When choosing a perfect seating solution for your living room, patio or home theater a lot of people make a mistake of looking only at the woodwork. Sure, it’s pattern plays a large part when it comes to aesthetics, but this is not all there is to it. Finding a perfect upholstery fabric can essentially revolutionize your interior design and even have a great effect on the overall comfort. With this in mind, here are few tips that may help you make the right choice.
Fabric for Every Situation
There are always those who make a mistake believing that differences in fabric are exclusively tied to their price-range. This, however, couldn’t be further from the truth. Of course, a more expensive material is usually harder to get and probably even more quality, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that it outperforms its cheaper counterparts in every situation. When buying fabric, you first need to determine several factors. Which room is it intended for? What will be its purpose? Is it an outdoor or indoor furniture? Once you have answers to all of these questions, here are few choices that you have.
Cotton
The strongest traits of cotton upholstery are that it doesn’t stain easily, which is why it may be ideal in the dining room or on the patio, where you are most likely to throw parties and feasts. On the other hand, the color of cotton fades in sunlight, which might make it not so great of a choice for your outdoor furniture, like for example pool deck seating.
Linen
When it comes to natural materials, it is really hard to find something more popular and available than linen. One of the main reasons behind this is a fact that it is quite inexpensive and universally fits any home. Additionally, it is one of the most durable fabrics, it is quite soft, but most designers agree that the texture of linen is its strongest trait. For all these reasons, a lot of people use linen either for your bedding or drapery. As for the upholstery, it goes along with most interior styles, which makes it a pretty much go-to material when making an eclectic design.
Wool
The benefits of using woven wool fabric for your interior are numerous. It is durable, it dyes easily and on top of it all, it is a natural fire retardant. The latter one comes particularly handy if you like to drag your armchair in front of the fireplace. On top of it all, it is extremely comfortable, which is what upholstery should be about in the first place.
Synthetic Fabrics
The aforementioned three materials are natural, but this doesn’t mean you should outright rule out the idea of including synthetic fabrics into your home. Acetate is a near-perfect imitation of silk, but it is not exactly meant for furniture that gets used often since it wrinkles quite bad. If imitation of wool is something you have in mind, then you can always go with acrylic. As always, you will have the option to choose from low-cost and high-quality acrylic. Needless to say, the price range determines both durability and quality of the material. Some honorable mentions go to nylon, olefin, rayon and polyester, all of which have their advantages and disadvantages.
Conclusion
One of the things designers often forget is that a living room has more than just visual value. It is not a place you are just supposed to admire from afar. People too obsessed with this sometimes restrict their pets and even children from even approaching the furniture, which defeats the whole purpose of a living room. Keep in mind that your home is primarily your comfort zone, so what’s the point of it if you can’t feel comfortable while in it. This means that over the course of years, your seats are going to be stained with wine, chocolate, coffee and be covered with fur and playground dirt. This too is something you should definitely consider when choosing the perfect upholstery fabric for your home.
http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/how-to-choose-upholstery-fabric
http://www.bhg.com/decorating/lessons/basics/guide-to-upholstery-fabrics/
http://furniture.about.com/od/buyingfurniture/qt/up52309ry.htm
