How to clean a fabric sofa at home

Welcome to our step-by-step guide to cleaning your fabric sofa: no baking soda, vinegar or liquid cleaning detergents required!

Caring for your sofa fabric helps prolong the life of your furniture

Buying a beautiful sofa for your home is an investment you'll enjoy for years to come. But if you don't take proper care of it, that investment could be short-lived. That's why we offer our customers the best in high performance sofa upholstery—so they can enjoy their furniture longer. Keep reading for cleaning tips that will work on all kinds of fabrics - and find out why FibreGuard is special.

Cleaning tips for emergency sofa spills

The good news is that most sofa fabrics can be easy to clean — just wipe them down with a damp cloth or use a vacuum with an upholstery attachment. If you have kids or pets, though, you may need to give your fabric sofa a more thorough cleaning from time to time.

Cleaning tips for emergency spills (whether or not you're using FibreGuard upholstery):

1. Remove any food or liquids from the sofa as soon as possible after an accident occurs.
2. Pour liquids into a bowl or container and blot them with paper towels until they're absorbed by the towel
3. Then let the liquid soak into the towel so it doesn't leave behind any residue on your upholstery.
4. If food gets onto your couch, try removing it with a stiff-bristled brush before using water to rinse off any remaining residue.

What kinds of sofa fabrics are the easiest to clean?

When choosing a sofa for your home, one of the factors to consider is how easy it is to clean. Different fabrics have different properties that affect their durability, stain resistance and maintenance.

Here are the three sofa coverings that are commonly touted as being the easiest to maintain, with their pros and cons:

Leather: Leather is a natural material that can withstand wear and tear, and can be wiped clean with a damp cloth. However, leather sofas can be expensive and may require special products to condition and protect them from cracking or fading.

Microfibre: Microfibre is a synthetic fabric that is soft, durable and stain resistant. Microfibre sofas can be cleaned with a vacuum cleaner or a mild detergent and water. However, microfiber sofas can attract pet hair and lint, and are not fully breathable.

Cotton: Cotton is a natural fabric that is breathable, comfortable and versatile. Cotton sofas can be cleaned with a steam cleaner or a slipcover that can be washed in the machine. However, cotton sofas fade over time and wrinkle or shrink if not treated carefully.

With so many things to keep in mind, how can anyone ever choose a sofa fabric confidently? That's where performance fabrics come in. They're in a class all of their own.

Want the ultimate cleanability? Choose performance fabric

Performance upholstery is a type of fabric that is designed to resist stains, spills, fading, and wear and tear. As such, it's often used for furniture, cushions, curtains, and other items that need to withstand frequent use and exposure to sunlight, moisture, or dirt.

Performance upholstery can be made from natural or synthetic fibers, such as cotton, polyester, nylon, or acrylic. This is so that the final upholstery contains the best of all worlds. Some performance upholstery fabrics are treated with special coatings or finishes to enhance their durability and resistance to stains.

How to clean your FibreGuard high performance sofa fabric

We're passionate about helping you create the home of your dreams. That's why we offer a large selection of high-quality fabrics and leathers for our sofa upholstery services. Our materials are durable, stain-resistant, and easy to clean—so they'll keep looking beautiful for years to come.

You can easily remove accidental stains like ballpoint pen, coffee, red wine and ketchup from FibreGuard fabrics. Our textile engineers have invested countless hours in the process of developing high-tech fabrics for our furniture, so you don't need to worry about fading or lingering stains.

FibreGuard's performance fabrics can typically be cleaned with water alone, but some stubborn stains may require a small amount of soap.

While it’s best if you get to cleaning a stain quickly after it happens, it’s actually ok with our fabrics if you don’t clean it up immediately. People are always surprised by the amount of water you need to clean FibreGuard fabrics, thinking that it might ruin the fabric.

Don’t worry. Our fabrics can handle it: they’re designed to.

Through constant testing, we’ve ensured that the soft touch, rich colour, and the dimensional stability of the fabric itself are all maintained throughout the washing process and life of the product.

• Step one: first tackle any stain residue that might be left. For stains like ballpoint pen, this isn’t necessary – check out our YouTube video for the guide on that. Cleaning up residue is really important though for oily stains like mustard or mayonnaise, mud or lipstick. Grab a teaspoon and scrape off what you can.
• Step two: apply water to the stain and blot it with a paper towel. You don’t have to scrub at the stain; in fact, this will just force the structure of the paper towel into your fabric. Keep applying water and blotting until the stain doesn’t appear on the paper anymore.
• Step three: Grab a microfiber cloth, apply more water, and rub the stain gently in a circular motion. If you’re faced with a particularly stubborn stain, this is where you might need to enlist the help of a standard bar of hard white soap. Use the soap intermittently between the circular motion rubbing and the water application until the stain is completely gone.
• Step four: let your fabric air dry. Seriously, don’t apply any heat (no hairdryers needed!).

Beautifully soft upholstery, cleanable on every stain

If you’re tempted to try out a number of different stains on your FibreGuard upholstery fabric, please be our guest! Check out our YouTube channel for videos on cleaning specific stains.