How to Clean Fabric Sofas
Picture the scene; it’s delivery day and your beautiful new, mark free and perfectly clean fabric sofa has just been delivered. To celebrate, you crack open a bottle of red and take to your beautiful British sofa for an evening of serious sofa slouching. Before you know it, the whole family join you, including the dog, and a brood of small children. Can you imagine what’s going to happen next?
Hello hellish red wine spills on sofas, watch as spaghetti splatters and removing chocolate from fabric is notoriously difficult. Never fear though, you won’t have to start your sofa shopping all over again. We have a few tips and tricks on how to clean your fabric sofa, it’ll look as good as new in no time.
Choosing an Upholstery Fabric
By taking your time and discussing the options thoroughly with our expert Design Consultants, you could choose a fabric sofa that is low-maintenance from the outset. We would recommend treated stain-resistant velvets, like our Portland or Rockall range or a fabric that is naturally stain resistant like a wonderful wool. Order your free fabric samples online and put them through your paces at home to avoid an emergency need to clean fabric sofas.
Washing Sofa Covers
In our opinion, this is an arena fraught with danger. Shrinkage, fading and fraying are but a few of the horror stories we have heard following a fabric sofa covers quick dip. Washing machines are notoriously unreliable and the temperature you think you are washing at can easily be 10 degrees hotter, leading to inevitably smaller, yet clean sofa covers. Another risk is uneven fading. Unless you can take off all loose covers, washing just the seat and back cushions could lead to them being a lighter shade than the sofa frame; a bit of a style disaster! A far safer and easier option would be to as a professional upholstery cleaner to come and clean your sofa at home, saving your fabric sofa covers as well as the hard work. Your nearest showroom should be able to recommend an upholstery cleaner nearby.
Natural Fabric Cleaners
Inevitably, the first thing you’ll do when you need to clean your sofa fabric is take to good old google for some speedy results. Our opinion would always be to seek the advice of a professional and not to mix up some hocus pocus remedy to remove red wine from your fabric sofa or get chocolate out of your couch covers. These solutions often claim to be natural but can cause some serious staining or uneven marking, making what could have been an easy fix into a sofa stain nightmare!
Our in-store expert Design Consultants will often be able to put you in touch with your specific fabric manufacturer who can give you advice tailored to your exact needs.
General Sofa Maintenance
Don’t forget that it’s not all about those emergency moments. Sofas need care and attention and a little love on a daily basis. For more information on how to keep your sofa looking super, have a read of our How to Look After Your Sofa blog.
If you’ve got any tips and tricks to make sofa care easier, we would love to hear from you. Pop a message on our Facebook wall or send us something on Twitter.