tendency to iron it away again and again, there are also velour fabrics with a less high pile. An additional advantage of a velvet sofa: if you have a cat (or cat), the pile structure is a little less prone to scratching.
Is there any upholstery fabric that is not discoloured by sunlight? Surprisingly we found the effect of this combination: a modern 4-seater sofa with a cotton fabric cover. Here, the fabric really gives the sofa its very own look. The advantage of cotton as a upholstery fabric is that it breathes. Natural materials take on the temperature of the skin so it always feels pleasant. Moreover, cotton gives a beautiful matt natural look. However, you should always pay attention to the lightfastness of cotton. In the end, most materials discolour when you put it in full sun. (Just like us.) But natural materials and dark colours discolour just a little faster than light colours and fabrics with a synthetic fibre such as polyester. That's why we chose a mix of 85% cotton and 15% polyester. The cotton in our collection has a lightfastness of at least 5, which is a common value among home, garden and kitchen upholstery fabrics on the scale of 1 to 8. And fortunately the colour choice here was light, which makes the chance of discolouring a little smaller.
Polyester as a sofa covering seems to be a disadvantage, but is that really the case? If you still want to take as little risk as possible, then choose polyester as upholstery for your sofa. Nowadays, a synthetic upholstery fabric no longer has to feel hard and synthetic, and the appearance of the fabrics is also becoming more and more beautiful. An advantage of polyester as a furniture fabric for your sofa is that it is more stain-resistant and discolours less quickly in sunlight. They are also very strong fabrics with a high Martindale. Martindale is the value attributed to the wear resistance of a furniture fabric. As a rule, a minimum value of 25,000 applies to seating furniture used in the private environment. From 35,000, you can even expect hardly any complaints. We therefore select our fabrics at a Martindale of at least 35,000. With the exception of 1 very nice luxury linen upholstery fabric, this one has a Martindale of 25.000 but again a natural fabric is slightly more vulnerable.
How do I get those fluff from my sofa? What is not nice of course are the balls or fluff that often appear on the edges of your sofa, pilling. This has nothing to do with a cheap or expensive fabric. On the contrary, a real woollen fabric on your sofa is more prone to lint than a polyester upholstery. Just like your sweater. You can easily get rid of the fluff with a fluff clipper. It does help a lot if you keep this right from the start. With the cotton and velour qualities you will have less or no problems with this pilling.
