2025 Upholstery: A Guide Through Natural vs. Plush Textures

While colour and pattern remain important in upholstery design, 2025 has seen texture take on a more prominent role. We are seeing our FibreGuard customers embracing how different fabric textures can create engaging spaces that appeal to both sight and touch.

This article explores two distinct approaches:

1. Dry, tactile textures with a linen-like feel that draw inspiration from natural landscapes
2. Plush, rich textures such as chenille, velvet, and bouclé that complement contemporary curved furniture.

The Interplay of Textures

First thing’s first. 'Textured upholstery' refers to fabrics that feature distinct tactile surfaces, from subtle raised patterns to pronounced embossing and woven designs.

Renowned interior designer Sheila Bridges emphasises the storytelling aspect of fabrics: "Using fabrics as storytelling devices honours heritage while exploring innovation. Layering textures in upholstery can create a narrative that is both personal and stylish.”

Natural Textures: Introducing Mystic Desert

In recent months, we've noticed a shift in colours and materials: enough so that we’re introducing it as a trend theme: MYSTIC DESERT.

In recent months, we've noticed a kind of innovation fatigue, coupled with a rise in colours in shades of the evening sun, from ochre to copper to bronze. What is happening? It's a recognition that the solutions to the world's problems might not lie in new technology, but rather in old technology, skills, and stories that are reaching out to help us once again. Textures and designs with a dry 'desert' feel to them are everywhere. From old stone and capricious lines, loose weaves that look fragile but are robust, thanks to their high-quality materials and craftsmanship. Natural materials including grained woods, textured stone and tactile linen-feel textiles.

Mystic Desert taps into the luxury market's renewed appreciation for artisanal craftsmanship and sustainable materials. It's quite a feat, achieving the natural look and feel of linen and cotton, but in polyester high-performance compositions.

Natural look textures are a great option for loose covers and relaxed, casual style furniture. We're seeing natural linen looks combined with slubs and bouclé to give the surface texture a rough, organic feeling. We're focusing on this to give added performance elements to our fabric collections, such as:

• Strength and durability: compared to natural fabrics, our natural-feel fabrics need to perform much higher in abrasion testing such as pilling and brush pilling.
• Easy clean care and maintenance: our ranges all have the stain free technology that FibreGuard is known for and are washable at high temperatures. This really sets our performance fabrics apart from natural compositions, as there's no risk of massive shrinking or warping that you might get with natural compositions.
• The feel of our fabrics is one of our main strengths: even when we're emulating a dry, natural linen look and feel, luxurious softness is still key to that FibreGuard quality.

All of this, without the price tag or maintenance hassle of natural fabrics - and available in recycled compositions.

Our product development team has strategically positioned these trends to drive our 2025 collections, offering retailers and manufacturers versatile options that align with both contemporary and traditional consumer preferences.

Rich Textures: The Plush Approach

In contrast to the dry, natural textures, a parallel trend embraces deep, plush surfaces that emphasise comfort and tactile luxury. These textures particularly complement the curved furniture forms that continue to define contemporary interior design. Read more

These high-pile fabrics have more depth, so being able to remove dirt and dust is so important to keep it feeling clean and luxurious. This is where the washability of FibreGuard fabrics shines through: they're easy to clean, even at high temperatures, and are dust resistant.

Plush fabrics look great on curved furniture, so flexibility and movement in the weave is also important while maintaining strength in the construction (and they need to perform well in seam slippage testing – which of course they do!).

Plush textures are the strongest in neutral shades such as beige and whites, adding a sheepskin, down-feathery look. But don't think the plush stops there: we see deeper richer colour coming through in velvety items too.

Bouclé

Moving away from the restraint of the desert aesthetic, bouclé offers a more pronounced texture through its looped yarn construction. The resulting surface depth to curved forms while providing a soft, inviting touch.

Chenille

Chenille features a rich, dense texture. Its pile shifts and moves with touch, creating an engaging interaction between light and surface that suits both modern and traditional spaces.

Corduroy

Contemporary corduroy represents a middle ground between the two approaches. While its texture is pronounced, its linear pattern can reference architectural elements found in natural landscapes. Modern applications often feature wider wales that create bold textural statements. Read more

Quilted Velvet

At the most luxurious end of the plush spectrum, quilted velvet combines deep pile with geometric or organic patterns. This technique creates a multi-dimensional surface that contrasts markedly with the restraint of desert-inspired textures. Read more

Mixing and Matching Upholstery Textures

Creating interest in a living space doesn't mean choosing between these two texture families - they're easily combined. Try adding plush bouclé accent chairs to complement a sofa in a natural, linen-like fabric, or scatter velvet cushions across a 'desert-textured' sectional.

Even small touches count: draping a chenille throw over a chair with dry-textured upholstery can add warmth and variety to the room. The key is to start with larger pieces in one texture family and layer in contrasting accents to build visual and tactile interest.

Variety is the spice of life

We have a wide variety of fabrics for you to choose from, no matter which texture you need. Each collection is the product of a long process of decisions, resulting in a fabric that's designed to fit your needs and style.

FibreGuard fabrics are available through multiple channels: as upholstery options from major furniture manufacturers, through interior designers' trade accounts, and at select retail fabric stores. To explore our collections, visit the TwinBru digital platform where you can view fabric textures and request free samples. Contact our sales team today for specific availability.