Category: Upholstery

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Faux Leather Upholstery Fabrics

Black Faux Leather Upholstery
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KOTHEA are one of the UK’s leading Faux Leather suppliers to the Interior Design and Architectural sector. Our products in this sphere have high performance, commercial and residential characteristics – fantastic durability and adherence to appropriate fire retardancy standards.

We have several faux leather collections – they are aimed specifically for upholstery but are often also used on walls, doors, sometimes for curtains and cocktail bar fronts and stools.

Most of the wide range of colours we stock are available in several different finishes. The finishes range from a ‘flat’ vinyl to a heavy, but naturally, textured leather finish. In between these extremes, there are leather textures with differing degrees of depths of textures.

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The ‘feel’ of the collections vary. Some are very like leather to the touch, whilst others are more vinyl. Typically more vinyl-type finishes have highly superior cleaning and light fastness properties.

Please note that these faux leathers are specifically targetted towards interiors. They are not thin, low-grade fashion faux leather.

We also have several ranges of faux animal skins, mimicking skins such as crocodile and ostrich. These are niche products and are only available by the roll.
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Sofa and couch – faux leather or real leather

Dishevelled sofa
Dishevelled sofa

Chic, shabby chic or a bit of a mess?

Leather upholstery is limited by the size of the hide. Probably not that much of an issue on smaller sofas.

Faux leather can have very high abrasion resistance and both can be treated for fire resistance.

Care and maintenance is easier with faux leather. Repairs and colour matching are easier with faux leather, which is important if you under-order/under-specify or just need to buy some more if the project scope increases.

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Fire Treating Faux Leather and Vinyls For Contract Upholstery Crib 5

Cell Leather
Cell Leather (Photo credit: Filter Forge)

Faux Leather and, indeed, vinyls in general have widely varying compositions. So it is very difficult to generalise about FR treatment.

However, as interior designers know, they are great for contract projects because of the excellent abrasion properties and the excellent ease of ongoing care and maintenance. IE they maintain their appearance relatively easily for extended periods.

Contract projects of course pose flammability requirements for the interior designer to determine and specify.

Typically CRIB5 is required for contract upholstery.

Some faux leathers come pre-treated; perhaps containing silicon/Teflon or other substances within the vinyl that limits or excludes the spread of flame required in a crib 5 test.

However some faux leathers require treating. That’s to be expected to a degree as faux leather is a relatively versatile fabric and can be used for a variety of end uses – but hence the required FR treatment will vary.

We recently treated some black faux leather to pass FR for contract curtains. In that case it was possible to treat the back of the fabric (it had a thin absorbent layer on the back) and that was sufficient to stop the spread of flame.

Another brown faux leather that we make has a speciality foam backing, slightly thicker than normal. Whilst this will take the same kind of chemical as the one for curtains the CRIB5 test has a more tricky flame to deal with. Also of consideration is the adhesive required to fix the backing and vinyl together. This adhesive may not be fire resistant again adding to the difficulty of treatment.

The thicker the backer the more luxurious the feel, perhaps. But the more difficult the treatment can be. Some sort of liner / interliner to the rear may well work to stop the flame spreading in a FR test. However, the thicker the foam backing the further away that interliner might be.

We have some specialist backing layers that themselves once set alight release gases (carbon dioxide) that reduce the spread of flame elsewhere. These backing layers do not noticeably add to the thickness of the faux leather.

 

 

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Silk Velvet – What makes a great upholstery velvet

Decorex Logo
Silk Velvet Upholstery with Fine Italian Silk

Silk Velvet really is one of the great upholstery velvets. It looks great, it feels great and it can be up to the job if your upholstery velvet is chosen wisely.

If your last and only experience of a velvet was sitting on one in the cinema then you really haven’t lived!

Firstly let’s look at silk velvet’s suitability for upholstery. It can have a Martindale Rub Test result of over 20,000 – so it CAN be readily suitable for many upholstery uses.

Composition. Just because it is sold as 100% silk can be misleading and not necessarily relevant. Is this 90% silk velvet better than that 100% silk velvet? You just can’t answer that by simply looking at the composition.

A silk velvet that is sold as being 100% silk may in fact be a 100% silk velvet pile and 100% cotton backcloth. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. If it is the look and feel of the silk that you are looking for then maybe it’s best to just consider the pile (assuming the backcloth is up to the job of course). One of our fine silk velvets has a 100% pile and then a backcloth of silk and cotton – with the cotton being added for strength and the overall silk content being 90%. Compare this to our Italian Silk & Cashmere Velvet which has a 70% silk + 30% cashmere pile.

Next look at the silkiness or the shininess. If you are looking for a silk velvet you will usually want a shine.

Consider too the length of the pile. Again, there is nothing inherently good or bad about a long or short pile. A shorter pile may be more rigid and upright and that could be a characteristic that you are looking for. Alternatively, a longer pile will probably lay better in one direction – and you may well want that characteristic.

The weight of the fabric in grams per metre is often used as a measure of quality. That is not always true and could, for example, easily be distorted by a heavy and poor quality backcloth.

