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Nothing ruins a new couch like a stain. Picture this; you are at home enjoying your day when you hear the unmistakable sound of a spilled glass and splashing liquid. You race to the living room, praying your dog, cat, child, or partner has managed to contain their clumsiness to your wood floors.
As you round the corner, your heart sinks as you take in the full effect of Murphy’s Law. Of all the places for a grape juice stain to be, fate (and your clumsy housemates) have chosen for it to seep into your brand-new light-gray couch. The tastefully designed sofa you spent days finding and getting at the best price now has a Jackson Pollock reproduction across the seat cushions.
You are not alone if you’ve had similar nightmares about your new furniture. Many people are terrified to buy the furniture they want for fear of stains and spills. However, there is a type of upholstery you can get that will end your nightmares and bring the couch of your dreams back to reality.
That upholstery is called performance fabric. What is performance fabric? How does it help repel stains and spills? This article will help you learn more about your upholstery options.
Furniture Fair has sold performance fabric upholstery for many types of furniture, including custom furniture. We want to help our customers learn more about the features and benefits of performance upholstery. If you are in Cincinnati, Dayton, Northern Kentucky, Southern Indiana, or Louisville, this guide to performance fabrics might help you find the furniture you are looking for.
In this article, you will learn what performance fabrics are, the features and benefits of performance fabrics, and what brands at Furniture Fair feature performance upholstery options. Read on to learn more about performance upholstery furniture.
Put simply, performance fabric is a furniture upholstery fabric that is durable and easy to clean. Most performance upholstery is water, mold, and mildew resistant. Another feature of performance fabrics is lightfastness, which helps make the fabric resistant to sun-fading.
In addition to fade-resistant properties, performance fabrics are also durable and have anti-microbial traits, making them stain-resistant and resistant to bacteria, mildew, and mold. Due to the stain-resistant fabric materials, most household stains come out with soap and water.
You may need to use a solvent for harder stains in your performance fabric, but the stain should still come off with a bit of "elbow grease". Because the tougher material is harder to stain or dirty, performance fabric is preferred for pet owners or large families where your furniture receives heavy, consistent use.
If you are ranking furniture using the Good, Better, Best ranking system as we do at Furniture Fair, performance upholstery furniture usually ranks in the Better category since the fabric is of higher quality and built for higher performance and durability. However, you can find performance fabric in all quality levels of furniture.
Now that you know a little about performance fabrics let’s look at the types of performance fabrics featured here at Furniture Fair. Here are the top 5 performance fabric brands and the furniture brands you can find them on.
Revolution Fabrics is manufactured by Specialty Textiles Incorporated and was one of the first PFC chemical-free performance fabrics on the market. Revolution is the only chemical-free performance fabric still being made within the United States.
Revolution is perfect for families who want a beautiful, stain-resistant fabric without an extravagant price tag. Revolution is ideal for pets and kids due to the easy-to-clean materials woven into each textile pattern, and will help keep your couch, sofa, or armchair looking good longer.
Revolution is available at Furniture Fair with the Hickorycraft brand, Best Home Furnishings, and Fusion in a wide range of fabric choices.
If you want your sofa, chair, or sectional to have stain and liquid resistance, as well as affordable custom designs, OptiCLEAN by Best Home Furnishings, is the water-resistant solution you are looking for.
Opti Clean is a performance fabric system encasing every fiber to ensure cleanability, providing two-level stain protection. At the first level, food and drink spills are repelled and prevented from entering the fabric, so stains are easily removed.
Should stains penetrate the fabric's surface or go unnoticed, the second barrier with a releasing property prevents most stains from becoming permanent. OptiCLEAN fabrics are a great way to provide peace of mind and keep your Best Home furniture looking good.
LiveSmart is a polyester and polyester blend performance fabric used for seating in residential, hospitality, and office complexes. The material comes in woven textures, knits, woven velvets, and printed designs and is designed to be stylish, stain-resistant, and moisture-repellant.
According to the company website, LiveSmart fabrics are produced exclusively with low-denier performance yarns encapsulated with a stain and moisture-repellant finish. Spills bead up on the surface rather than penetrating the fabric and the cushion.
If you are worried about moisture, mud, or other liquids potentially getting on your sofa, loveseat, or sectional, LiveSmart fabric is a way to help ensure that your furniture is protected against easy stains.
LiveSmart fabric is available on many custom brands, including Hickorycraft, England, and Smith Brothers, and comes in a wide array of colors, styles, and textures. If you want a bit more choices in your furniture purchasing decision, LiveSmart is an excellent option to look for.
Crypton wants you to have beautiful, easy-to-clean, odor-free fabric. Stain & spill-resistant to both water and oil-based stains, Crypton also offers the assurance of antimicrobial (& stain-resistant) technology permanently bonded for the life of the fabric and is the only fabric approved by the EPA to be disinfected.
27 years of innovation and 15 patents add up to thousands of soft, beautiful, durable, and sustainable fabric solutions offered by Crypton for every environment. If peak performance and spill resistance are what you want, Crypton Fabrics may be right for you.
Crypton fabrics are available on the Mega Motion and Hickorycraft brands of furniture and are available in a wide variety of colors, styles, and textures.
Smith Brothers prides itself in offering the highest quality custom home furnishings, and its fabrics are no different. The Clarity fabric line by Smith Brothers is easy for the customer to determine the most durable fabrics the company offers.
Most Clarity fabric is made from polyester or polypropylene, making the materials resistant to stains and easy to clean. While not indestructible, if adequately cared for, Clarity fabrics will keep your couch or sectional looking fresh and stylish.
As mentioned, anyone with kids or pets would benefit from performance upholstery fabric and its stain-resistant, water-repelling properties. While you can teach kids not to be careless and house-train your pets, accidents will happen.
Thankfully performance fabrics can help ensure that a little spilled grape juice or some muddy paws doesn’t ruin the couch you love. With a little cleaning solution, stains and spills will no longer be the bane of every light gray sofa owner.
Additionally, performance fabrics are a great way to help your furniture last longer if your home receives heavy traffic regularly. While cheaper or luxury fabrics are prone to wear and damage from repeated use, performance fabrics are designed to last and stand up to repeated use.
Performance upholstery may only suit you if you are on a relaxed budget. Because the materials are more durable and expensive to manufacture, the cost may not outweigh the convenience if you try not to break the bank.
Additionally, if you prefer leather to fabric, this fabric type may not suit you. Leather upholstery has its own unique traits, and if you prefer the leather look, performance fabric may be different from what you are looking to buy.
Now that you know more about performance fabrics, you can decide if that light gray couch you’ve been dreaming of may be a reality. No longer will you be held back by the clumsiness of your dog, the chaotic determination of your cat, or the careless enabling of both by your partner.
Thanks to performance fabrics, you can rest a little easier, knowing that when the inevitable accident does happen, you will have an easier time cleaning that stain and keeping your furniture looking as lovely as the day you brought it home.
If you want tosee the performance fabric difference for yourself and live in the Louisville, Dayton, or Cincinnati area, check out Furniture Fair! Visit a location near you, view our extensive collections, and see our wide range of quality living room, bedroom, dining room, and home office options, including custom furniture options.
Visit a furniture store showroom today, and one of our sales experts will be glad to help you find the stain-repelling furniture of your dreams. Come in and test the value quality of Furniture Fair for yourself.
