We upholster in three fabric families, and customers usually choose on looks alone. Looks matter, but so does whether you have a dog, a toddler, or a lounge that gets four hours of afternoon sun. Here is how the three behave in a real house.
Velvet
Velvet is the reason a Chesterfield looks like a Chesterfield. The pile catches light so the buttoning reads properly, and darker colours hide daily marks well. Modern upholstery velvet is a polyester weave, not the delicate natural pile people imagine, and it takes family use better than most expect. Brush the pile in one direction when you clean it and it keeps that even sheen.
Textured weave
The weave we use on the wingback suite is the practical choice. It does not hold pet hair the way short-pile velvet does, it resists pilling, and small snags do not show. If you have animals on the furniture or a household where things get spilled weekly, this is what we would put in our own lounge.
Sheepskin
Sheepskin is the softest option and the reason the Monaco daybed gets the reaction it does. It is warm, deep and comfortable. It is also the fabric that shows a stain most clearly in a light colour, so we usually steer customers towards grey rather than cream unless the room is genuinely low traffic.
Colour, honestly
Black and charcoal hide everything and suit rooms with enough natural light to stop them going heavy. Blues and greens carry a room where the walls are neutral. Cream and light grey look magnificent for about six months in a house with children, and then they look like a house with children.
Ask for samples
We post or hand over samples before you commit. Put the swatch in the actual room, look at it in the morning and again under your evening lights, and only then decide. A colour that looked perfect in a photograph often reads differently under warm globes.
Send us the room measurements and a photograph. We would rather talk you out of the wrong couch than deliver it.