Understanding Upholstery Fabric
When it comes to the appearance and performance of a furniture piece, upholstery fabric plays a key role.
Every element has a part to contribute:
- The fibres
- The construction
- The texture
Understanding how these three elements work together is essential when making purchasing decisions, no matter whether you're a designer, manufacturer, or homeowner.
Explore the key elements of upholstery fabric below, and dive deeper into each topic!
Fabric Composition: Fibres That Make the Difference
When selecting upholstery fabric, the fibre composition fundamentally shapes every aspect of performance: from how the material feels against your skin to whether it can survive a decade of daily use.
Let's explore the primary fibre categories and what makes each uniquely suited (or unsuited) to upholstery applications.
- Natural Fibres: Natural fibres come directly from plant or animal sources, each bringing distinct characteristics developed through millennia of evolution. Classic and timeless, but often limited by wear and tear.
- Synthetic Fibres: Natural fibres come directly from plant or animal sources, each bringing distinct characteristics developed through millennia of evolution. Modern, durable, and engineered for performance.
- Blended Fabrics: Many upholstery fabrics blend multiple fibre types to balance competing priorities. A cotton-polyester blend might offer cotton's softness with polyester's durability and stain resistance. Wool-nylon blends preserve wool's natural resilience while improving abrasion resistance in high-wear zones. Combining the strengths of natural and synthetic fibres.
Types of Upholstery Construction
How fabric is constructed impacts its texture, durability, and overall appearance.
Whether you're drawn to smooth, even surfaces or intricate patterns, understanding the different upholstery construction types will help you select the ideal material for your project.
Here are the key primary construction types and what makes each one distinct:
- Woven fabrics: Woven construction interlaces warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) yarns on a loom.
- Knitted fabrics: Unlike woven construction, knitting creates interlocking loops of yarn.
- Pile fabrics: Pile construction creates raised surface texture through additional yarns that stand perpendicular to the base fabric. This includes fabrics such as velvet and chenille. (for example: What is chenille upholstery fabric? | FibreGuard)
- Non-woven constructions: These materials bond fibers together without traditional weaving or knitting. Felt is the oldest example: fibres are compressed and matted until they interlock mechanically.
Texture: The Focal Point of Upholstery Design
Texture emerges from multiple layers of fabric engineering working together. The construction method provides the foundation: woven fabrics create different surface characteristics than knitted or pile constructions.
Natural, dry textures: understated versatility
Natural-feeling textures typically feature matte finishes. This tactile quality often comes from specific fibre choices (cotton, linen, wool) or finishing processes that can give a fabric a 'linen look' or 'linen feel'.
Rich, plush textures: tactile luxury
On the opposite end of the spectrum, plush textures create immediate sensory impact. It all has to do with pile density and height. Velvet and chenille achieve their characteristic softness through thousands of individual pile fibres standing perpendicular to the base fabric.
How to Choose the Right Upholstery Fabric
Selecting upholstery fabric might seem straightforward until you're actually standing in front of hundreds of samples, each promising different benefits. Where do you even start?
Here are the basics to consider:
Where is the upholstery going to be used, and how?
Is this fabric destined for a residential sofa that sees evening use, or a restaurant booth serving hundreds of diners daily?
How do you know if a fabric will actually last?
This is where standardised testing becomes invaluable (we explain a bit more about this further down!).
Texture considerations for upholstery
Why does texture deserve careful attention? Because it affects both immediate tactile comfort and long-term performance characteristics. Confused about texture? Here's a quick look at the differences between textured fabric and flat-woven.
Cleanability
Stain resistance and cleanability aren't synonymous. A fabric might resist initial staining yet prove nearly impossible to clean once soiled. Why? Because cleaning effectiveness depends on fabric construction, fibre content, and finish compatibility. Learn more about water repellent, water resistant and waterproof textiles.