My personal preference would be to get my hand on a sample; feel it and look at it. What I look for and prefer is a slightly more rigid and consistent pile with a very dense weave. I would look carefully at the country of manufacture. I prefer an Italian velvet (mainly because it sounds better!) but if not Italian then I would certainly only consider a velvet produced in mainland western Europe. But don’t copy me, have the confidence to choose what you like – you are going to have to live with it. I would now choose my upholsterer carefully; many years ago a velvet-covered chair came back for me from a local upholsterer and the pile was not running in a consistent direction…it didn’t look great (read ‘awful’). So don’t, like me, assume that all upholsters know what they are doing with velvets, they patently don’t all know. I would then read our guide to upholstering with velvet – a designer’s worksheet and armed with a bit of knowledge quiz your upholsterer carefully.

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Designer Fabrics & Luxury Wallcoverings 2012 – Latest Collections of Faux Leather & Raffia

British Institute of Interior Design

Interior Design 101. Back to basics.

Minimally patterned, plain and simple patterns matter when you choose designer fabrics for your interior design scheme. It’s not just the ‘important’ stuff you have to worry about; it’s all the stuff.

Design after design. Pattern after pattern. Squashed into corners. Covered ceilings. Hung on walls. Something here, something there… OK you might have certain pieces that take centre stage in your grand design but you also have to set the stage with the backdrops, the reflected light, the subtle blend of auxiliary textures.

To a certain degree, if you must, you can compromise on the backdrops. It’s great having a silk panelled wall, relatively inexpensive and good to the touch. Not so good when it fades at differing rates in the exposed sun-lit areas of the room.

So when you choose designer fabrics yes you should be wowed by the colours, designs and textures BUT you should also be wowed and interested in the technical properties. Your clients might initially thank you for a great looking job. They won’t thank you if it starts to fall apart. they may well have already paid you at that point (so you’re OK right?) but will you then get recommended to their friends…probably not. It is so, so easy to make this kind of mistake.

So try faux silk rather than silk. It looks and feels pretty much the same but can be excellent in terms of non-fading.

So try faux leather. A wide variety of finishes and qualities are available and many are great for wall covering (!) as well as upholstery. Great to cover chairs or a bar in a restaurant but also in your kitchen as they can relatively easily be cared for and cleaned. If you love leather you might find that your upholsterer might not love that choice as you are working with hides of varying sizes, whereas with faux leather you are working with a fabric available by the metre.

Click for faux leather or faux silk designer fabric samples.

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Faux Leather in Blue

Fine Faux Leather is available from KOTHEA in several collections reflecting varying degrees of technical properties such as thickness, flame retardancy and abrasion resistance (Martindale, Wyzenbeek). Our collections are typically used for contract applications in the hospitality and marine industries.

Here are  some of the blue colourways that are available, click an image to view a slideshow

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A Chat With Verity du Sautoy – Her Thoughts On Winter Fabrics

Luxury Silk velvet From KOTHEA
Truly beautiful Cashmere Silk Velvet by KOTHEA

KOTHEA Fabric Picks For A Chilly Winter’s Day
With Verity du Sautoy of KOTHEA.

We love the seasons. All have their beauties and all have touched our senses in memorable ways over the years. Winter is no exception: lower, more balanced light; quietness and chaos with both the shopping and the weather; festive celebrations; the cuddle of a loved one; the hope and expectation of early spring flowers grasping for rare and tiny glimmers of light; and, perhaps, the welcomed warmth of a beautiful fabric.

Some of my best memories are centred on family: a warm fire; a little baby; or a bouncing toddler. Then an old children’s classic on the iPlayer watched on my Mac as it balances precariously on an elegant coffee table. I stroke my children’s hair with one hand and rest my other hand on my sofa. A generous cushion is warm, encapsulating and a bit of fun for the little ones to hide under. The curtains are not yet fully drawn but they smooth the boundary to the cold outside and give us tantalising glimpses of the world beyond – should we venture too close to the sheers that offer the final, soft protection from the elements.

Dominika B Tana Lawn

I work for a fabric company. I love fabric. I can’t pretend that it (fabric) is a be-all and end-all to life and that somehow it will make your life complete. It can’t. But what it clearly can do is complete the sensory experiences in the parts of life that, if you choose, you have control over…the parts of your home. Memories are not just photo-like snapshots in your brain; they are stored, multi-sensory splashes of emotion.

Here are my Winter picks. They are actual ‘picks’ that I’ve recently purchased or are about to purchase.

Take my sofa as an example. My sofa isn’t Continue reading “A Chat With Verity du Sautoy – Her Thoughts On Winter Fabrics”

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Wyzenbeek – Martindale – Abrasion Testing

If you were given one pound for every time an interior designer asks which upholstery fabric is most durable, you would retire quickly. The answer is more complicated than a single test result can convey, and understanding why is useful when specifying fabric for a client.

What Abrasion Tests Actually Measure

Martindale and Wyzenbeek are abrasion tests. They measure one specific property: how many times a fabric can be rubbed against a standard surface before showing visible wear. They do not measure fibre strength, yarn construction, weave complexity, resistance to soiling, light fastness, or how well the fabric performs when cleaned. All of these variables also affect how long an upholstery fabric lasts in use.

