Short answer
A tightly woven or coated fabric that wipes clean and is rated for heavy wear; which one is best depends on who sits at your table.
A household with young children needs a surface that does not absorb spills. A household with a dog or a cat needs a fabric that resists claws and lets hair brush off. A couple who host long dinners may put softness first.
All three of the fabrics we use are made for daily dining. The difference between them is the kind of life each one handles best. If you are still choosing between fabric and wood, start with wood vs upholstered dining chairs.
Vegan leather is the hardest-wearing and easiest to clean, velvet the softest, and bouclé the most textured and the best with pets.
The Martindale figure is the number of rub cycles each fabric survived in the standard abrasion test; the chart below gives it for each of our fabrics, with how to clean it and what it suits best.
| Fabric | Martindale | Cleaning | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valencia vegan leather | 300,000 | Wipes clean with mild soap; easy-clean finish | Children and daily spills |
| Matteo velvet | 130,000 | Water-repellent; blot spills quickly | Softness through long dinners |
| Dolly bouclé | 50,000 | Blot spills; do not scrub the loops | Pets and texture |
Vegan leather: it wipes clean with a damp cloth and mild soap and does not absorb spills.
A coated surface gives a spill nowhere to go, so yoghurt, juice and sauce come off in one wipe, even after they have dried.
Our Valencia vegan leather, from Spradling, is rated at 300,000 Martindale, around ten times what commercial furniture requires. It carries the PERMABLOK3 protective finish and a 5-year fabric warranty from the maker, and it comes on Isabell, Bella and Sella. Our guide to cleaning upholstered dining chairs has the routine for every fabric.
A bouclé tested for claws, or a smooth vegan leather that pet hair wipes straight off.
Claws catch on fabrics with long, loose loops and pull the threads. A bouclé built for pets has short, dense loops and is tested for it.
Our Dolly bouclé is claw-safe tested to BS 8479, the British standard for resistance to pet claws, and is OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified. It comes in Black, Ivory and Greige on Isabell, Bella, Karin and Erik. On the oak chairs, the frame itself is hard oak under lacquer, which stands up well to paws.
Karin Dining ChairGreige bouclé · claw-safe · from €479View Karin
It is the number of rub cycles a fabric survives in a standard abrasion test before it shows wear; the higher the number, the harder-wearing the fabric.
In the test, a disc of fabric is rubbed against a standard abrasive in a figure-of-eight pattern until threads break or the surface wears through. The count at that point is the rating.
Commercial furniture is expected to reach about 30,000 cycles. Our Dolly bouclé is rated at 50,000, our Matteo velvet at 130,000 and our Valencia vegan leather at 300,000, so every one of them is built for restaurant-level wear in a home.
Yes, if it is a performance velvet: a polyester velvet with a water-repellent finish handles dining-room life far better than an untreated natural velvet.
The water-repellent finish makes a spill bead on the surface for a moment, long enough to blot it with a dry cloth before it soaks in.
Our Matteo velvet is 100% polyester, rated at 130,000 Martindale, water-repellent and OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified. It comes on Bella, Isabell and Sella, and the pile catches the light differently through the day. Order fabric samples to see and feel every fabric and colour at home before you choose.
Isabell Dining ChairFrom €409Vegan leather · 300,000 Martindale
Bella Dining ChairFrom €409Velvet · water-repellent
Isabell Dining ChairFrom €409Bouclé · claw-safe tested
Erik Dining ChairFrom €499Oak and bouclé