Performance Testing
Ensuring Quality and Durability
Creating upholstery fabric that performs reliably in real-world conditions requires rigorous, standardised testing that quantifies exactly how materials will behave under stress.
The perfect formula for world class fabrics is based in engineering and textile science, through tracking proven performance metrics across a range of criteria. Aside from our stain-free technology, FibreGuard fabrics undergo other tests:
- Abrasion Resistance: How well does the fabric hold up to wear? This is determined by doing Wyzenbeek and Martindale abrasion textiles tests. They measure how well a material can withstand wear without breaking down. Abrasion resistance is fundamental to the durability of upholstery/woven fabrics: when abrasion (rubbing) causes fiber pull-out, loosening of yarn cohesion, or deformation, that significantly shortens usable life. -- Quantitative Assessment of Woven Fabric Surface Changes
- Pilling Resistance: Pilling refers to the formation of small, fuzzy balls of tangled fibre known as "pills," on the surface of a fabric. They can start to appear when fibres in a fabric rub together due to friction or abrasion. The pilling and brush pilling tests evaluate how the surface of fabrics will look and perform after prolonged use.
- Colour-Fastness: Will the fabric fade over time? Here are 5 upholstery colourfastness tests that help answer that question.
- Seam Slippage: Will the fabric tear at seam lines, or will yarns slip apart at stitching? The seam slippage test measures the fabric’s movement at the seam (mainly for upholstery fabrics). How does the testing procedure work? Check it out here: seam slippage testing.
- Fire Retardancy: Safety first: understanding flame resistance. Check out our sister brand, FR-One. They specialise in fire retardant fabrics that blend residential-style comfort with contract-commercial strength.
Our fabrics undergo over 100 tests before release. On top of this, there are multiple stain-specific cleaning tests: over 17 in total.
Different stains are applied to the fabric which must be removable under a range of different conditions. All kinds of household stains, from oily, greasy stains, to gloopy ones, to liquid, including biological materials.
Learn more about each mechanical textiles test.
Specialised Upholstery Applications
Certain environments require upholstery that goes beyond the ordinary. Whether you're outfitting a boat, outdoor space, or commercial property, there are special fabrics for what you need.
For example:
- Maritime Fabrics: Built for marine environments.
- Outdoor Fabrics: Durable, UV-resistant materials.
- Moisture Barrier Fabrics: Ideal for areas with high humidity or water exposure.
- Contract vs. Residential: Understanding the differences in performance for commercial and home settings.
Current Trends Shaping Upholstery
Stay up to date with the latest trends in upholstery design. Whether it's a renewed focus on sustainability, quiet luxury, or tactile living, here are the key trends to watch in 2025:
Sustainability Takes Centre Stage: Eco-conscious fabrics on the rise. Read our sustainability in textiles commitment.
Quiet luxury rules the roost: It's a very "show don’t tell" aesthetic: the quality of items, like upholstery, should speak for itself.
Texture as Primary Design Element: Tactile materials becoming the focal point.
Curved Furniture Continues Evolving: The soft, organic shape trend.
Upholstery vs Drapery
Engineering Fabrics for Different Demands
Here's the core distinction: upholstery fabrics endure constant friction and compression. Drapery fabrics hang vertically, experiencing minimal physical contact. This single difference cascades into dramatically different engineering priorities.
- Upholstery weight typically ranges from medium to heavy: 300-600 grams per square metre or more.
- Drapery weight varies more dramatically, from sheer lightweight voiles (perhaps 100 grams per square metre) through medium-weight linens to heavy velvets (400+ grams per square metre).
- Stable constructions: Upholstery fabrics generally feature tight, stable constructions.
- Looser constructions: Drapery fabrics can employ looser constructions because they don't face the same mechanical stresses.
- Colourfastness: Both drapery and upholstery require colour stability, but the ways colour can be damaged on the fabrics differ significantly.
Some upholstery fabrics are multipurpose, meaning that they can perform consistently in every environment, even demanding ones.