The 4 Best Fabrics for Couches: The Luxury Home’s Guide from an East Texas Interior Designer

When working on your home’s interior design or remodel, you may have run into the problem of choosing fabrics for your furniture. As a Texas interior designer, I’m breaking down my top used luxury fabrics for furniture to help guide your buying decisions. See the best fabrics for couches based on look, cleanliness, and durability! 

The 4 Best Fabrics For Couches: 

• Velvet: 

- Looks: Soft and luxurious

- Cleanliness: Easy to clean and hide dirt, especially with a darker color 

- Durability: Resists wear well & is long-lasting

Velvet is my personal favorite couch fabric. It’s sleek, opulent, and is sure to add luxury to any living room design. Any dark-colored velvet couch will hide dirt and dust very well, and will be very easy to clean and wipe up. 

Velvet has two main options to know the difference between: a polyester/synthetic velvet or a silk velvet. A silk velvet will be your pricier (but softer and more luxurious fabric) while a polyester velvet will be your more durable and more affordable fabric. 

• Microfiber: 

- Looks: Soft and stylish 

- Cleanliness: Easy to clean

- Durability: Resists wear and is long-lasting

Microfiber couches are a great option for your home design. I personally use them all the time in client living room designs, and I even have one in my own home! It’s soft and stylish, and there are a ton of great options for couches that match your living room style. Microfiber is easy to clean and resists wear very well, making it a very durable option. 

• Linen: 

- Looks: Beautiful and luxurious, but itchy 

- Cleanliness: Can be rather hard to clean

- Durability: Strong and durable 

Linen itself is absolutely stunning and timeless – there’s no denying that! However, pure linen isn’t always the best fabric for couches if you don’t like itchy fabrics (or if you live in a mess-prone house with kids or pets). Linen blends are a better option for those scenarios. With a linen blend, you get all the beauty of linen, but the comfort of cotton and polyester that makes it both softer and easier to clean. 

• Cotton: 

- Looks: Soft and classic

- Cleanliness: Can be harder to clean

- Durability: Softer and a bit easier to damage

Cotton couches are going to be one of your softest options. However, the higher the cotton count, the higher the work to keep it clean! If you live in a house with pets or kids, cotton may not be the best fabric for your couch because of how easily it shows stains and how hard it can be to get clean. 

Checking the Rub Count of Couch Fabrics: 

The best way to check the overall durability of a couch fabric is to look at the rub count. A rub count is a measure of a fabric’s durability and resistance to wear and tear. Checking on this before buying your couch or furniture can save you a lot of trouble in the long run. As a rule of thumb, a good rub count is always above at least 25,000, and the higher you get up towards 100,000, the better! 

Best Fabrics for Outdoor Couches: 

As a bonus tip, choosing outdoor furniture is a different ballgame. These couch fabrics are totally different because they have to uphold a different type of resistance, adapting to water, heat, and outdoor living. The best fabrics for couches that stay outside are: 

• Sunbrella

• Olefin

• Crypton

Brittney Lane | Longview, Texas Interior Designer 

I hope this guide to the best fabrics for couches helped you decide on which fabric fits your needs the best. For more tips on designing your luxury home, visit my blog! To book a consultation to inquire about East Texas interior design services, click here.