What’s The Best Fabric for My Sofa?

This post about the best fabric for sofa was updated in July 2024.

If you’ve ever listened to the How to Decorate Podcast, you’ve likely heard one of our most common interior design questions: ‘where should I invest my decorating dollars? Nearly all of our designer guests are in agreement that a great, well-made sofa in the best fabric is a life long investment you won’t regret.

The guts of any upholstered piece are is crucial for its durability and comfort, but selecting the best fabric for a sofa plays an equally significant role. In this blog, we break down your sofa fabric options and help you make the best investment for your space and lifestyle.

Are you more of a visual learner? Learn everything you need to know our in-depth video guide to sofa fabrics above!

1. Understanding Fabric Weaves

First, let’s discuss weaves. Every fabric is created by weaving threads together, and the tightness of that weave influences the fabric’s feel and durability. Consider, for example, the difference between a loose-weave cheesecloth or drapery sheer and a thick pair of denim jeans.

In cheesecloth the threads are loosely woven, and that allows the fabric to drape elegantly and let more light through. In contrast, denim jeans feature a tight weave, making them more durable, easier to wash, and less prone to losing their shape quickly. The same principles apply when selecting the best fabric for a sofa. Tight weaves enhance durability and maintain the fabric’s form, making them ideal for upholstery.

Examples of Fabric Weaves

Linens typically have a looser weave without a lot of nubbiness. That means they drape more elegantly on your sofa (great if you’re buying a slipcover), but it also means the threads are more susceptible to wearing out because they aren’t as tightly woven together.

• In the linen category, it’s important to remember some are heavier than others: Suzanne Kasler’s 13oz Linen have a very tight weave and a heavier weight, so this is a great fabric for a sofa or any upholstery.
• Our Everyday Linen have a lighter hand, so while they’re great for headboards or chairs, they don’t stand up quite as well to wear as our heavier linens, and instead make great fabric options for drapery and pillows.

Velvets have a tighter weave because they aren’t just woven horizontally, they have a pile or nap to them. That means that the threads stand upright, creating a fuzzy, soft texture.

• The advantage to fabric with a pile (like velvet) is that it’s exceptionally soft to the touch. Our velvets are blended with polyester which makes them more durable to 100% cotton velvet, so they’re easier to spot clean and the pile isn’t as vulnerable to being crushed.
• Chenilles are cousins of a velvet in that they have a pile, or a nap, which gives them a soft, fuzzy hand. They’re also usually heavy.

Tweeds are another durable option, like our Coco Tweed or Marla fabrics. They’re a blend of natural and man-made yarns so they’re easy to clean, and they have a tight, nubby weave.

• That traditional tweed look gives them a more formal feel than a linen, and the textured weave makes them great options for concealing spills or imperfections.

2. Look at the Fabric Specifications

Before you pick a fabric for your sofa (especially if purchasing online), it’s important to look at the thread makeup of that fabric just as you would when purchasing a new shirt. The makeup of the fabric’s thread can give you a lot of information about the durability, hand, and softness that you aren’t able to see online.

Look at the Thread Blend

Often, upholstery fabric will have a blend of threads, and that blend can help you understand the way it would feel and stand up to wear and tear.

Natural threads, like cotton and wool, are breathable and soft, making them comfortable for everyday use. However, they can break down quickly and are prone to stains. On the other hand, synthetic materials such as polyester, acrylic, and rayon are more durable, easier to clean, and stain-resistant, despite lacking the breathability and softness of natural threads.

Many of our fabrics combine natural threads with a small amount of synthetic fibers to offer the best of both worlds. This blend provides the softness, breathability, and luxurious feel of natural fabric, while also enhancing durability and stain resistance with synthetic fibers.

We recommend ordering a swatch of any fabric to better assess its weight and weave. Seeing the color and feeling the texture firsthand is essential for making an informed decision on such a significant investment as a sofa. Choosing the best fabric for a sofa requires careful consideration to ensure both comfort and longevity.

