Furniture Education: Upholstery Fabric

There is nothing more fun that selecting the perfect material colour, texture and weave to bring your furniture dream to life. However, there are a few details you want to keep in mind to ensure that you are as happy with your fabric selection after countless spills as you were when you first saw it.

Rub Counts.

There are two main fabric durability tests that are used to gauge how well fabrics wear, the Wyzenbeek test and the Martindale test. The Wyzenbeek test uses a machine to rub along the warp and weft of the fabric counting the number of double rubs before signs of wear begin to show. The Martindale test uses a figure 8 motion to determine how many rubs it takes to show signs of wear on the fabric.

The rule of thumb is that a fabric suitable for upholstered furniture should be a minimum of 25,000 rubs or double rubs. For a fabric to be suitable for commercial use, for example in airports, restaurant, the fabric should be 90,000 rubs or double rubs.

The higher the number of rubs or double rubs the more durable your fabric meaning.

There are times where one might still choose a more delicate fabric to upholster furniture in. For example, silk is absolutely gorgeous and makes a statement of decadence. One might choose to upholster furniture in silk in a formal entertaining room where guests are generally on their best behaviour.

However, our theory is that you can have incredible, stunning, decadent fabric while having the durability as well. So that when you have guests who are not well behaved or when you find yourself lounging around eating in front of the TV you can relax knowing your fabric will be forgiving.

This decadent, textured, marine blue velvet is more than commercial quality. It scored 100,000 & 175,000 rubs and double rubs. So if the fabric can withstand the crazy behaviour in an airport, it can handle whatever you want to do.

This Textured Bronze Velvet is also more than commercial quality. It scored 100,000 & 200,000 rubs and double rubs.