Listener Questions 4 - What Is the Best Fabric for a Sofa? Your Complete Guide

In between full episodes we will be fielding listener questions about their renovations. So if you have a burning question send us a voice-note on Instagram at @ripitup_podcast_official or via email to ripitupearlybird@gmail.com.

Items mentioned:

• Poly-velvet
• Velour
• Boucle
• Microfibre
• Aniline leather
• Dr Beckmanns
•  Textured herringbone 

Follow the podcast on Instagram @ripitup_podcast_official, or follow us - Jenny is @workerscottage and Kate is @victorianrathmines

Transcript

​[00:00:00] Podcast Intro

Jen: Welcome to Rip It Up, the renovations podcast.

In between full episodes, we are answering your questions. So if you have a burning question for us, send us a voice note or a message on Instagram at Rip it Up Podcast official or email us, rip it up earlyBird@gmail.com.

Welcome back to the podcast. Hi Kate 

Kate: Hi Jen 

Jen: Listener question this week. 

Kate: Mm-hmm. 

Jen: Um, we'll get straight into it. So the question was, what questions all about the best sofa fabric for your house? Mm-hmm. We have the same sofa, 

Kate: we do sofa and the same fabric, actually different colors, but same fabric, same fabric.

Yeah. 

Jen: And we, if I totally honest, you both had dogs. Yeah. 

Kate: I think I picked my fabric without even knowing if it was gonna be easy to keep or not. I just wanted that color and I really liked it. Like I wasn't thoughtful because I didn't have children when I, or when I ordered it. I did have a dog, but she was a very, she was very clean kind.

I like, you know, non she dog. Dog. Yeah. And, but like, I don't think I gave it due [00:01:00] consideration that like I would nowadays, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy our fabric is to maintain. 

Jen: So we have agree what you call it, microfiber. 

Kate: It's like a poly, poly velvet, I guess. Is it poly vet sort? It's not a co, it's not a classic cotton velvet, which would be much more absorbent.

Jen: It's a short fiber, yeah, poly vet. And because 

Kate: it's a poly velvet or a a, a poly, is it a polyester or would that. The base fabric. Yeah. Or kind of a nylon maybe or something. That blend, that means it's non absorb, it doesn't absorb water at all. So kind of, I dunno, if you find like water tends to kind of pool on the top, at least for a little short time, that kind bead Yeah.

And gives you a chance to um, kind of mop it up. 

Jen: Yeah. So I, everything has been spilled on my couch. I've had, um, dog pee on it, not my dog. Interestingly. Um, I've spilled wine on it. I've had the other day I found. We were eating burgers on the couch and I found like a hand [00:02:00] print outside of it. Hand print of what?

Burger sauce. Lovely. Yeah. But it wipes right off. It's the easiest thing on the planet to be clean. It wipes right off. Um, so what I normally do, if, if it like, I'll just keep, give it a wipe down with like a microfiber cloth if, like just a wet microfiber cloth. If it needs a clean, I'm giving it a deeper clean Dr.

Beckman's. Fabric cleaner on the, 

Kate: on the go all the time. Yeah, there 

Jen: is nothing better. It's the best thing on the planet. Um, that'll give it a wash. And then if it needs a deeper wash, um, I will unzip the coverings and I will lash them into the washing machine on a cold, gentle wash with like wool light or something gentle like that.

And, uh, it's perfect. Same, and I, I, 

Kate: I usually zip them closed inside out. 

Jen: Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea actually, to make 

Kate: sure it doesn't get any kind of damage on the outside. So it's super gentle on the, the covers. Um, that's worked really well for me. I guess going back a little bit, ours is a, a polyester based velvet or kind of a sway it, [00:03:00] I don't know, like you kind of call it different things maybe, but.

Looking at fabrics overall, I think generally polyester or some sort of like polyblend fabric is a little bit more forgiving. In the case of kind of the listener here, where you might have kids and you might have pets or whatever, um, I think it'll generally be a bit more waterproof. Now you can use natural fabrics like your linen and your cotton and your, you know, those kind of fabrics.