 

Pro Tip: Check Out the Rub Count to Find the Best Fabric for a Sofa

What’s a rub count? Every fabric is given a double rub which means it’s the number of rubs before a fabric starts breaking down. This is an easy indicator of how durable a fabric is. Most fabrics range from 15,000 to 60,000 double rubs, though a great upholstery fabric may have 100,000 double rubs or more, like our Marla or Aster fabrics.

3. Performance Acrylic and Polyester are Best Fabrics for Sofa

We’ve talked about the advantages of polyesters and acrylics, but not every polyester or acrylic thread has the same stain resistance and durability to be considered a ‘performance fabric.’ We’ll explain what sets some polyesters and acrylics apart below.

 

Solution-dyed acrylic and polyester are considered the best in class fabrics for stain resistance, clean-ability, and fade resistance. Here’s why: ‘solution-dyed’ means that these threads are dyed all the way through, meaning that the thread holds the dye color all the way through, in the same way a carrot is orange all the way through.

With the way most threads are dyed, the dye only changes the outermost layer of the thread, so like a radish, only the outside layer holds the color. Because of this, dyed thread is vulnerable to sun-bleaching and staining. The thread of our solution-dyed performance fabrics hold the color all the way through, like a carrot. So they can stand up to the elements and any other mishaps your family members can throw at them.

If you’re looking for solution-dyed acrylics and polyesters, you’ll want to look for fabrics from Sunbrella or InsideOut performance fabrics.

Learn More: Performance Fabrics 101

4. Other Performance Fabrics

The term ‘performance fabric’ encapsulates a wide range of options, one of which is stain treatment on the threads used to create the fabric. This is an applied solution that treats the threads for stain resistance, making spills less likely to stain and easier cleanup.

It’s a different method to a solution-dyed acrylic or polyester, but still makes for a durable and easy-to-clean fabric for the sofa.

Crypton Home is our resource for stain-treated fabrics, and their patterns, texture, and color give them a more fashion-forward look than you might otherwise find with solution dyed threads.

5. Cost of Fabric for Sofa

Of course, you can’t go shopping for the best fabric for your sofa without paying attention to price…

The price of a fabric goes up or down based on a number of factors. Tighter, denser weaves often require more labor and more thread to construct, so while they’re much more durable, they can also be more expensive.

Velvets also tend to be more expensive because they require more steps during the weaving process. Not only are the threads woven horizontally, they have short threads that run perpendicular to the fabric, creating the soft nap.

The same goes for performance fabrics: the labor and materials needed to create these fabrics make them more expensive, but their durability means they’ll last longer too.

6. Color, Pattern, and Texture

In our podcast episodes featuring Melanie Turner, Erin Gates, and Bunny Williams, all three designers recommend choosing a neutral fabric for your couch because it can easily work into any room if you should move or redecorate.

However, there’s also a case to be made for color, pattern, and texture for your sofa fabric: A performance sofa fabric with color, pattern, or texture (or all three) can be a breeze to clean or help mask any oops moments you may not immediately be able to clean.

7. Leather as Sofa Fabric

We can’t forget about leather. Those dark, bulky leather sofas from the man cave give the whole fabric category a bad name, but they’re actually one of the most durable, easy-to-clean materials out you can use for your sofa.

Real leather is easy to wipe down, naturally stain repellant, and gets better and softer with age. If you like the patina of leather, as well as the classic and masculine feel if can often give your furniture, leather may be the best fabric for your sofa.

Every fabric has advantages and disadvantages, but, with all the interior design information we’ve outline in this blog and our Sofa Fabrics 101 video, it should be easier to make a decision for your own home.

Browse all of our fabric options online, and shop our various sofa shapes and styles. Find more fabric how-to here:

• Performance Fabrics 101
• How to Clean Performance Fabrics
• How to Mix Fabrics Like a Pro
• Best Sofas for Dogs — Our Guide to Pet-Friendly Furniture

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