Performance fabrics are a class of manmade textile with incredible durability, colorfastness, and resistance to spills, stains and odors. For anyone with children, pets, or even a taste for red wine, performance fabric upholstery is virtually essential. It frees you to opt for any color of sofa, even white, knowing that it will continue to look fresh for years. Among the very best performance fabric brands are:
Crypton
A heavy duty fabric that looks and feels like a luxury textile, CryptonⓇ has a remarkably soft and natural hand, yet is spill-proof; liquids bead on its surface and simply roll off. It’s also resistant to microbes, stains, fungus, abrasions, odors, and flames, so even the most careless owner will enjoy years of use. Available in over 2,000 colors and patterns, Crypton’s indoor line, Crypton HomeⓇ, can be cleaned with just water and laundry detergent.
Sunbrella
The original outdoor performance fabric, SunbrellaⓇ offers great colorfastness, thanks to a process that adds UV resistant pigment to the fibers prior to extrusion so it’s deeply embedded. Designed to look and feel like cotton, it offers you the option to furnish your patio for summer as if it were another room in your house. Separate indoor and outdoor ranges include hundreds of options in upholstery, drapery and accessory fabrics.
Ultrasuede
A similarly priced alternative to good leather, UltrasuedeⓇ is just as durable but softer to the touch and available in a wider range of colors — 97 in all! Its color fastness, air permeability (which prevents odors and mildew from becoming trapped), tensile strength, and abrasion endurance make it extremely long lasting, while its microfiber composition makes it highly drapable. Like Crypton Home, Ultrasuede is recommended for indoor use.
The ease of living with durable, easy-to-clean soft furnishings is well worth the small extra expense. Discover the diversity of performance fabrics for yourself at the Sklar Furnishings showroom; we have an array of beautiful samples and furniture made up in Crypton, Sunbrella and Ultrasuede, ready for you to see and feel for yourself.