Now remember, they're more absorbent, so as soon as the stain hits them, it'll absorb that stain. It's harder to get out. Yeah, so I would be generally a little bit more cautious picking those fabrics unless they're loose covered that you're gonna be able to easily throw in the wash. I have a cheapy sofa in our kids kind of play area at the moment, and it's one of those loose cover ones, but it does stain and it's harder to spot clean.

Um, than the, than the polyester kind of based fabric. So that would be kind of a watch out there. And then the other option, I suppose, is leather. And with leather you've kind of like [00:04:00] semial line, which is kind of a protected leather, we'll say. It's kind of usually got some sort of coloring and coating on the top.

That one, you know, typically will have a waterproofness to it and be easy to wipe and shouldn't absorb smells as much. But then you have your kind of raw hides and your kind of untreated leathers, which are beautiful and they'll age gorgeous and blah, blah blah. I know. And they 

Jen: get really soft. Yeah. I think people hear leather and they think the pleather.

Prophylactic arm chairs that they had in college, you know, or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, but real leather gets so soft. It's so lovely. 

Kate: Yeah. But it's not for kids like untreated leather, in my opinion. Yeah. Like, I just think you will get stains. It's not, it's not about like, I think it like. Weathering.

'cause I think the weathering actually looks lovely, but it's, it's the stained, it's the spot stains of juice spills. Yeah. That might be go a slightly different color or a dog peeing on it or a cat peeing on it or something like that. Yeah. So those kind of things, the aging generally is nice, but it's more the wet patches and they will soak into untreated leather very [00:05:00] quickly.

Yeah. The same as they will for like a cotton or a linen or something like that. So generally, I think. Natural fibers that are untreated or uncoated or un scotch guarded even will kind of absorb a lot more, um, liquids and stains. 

Jen: And you can have issues with moths. Well, for any natural fibers that are untreated, like they can, yeah, they can.

They just go in the back of your couch and like, just eat away at the little corners at the fers. 

Kate: We, um, we got a wool carpet actually in our bedroom and mm-hmm. It was only because we have a humidifier in my bedroom and, um, just in the winter months and it's really hot or really kind of dry air and it spilled the other day, or Jess pulled it over.

And I noticed on the carpet it kind of bead it the water, even though it's a wool carpet, because it's treated, it's treated for moss. So some fabrics, natural spray treated. 

Jen: Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah, rugs like curtains, everything can be, can be straight through to moths. And if you are, I understand why people would want to go for natural fiber because, um, they look beautiful and they do last, uh, a long time.

But, [00:06:00] um, definitely get them treated from moths, especially in Ireland. Like we just, I dunno, they, yeah, they just, they gather. Um, one thing I will say about any sofa fabric that you're getting, and this is any, um. Material is that if you are putting it in direct sunlight, it is going to bleach eventually.

And I think that's really no matter what, I think it's like even if it is UV treated, um. And that goes for curtains, that goes for almost anything. Um, probably not leather, like, probably not something that has the color, you know, inherent in it. But if it has been dyed, then if it's sitting in like strong direct sunlight, it is gonna bleach over time.

I don't think I've ever seen a sofa of any fabric that hasn't eventually bleached. Um, if it's, if it's a, if it's a colored fabric. Um, so that just is what it is and I think it's something to bear in mind, like mine is starting to, to. Bleach and it doesn't look bad yet. And like this is five and a half years later.

So if I need to get something recovered, eventually grand. And that's 'cause it's sitting like right up against a [00:07:00] very large like sliding doors Southwest facing. Yeah. And gets a lot of, of sun and a lot of light beating in, but it's something to bear in mind. So think about like whatever fabric you're choosing, whatever you're, you're going for, think about where your sofa is going to sit and whether it's going to get a lot of direct sunlight and that, and think about whether that might mean you want to go for a lighter color, that won't be so much, or you're okay with it, you know, or a slack or a pattern 

Kate: as well, right?