There is a close relationship between fibre strength and yarn strength. Yarns are twisted to add strength, and a tighter twist generally produces a stronger yarn. This is measured in twists per inch or per metre. Tightly twisted yarns tend to be smooth and dense. Weave design adds another layer of complexity. The same fibre in different weave constructions can produce very different abrasion results. A fabric’s rub count is the outcome of fibre, yarn, and weave working together, which is why a single figure cannot tell the whole story.

The Two Tests

Martindale is the standard used in the UK and Europe. Wyzenbeek is the standard used in the United States. The two tests use different motions, different abradants, and different specimen orientations. There is no reliable correlation between them, and a result on one test cannot be used to predict a result on the other.

With Wyzenbeek, tested to ASTM D4157, a piece of cotton duck fabric or wire mesh is rubbed in a straight back-and-forth motion across the fabric until noticeable wear or thread break occurs. Each back-and-forth motion is one double rub.

With Martindale, tested to BS EN ISO 12947, the abradant is worsted wool or wire mesh and the fabric specimen is circular. The rubbing follows a Lissajous figure-of-eight pattern rather than a straight line. Each complete figure of eight is one cycle.

Specification Thresholds

The following figures represent standard guidance for specifying by application. For heavy duty contract use, the recommended minimum is 30,000 Wyzenbeek double rubs or 40,000 Martindale cycles. For general contract use the minimum is 15,000 Wyzenbeek double rubs or 20,000 Martindale cycles. For heavy domestic use the minimum is typically 15,000 Martindale cycles. For general domestic use, 15,000 to 25,000 Martindale cycles covers most applications. For light domestic or occasional use, 10,000 to 15,000 Martindale cycles is generally acceptable.

At results above 100,000, the practical difference in longevity becomes less meaningful for most residential applications. The cleaning and maintenance regime applied to a fabric will have more influence on its service life than the difference between a 100,000 and a 200,000 rub count.

On the Validity of Test Results

Some commentators question the reliability of abrasion test results. In the UK, test houses are independent and operate under British Standards monitoring. No individual fabric company is large enough to influence results, and it is in no supplier’s interest to undermine the authority of the independent bodies that regulate the industry. UK Martindale figures can generally be taken at face value when supplied with a third party test certificate from an accredited laboratory.

For the full technical methodology of the Martindale test, rub count classifications by application, and a detailed Martindale versus Wyzenbeek comparison, see: The Martindale Rub Test: A Complete Guide for Interior Designers and Specifiers.

For a direct side-by-side comparison of the two test methods, see: Martindale vs Wyzenbeek: Rub Test by Abrasion Explained.

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Raffia Wallcovering

Tatami Wallcovering And Upholstery Fabric TextileRaffia adds texture as a wallcovering. As a natural product it has many benefits for the interior designer including a degree of thermal insulation and the ability to be adhered directly to wall surfaces or fastened to wall surfaces or ceiling when wrapped around wooden panels.

With Wyzenbeek rubs of 40,000 KOTHEA’s 2011 Raffia (Raphia) are also eminently suitable for a wide range of upholstery uses.

Raffias can usually be fire treated to meet a wide range of contract requirements including hotels and marine installations.

This type of raffia weave has been used for thousands of years perhaps most famously as Japanese Tatami mats. They are of course one of today’s modern day design staples for a clean, modern look.

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Contract Upholstery Fabric – How to Specify It

For a comprehensive guide to specifying fabric for hotel and hospitality projects, including Martindale thresholds by room type, BS 7176 fire certification, cleaning regime compatibility, and dye lot strategy, see: How to Specify Fabric for Hotel and Hospitality Projects.

A quick guide to specifying contract upholstery fabrics. The main areas to consider are as follows.

1. Determine Use

Is it panelling or seating? For seating you will need to consider flammability (cigarette, match, and Crib 5) and abrasion (Martindale).

2. Fabric Composition

The composition of the fabric including the yarn and weave will affect long-term wear, appearance, and technical performance. Natural fabrics such as wool can be more expensive but generally offer good handle and technical characteristics including natural flame retardancy. Man-made fabrics are usually easier to maintain but require careful selection to achieve the right aesthetic.

3. Flammability

The standard for contract seating acceptable throughout the EU is EN 1021 Parts 1 and 2 (cigarette and match). Higher-level standards in the UK are BS 5852 Crib 5 and BS 7176. The standard for vertical surface fabrics is BS 476 Part 7. For a full explanation see our complete guide to BS 5852 Crib 5.

4. Abrasion

Check the Martindale rub count for the fabric. For contract seating in hotels, restaurants, and offices, a minimum of 40,000 Martindale rubs is the standard threshold.

5. Environmental Considerations

Natural fibres such as wool generally have better environmental credentials than synthetic alternatives. Nylon in particular has a high environmental impact.

6. Care and Maintenance

Contract fabrics typically deteriorate from dirt accumulation rather than abrasion. Follow the manufacturer’s cleaning instructions. Remove stains promptly and vacuum regularly.

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