The material of an upholstered piece is the most visible sign of quality and design. Upholstery material likewise is the part most likely to show wear and soil. When selecting upholstery, you must understand its durability, clean-ability, and resistance to soil and fading.
How will your upholstered pieces be used in your home? Couches, chairs, and ottomans getting just moderate amounts of wear will do fine with a less resilient material.
Nevertheless, pieces subjected to day-to-day heavy wear need to be covered in tough, resilient, firmly woven materials.
When acquiring upholstery material or upholstered furniture, be aware that the higher the thread count, the more firmly woven the material is, and the much better it will use. Thread count refers to the number of threads per square inch of fabric.
Natural Fabrics
Linen: Linen is best suited for formal living rooms or adult locations since it soils and wrinkles quickly. Stained linen upholstery need to be professionally cleaned to avoid shrinkage.
Leather: This difficult material 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 durable, wool and wool blends provide great resistance to pilling, fading, wrinkling, and soil. Typically, wool is mixed with an artificial fiber to make it much easier to clean up and to lower the possibility of Chicago Fabric Protector felting the fibers (triggering them to bond together till they look like 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 must be gotten daily usage.
Vinyl: Easy-care and more economical than leather, vinyls are perfect for hectic family living and dining rooms. Resilience depends on quality.
Silk: This delicate fabric is only suitable for adult locations, such as official living-room. It needs to be expertly cleaned up if stained.
Synthetic Fabrics
Acetate: Developed as imitation silk, acetate can endure mildew, pilling, and shrinking. However, it offers only reasonable resistance to soil and tends to use, wrinkle, and fade in the sun. It's not a great choice for furniture that will get hard daily usage.
Acrylic: This artificial fiber was developed as imitation wool. It resists wear, wrinkling, soiling, and fading.
Nylon: Rarely used alone, nylon is generally combined with other fibers to make it one of the greatest upholstery fabrics. Nylon is extremely resilient; in a blend, it assists remove the squashing of napped materials such as velvet. It doesn't readily soil or wrinkle, but it does tend to fade and tablet.
Olefin: This is an excellent option for furniture that will receive heavy wear. It has no pronounced weak points.
Polyester: Rarely utilized alone in upholstery, polyester is combined with other fibers to include wrinkle resistance, get rid of crushing of napped fabrics, and lower fading. When combined with wool, polyester intensifies pilling issues.
Rayon: Developed as an imitation silk, linen, and cotton, rayon is durable. However, it wrinkles. Recent advancements have actually made top quality rayon extremely practical.
For more information, contact:
Ultra-Guard Fabric Protection | Chicago Service Center
1807 W North Ave #387
Chicago, IL 60622
(312) 761-1227