Jen: Sometimes 

Kate: some of, some, some of these poly velvets have like, um, I guess slight texture or kind of almost like a false wear pattern in there or something, which kind of is a little easier to keep in terms of staining if you've kind of kids or whatever. Um, that might be an option as well. So don't be afraid of like a little bit of a pattern or FLA or something like that in the fabric.

But I think, I think generally speaking with kids, and especially with. Cats who might claw fabric or dogs with longer claws and stuff, very textured. Fabrics are not really your friend. Stains get embedded, food gets embedded in them. Um, and they can just [00:08:00] pull, the fabrics, can pull, you know, like your jewelry might get stuck in them, stuff like that.

So I think very textured fabrics are generally for rooms that are adult only, or not used very often in my mind. 

Jen: Yeah, so I do have a textured fabric in my, um, my sofa bed, uh, which is in my office, which doesn't get heavy use and doesn't. Now I will say my dog jumps on it sometimes, but like, he doesn't claw and he doesn't have long claws anyway, so, yeah.

Um, it definitely does not get heavy use, but this is a, it's a textured herringbone fabric. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. But it's 

Kate: not very deep pile essentially, like, is this, it's not a deep pile, but it 

Jen: definitely is textures. Um. What it's actually made of. I'm not a hundred percent sure. If I find out, I'll put it into the show notes.

Um, but it's textured. But what I'll say is that those, anything with a texture, anything with a pattern is so forgiving when it comes to any kind of stain. And that's true of anything. Like, that's true of your sofa, that's true of your tiles, that's true of your rug, your carpet, anything. Um, if it has a pa a little pattern to it, it'll be easier.

It'll [00:09:00] hide stains a little bit better. That's true. You know, because you won't see that little watermark or that little mark or tear even, whatever it is. Like as easy as a blend in. Yeah. Um, toy 

Kate: box we had in my kids', uh, playroom, I recovered a couple of years ago in this kind of polyester blue play fabric.

So very textured. Yeah. Like that, like fine for stains. Never noticed even though it was their toy box and they were opening it all the time and there was probably loads of stains, couldn't. Necessarily see it, but the fabric did pull a bit, you know, just from wear and tear and toys being pulling. And was it hard to actually 

Jen: clean you?

Like if it, okay, I know it looked fine, but like if you actually wanted to clean it, was it easy to clean? It depends 

Kate: on the type of stain, I guess. I think a lot of stuff I let kind of dry and use a soft dry brush. Gentle kind of dry brush. Yeah, almost like a shoe cleaning brush, but obviously a clean separate one that you use for fabrics, which is like dry brush off the majority of the stain.

I can, I try avoid wetting the stain too much unless I really have to to get it off. And then if the stain is like embedded, you need to get like something absorbent on both sides of [00:10:00] the stain, so inside the cover and outside the cover and almost squeeze that stain out. Yeah. 'cause if you're blotting it from one side, you're just kind of probably pushing it deeper.

It needs to be absorbed out from the other side. So that's what I find when the stains get deep, you can kind of get it out that way. So I suppose they're all kind of considerations if you have kids and dogs and cats or whatever that are gonna be on them or Yeah. Do a smoker in your house essentially.

Like Jesus, Ben. I think pick fabrics or heavy fabrics or untreated fabrics will definitely harbor smells, um, a lot more. 

Jen: Yeah, 

Kate: definitely. But that's my kind of 2 cents. I actually lower 2 cents poly velvet. It's so durable. There's been baby spew, like you said, pet pee, everything, and like it all comes off.

I actually have it in the second area 

Jen: as well. I have it on my bench seating in my dining area. The exact same, different color, but the exact same fabric. And like obviously that gets a bit more stains because in the dining area, but it cleans up so easily. Yeah, so that's our 

recommendation. Thanks for your question.

Great. Hope that helps. Hope that helps. We see you next [00:11:00] week.