Talk to me about sofas, please, especially velvet sofas

[MyBuggyIsOutToGetMe]

We are about to bite the bullet and replace our sofa and armchair at last. I thought I knew what I wanted (dark blue) and am now having a wobble, based on whether I want to pay more for chenille over velvet, whether linen would feel rough, and whether dark blue would be a good option….

The plan is pink-ish walls (something like Farrow and Ball’s Setting Plaster) and a dark blue sofa and armchair. I’m now concerned these will be too dark, and that a dark blue velvet sofa would be a nightmare to keep clean (DH wants velvet and didn’t like the feel of linen). I originally wanted a paler blue sofa but was worried about stains and spills. We have 2 DC (3 and 7) and a cat.

If you have a velvet sofa, would you recommend it and is it high-maintenance?

And what would you say is the most practical colour for a sofa? We currently have mocha chenille, which is nicely neutral and bombproof but I want a change.

I have a 'clever velvet' midnight blue sofa from Loaf and it is very easy to keep clean, even with messy DC. I love it

I have a purple velvet sofology sofa - love it. It cleans well - I am careful, but have pets who love it too, lol

I have the Joules velvet navy sofas and cuddle chair from DFS and it's divine. My cats have never ever scratched it - they shredded our last linen style sofa. I have removed all sorts from it using baby wipes and it's perfect - including cat sick! I will say it needs hoovering regularly, but looks brand new each time

My friend has a navy blue velvet sofa from DFS - she got it before having children and once pregnant she was worried that it wouldn't be practical - but her daughter is now 2 and apparently sofa is easy to clean (I think it's treated with a stain guard). No stains/marks on it at all.

It's probably not something that's easy to judge by other people's experience as it'll be so dependent on the individual fabrics.

I'm getting a sofa recovered, and the upholsterer explained that each fabric has a rub value- the higher the number, the more hard wearing it is. John Lewis had the rub values on their sampes in store- retailers may well be able to tell you what it is. It'll also depend on what it's made from- i.e. real linen will be much less hard wearing than a linen look-a-like with a high man made fibre content (which may also be softer). You'd hope that a £6k sofa may have a better quality fabric than a £200 one, which will make a big difference in how it wears.

I've also seen (am also looking at new sofas) different promises about sofa fabrics- swyft have videos of liquids being poured on their fabrics just being wiped off. Some places (I.e. DFS) charge extra for protective coatings. I'd guess these coatings may differ in how they last, but it's another thing that might make experience of a specific fabric type quite variable.

Your plans sound lovely though... also looking at a blue velvety sofa here so I may be a bit biased!!

I have two velvet sofas and one chenille one. The velvet onbes are way easier to clean. Cat hair and crumbs get stuck in the chenille grooves, so you have to hoover or use a lint roller, both of which damage the fabric. With the velvet ones, it just brushes off easily.

I have a dark blue velvet sofa from Made. It’s been brilliant, still looks new nearly 2 years on. Go for it.

I have a modular Swyft Model 06 in Linen, it’s a 3 seater left hand corner in Pumice, at Christmas it easily sat 5 adults on it. It has a high back, so is a very comfortable flop and drop sofa. The 3 seater can comfortably fit two people flat out from each end. As it’s modular, I left the corner unattached, so now have a very large pouffe too. The linen doesn’t feel rough.

Rather than spray the fabric, each individual thread has been anti stain treated.
Room walls are painted with Little Greene Roman Plaster, which compliments the pumice colour really well.

I have a teal velvet sofa from James & Rose - they have access to a huge range if fabrics. It still looks great after 5 years and we have no complaints. It does hang on to a fair bit of cat hair but it hoovers off easily enough.

We have a 'cheap' mustard velvet sofa in our open plan kitchen. The dog jumps on it with muddy feet, chews her bines on it etc. It's been an absolute dream to keep clean. Mud brushes off once dried, it hoovers well and we use the car spot cleaner on it once a month to spruce it up. So much easier than any of our regular fabric sofas. We haven't (so far, thankfully) poured wine or anything on it so I can't comment on real colour stains.

We have a very dark purple velvet sofa and two armchairs, bought from Barker and Stonehouse 11 years ago, almost like new. We have 2 dogs and 1 DC who is now an adult but wasn't when we bought them, I'd definitely recommend velvet for being easy to keep clean as well as being hard wearing

I’m following for any cat insight and overall durability. I’ve read cats don’t like to scratch velvet upholstered furniture. Our cat is slowly shredding our two linen style sofas and a set of felted wool-covered dining chairs. 😩 I was interested to see PickledWilly’s anecdote.

We have one cat who is a dickhead and scratches where he shouldn’t, usually the dining table legs and upholstered dining chairs. He hasn’t touched the sofa.

We have the Patterdale velvet sofa in navy from dfs and we love it. We did buy the stain guard at the same time and it's been great at getting rid of any stains I've come across.

Dark blue grey velvet sofa here. One long haired cat. He doesn’t touch it. Cat hair easy to wipe off and hoover once a week. It still looks immaculate. We did pay for the harder wearing velvet. Friends toddler rubbed half eaten cheddar in to it at one point and it came right out.

Thanks everyone! This is sounding very promising indeed…. I was fully expecting everyone to tell me to steer clear of dark velvet. Sounds like it might not be as high maintenance as I thought. The sofa in question is Willow and Hall, as we need a very good quality sofa bed rather than a simple sofa. Their rub count for the house velvet is high, and it would save over £400 to go for that rather than chenille.

I really want a pale/mid blue velvet Loaf sofa but we are not quite on a Loaf budget at the moment. Very excited for the samples arriving though!

I have this blue velvet sofa. It's in the kitchen, and I have 2 small boys, so there's much opportunity for it to get dirty. It honestly cleans brilliantly. Still looks new 2 years on.

In the trade. All fabrics have a Martindale test, and we only use fabrics that have one over 30k as anything less will wear through on arms/high use areas. A lot of modern upholstery fabrics are now stain resistant or are "Fibreguard" treated, and the yarn is treated as opposed to a topical application like stain guard when made so it lasts the lifetime.

Our best seller is Linwood Omega Velvet... incredibly hard wearing, and wipes clean with a damp cloth. The only downside is that most of these fabrics are polyester based as opposed to natural like cotton or linen.

@Oliack1417 , that’s lovely! Where is it from? It’s more or less the exact shade of blue I had in mind.

I have a similar style to @Oliack1417 from Ikea (sorry they've discontinued it now!) and it's super duper easy to clean. Literally a damp cloth gets everything off. Including dried on Christmas chocolate <le sigh>

Ours is 2 years old and looks new when just wiped

@MyBuggyIsOutToGetMe have you used the # for the paint you want on Instagram? Try that, because you'll probably find loads of people have the same colour scheme you're thinking of.

Hi! It was from John Lewis, it's the lake blue. It's a really lively colour, darker than it looks in line, but not too dark and a nice 'cool' blue.

How do you clean your velvet sofas? I have a grey one from John Lewis and the dog’s nose has left spots all over it.

@LadyLyndon I just use a damp cloth. I have used a tiny bit of washing up liquid on very persistent stains but you probably want to test that on an inconspicuous area first. And use the tiniest bit imaginable unless you want to be mopping up bubbles for ages!

Can anyone recommend a soda company with fast delivery?

I have an ottoman with fixed upholstery in the Linwood Omega Velvet mentioned above, OP. It's beautiful, super luxurious and v easy to keep clean. Huge range of colours too.