The Ultimate Guide to Upholstery Fabrics
Understanding Furniture Upholstery
Great upholstery is where design meets performance.
Upholstery fabric isn't just about colour or texture—it’s about how a fabric lives, wears, and ages in a real space. Whether you’re specifying for a home or a high-traffic environment, this guide will help you make a choice that looks right and performs over time.
Here's the story of upholstery in 3 parts:
Part 1: What Makes 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. Instead of guessing, focus on a few key factors that determine whether a fabric will hold up, feel right, and stay looking good over time.
Where is the upholstery going to be used, and how?
Start here: this decision drives everything else.
- Light residential use (e.g. decorative chair, occasional sofa): You can prioritise aesthetics and comfort.
- Heavy residential use (e.g. family sofa, pets, kids): You’ll need durable, easy-to-clean fabrics.
- Commercial use (e.g. restaurants, hotels, offices): Durability and cleanability are non-negotiable.
👉 If a fabric isn’t suited to the environment, it will wear out quickly no matter how good it looks
🔍🔍 Looking for a quick overview guide on how to make the right choices when you're buying upholstery? We have a practical guide that does just that.
How to choose upholstery fabric that lasts
Don’t rely on appearance: look at performance data.
Key things to check:
- Abrasion resistance (e.g. Martindale or Wyzenbeek scores)
- Pilling resistance
- Colour fastness
As a rule of thumb:
- 10,000–15,000 rubs → light use
- 15,000–25,000 rubs → general domestic use
- 30,000+ rubs → heavy or commercial use
👉 If you skip this step, you’re essentially guessing durability.
How to choose upholstery fabric that's easy to maintain
This is where many people make the wrong call.
Stain-resistant ≠ easy to clean
A fabric can repel spills at first but still be difficult to clean once a stain sets.
What actually matters:
- Fibre type (synthetic vs natural)
- Fabric construction (tight vs loose weave)
- Applied finishes (e.g. stain guards, water repellents)
Also understand the difference:
- Water-repellent: slows absorption
- Water-resistant: resists penetration to a degree
- Waterproof: blocks moisture entirely
👉 If maintenance matters (and it usually does), always ask: “What happens after the stain?”
🔍 Looking for a quick overview on how fabrics handle water exposure? We have that right here: Water Resistant vs Water Repellent vs Waterproof: Key Differences Explained
How to choose the perfect fabric texture
Yes—more than most people think.
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.
Flat-woven fabrics
- Smooth, even surface
- Generally more durable
- Easier to clean
- Better for high-traffic areas
Textured fabrics (e.g. bouclé, chenille, velvet)
- Softer, more tactile
- Visually rich
- Can trap dirt more easily
- May wear unevenly in high-use areas
👉 If the furniture will be used daily, texture should never be chosen on looks alone.
TLDR? We have a practical guide to shopping durable upholstery.
Part 2: What are the building blocks of upholstery fabric?
When selecting upholstery fabric, the fibre composition fundamentally shapes every aspect of performance: from how the material feels when you sit on it, to whether it can survive a decade of daily use. And then, how the upholstery fabric is constructed also impacts its texture, durability, and overall appearance.
Upholstery Construction: Fibre Categories 101
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: Manmade fibers. 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.
Upholstery Construction: 4 primary types
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 4 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.
- 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.
Part 3: Upholstery 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. These tests provide measurable data on how a fabric will behave over time under typical conditions such as friction, cleaning, and environmental exposure.
Performance Testing: Abrasion Resistance
Abrasion resistance assesses how well a fabric withstands repeated rubbing and wear. Common methods include the Wyzenbeek and Martindale tests, which simulate long-term use by applying controlled friction to the fabric surface. Results indicate how many cycles a material can endure before showing signs of breakdown, such as fibre loss, yarn loosening, or surface distortion. High abrasion resistance is essential for upholstery fabrics used in high-traffic environments.
Performance Testing: Pilling Resistance
Pilling occurs when loose fibres on the fabric surface tangle into small balls due to friction. Tests such as random tumble pilling or brush pilling evaluate how prone a fabric is to this effect and how its appearance changes over time. Fabrics with good pilling resistance maintain a smoother, more uniform surface even after extended use.
Performance Testing: Colour Fastness
Colour fastness measures a fabric’s ability to retain its colour when exposed to factors like light, rubbing, and cleaning. Upholstery fabrics are typically tested for resistance to fading (light fastness), colour transfer, and reaction to cleaning agents. Strong colour fastness ensures the fabric maintains its visual appeal throughout its lifespan.
Performance Testing: Seam Slippage
Seam slippage testing evaluates how well a fabric holds together at stitched seams under stress. It measures the extent to which yarns move or separate when tension is applied. Poor performance can result in visible gaps or weakened seams, making this test particularly important for upholstered furniture that experiences regular pressure and weight.
