Fabrics in the home need to long-lasting, wear well and be fit for purpose. They also need to be stylish and colourful, as well as offering different properties depending on their use.
Fabric is everywhere in our homes from the plush, soft cushions to the gathers of fabrics as curtains and blinds. It is, of course, the outer layer of the fabric dining chairs that look so elegant in the dining room, as well as the sofa and armchairs of the lounge.
But we wondered, which material do our customers prefer when it comes to a sofa? Would people opt for the cool to the touch but ever-so-elegant brown leather sofa or would the pleasant feel and warmth of a tweed upholstered sofa hit the mark?
We Asked, You Answered
And so, we took to both Instagram and Houzz to pose the question. We gave you an idea of one of best selling brown leather sofas in the shape of the Bamford Chesterfield sofa. Available in leather and tweed, you told us what you thought.
There was a clear favourite: tweed. Winning hands down on both Houzz and Instagram, you told us that tweed was the choice when it came to the sofa fabric.
What is Tweed?
It is a woollen fabric, with a soft, open and flexible texture. Slightly ‘rough’ to the touch, it is a fabric that when spun into a closely woven pattern, is incredibly strong and long-lasting. As it is a natural product, it has fantastic insulation properties as well as a whole raft of benefits and superpowers.
In the busy family home, it makes an ideal fabric for all kinds of upholstery applications, from fabric dining chairs around your reclaimed wood dining table to bold coloured or understated patterned armchairs by the wood coffee table near the fire.
And it is probably these qualities, along with the fact it looks and feels great, properties not easily diminished over time, that the majority of our customers answered the poll with a resounding yes to tweed.
In recent years, we have noted an increase in the popularity of tweed. It fell out of favour for a while, seen as old-fashioned. But with new life breathed into it in terms of colours and patterns, tweed is now a staple of the new urban modern styling we are witnessing.
Leather: NOT the Poor Relation
But it wasn’t a complete whitewash in terms of tweed versus leather. There was a strong showing in support of leather and no wonder.
One comment was clear: leather was the favoured choice because it is an easy-care fabric, looks good and stays looking good for a long time. Leather dining chairs make sense – simply wipe away sticky finger marks and blobs of jam – and the brown leather sofa is the ‘old favourite’, the addition to the home that sees all of life from the tears to the laughter.
Leather never falls out of fashion. Suited to many different interior styles, including the note of warmth in a rustic interior and the added-detail-without-fuss to the industrial styled living room, it is an understated, versatile fabric.
Why not join our next poll? Find us on Instagram or Houzz to join in the fun!