Performance Testing: Fire Performance
Fire performance testing determines how an upholstery fabric reacts to ignition sources, assessing properties such as flame spread, heat release, and self-extinguishing behavior. Upholstery fabrics used in residential and commercial settings often need to comply with specific fire safety standards, depending on regional regulations and intended use.
Performance Testing: Stain Resistance and Cleanability
Fabrics are also tested for their response to common household stains, including oils, liquids, and biological substances. These tests evaluate how easily stains can be removed under different cleaning conditions and whether the fabric retains its appearance after treatment.
Part 4: Different Kinds of Upholstery Fabric Characteristics
With so many options out there, the world of upholstery can seem a bit overwhelming to newcomers (and sometimes even veterans too!). In this section we dive into the different kinds of upholstery fabrics: from jacquard and onwards. We update this section regularly, so keep your eyes peeled for more!
Damask upholstery fabric: From Silk Road workshops to Eastern Mediterranean royalty
Damask is probably the most recognised jacquard fabric. It's characterised by reversible patterns created by contrasting the direction of the weave — typically satin weave for the design against a plain or twill ground, or vice versa. The interplay between satin and matte areas in the weave creates a distinctive light–dark effect, which gave rise to the term “damask” for this type of patterned fabric.
Traditional damask was made in silk (Damascus, Syria, a historic crossroads on the Silk Road, was the original production centre, hence the name). Today it's made in cotton, polyester, and performance blends.
Surviving accounts and modern research describe these silks as being dyed in deep, saturated tones in hues like red, blue and gold: all colours strongly linked with wealth and nobility in the broader Eastern Mediterranean.
Brocade upholstery fabric: luxurious choices for elegant interiors
Brocade is a luxury, ornamental woven fabric with raised designs created by supplementary weft yarns, usually on a Jacquard loom. Historically silk with metallic threads from China, Italy, Byzantium, India, now also in cotton and synthetics.
Strongly associated with ancient China, it spread along the Silk Road to Byzantium, Persia, India, and Europe, where each region developed its own brocade traditions. Contemporary brocade upholstery fabrics use the same structural logic with more robust yarns.
This is an example of French brocade dated somewhere around 1740-50. It's stored at the Met Museum, NYC, USA.
Types of brocade
You’ll see different “families” of brocade named by fibre, region, or effect:
- Silk brocade – classic, high‑luxury. -- Opulence Through the Ages: The History of Brocade
- Zari / gold brocade – uses metallic wefts for shimmering designs, important in Indian formalwear – Woven in Gold: The Timeless Tale of Indian Silk Brocade
- Vanarasi brocade – Indian silk brocade with Mughal/Persian‑influenced motifs (floral, paisley, architectural). -- How to Make A Varanasi Brocade
- Jacquard brocade – explicitly produced on a Jacquard loom, allowing extremely detailed patterns.
Brocade vs. jacquard vs. embroidery
- Jacquard is a weaving system/mechanism (and by extension, any fabric patterned via Jacquard control).
- Brocade is a type of patterned fabric typically made on a Jacquard loom, but with supplementary weft that gives a raised, ornate pattern.
- Embroidery is added after weaving, stitching patterns on top; brocade’s pattern is integral to the weave.
Matelassé upholstery: jacquard with a cloud-like feel
Matelassé (from the French for "quilted" or "cushioned") is woven to imitate finely quilted textiles, but the softly padded, bubble-like texture comes from extra yarn systems in the weave, not from batting in-between layers.
Matelassé is a cosy fabric, soft and tactile: historically it was white-on-white and created for ‘cosy’ items like bedding (Know Your Bedding Like A Designer). Today matelassé upholstery fabric has stepped into the wide world of colour, and are available in a wide range of colours and patterns, made from all kinds of different fibres.
This example can be found at the International Quilt Study Center & Museum.
Tapestry upholstery: from walls to furniture
Tapestry upholstery originates from medieval European wall hangings (13th–14th centuries). By the 17th and 18th centuries it evolved into a luxury seating fabric.
Primarily produced in Flemish cities like Brussels, and French workshops such as Gobelins and Aubusson, it peaked as wall decoration during the Baroque period. Watch a fascinating conservation story that breathes life into a fragile, faded fabric: Rescuing a 16th Century Tapestry: The story of The Fountain of Love.
- The Aubusson tapestries are a gold standard throughout the world, to the extent that Aubusson has become a common noun in some languages.
- Manufacture des Gobelins in Paris, established in the 17th century in France: explore King Louis XIV’s Visit to the Gobelins, depicted in, of course, a tapestry.
These example of tapestry upholstery was made for a chair specifically for the Franckenstein Pavilion in the gardens of Seehof Castle near Bamberg. 1763-4. It's stored at the Met Museum, NYC, USA.