Upholstery fabric is the one place where a buyer is choosing between constructions rather than colours, and the list of names in the trade is long enough to hide the fact that most of them come down to three questions: how is the cloth made, what is the surface like, and how much use does it have to take. Get those three right and the fabric name follows.
This guide sets out the upholstery fabric types the trade actually groups - woven flat and woven textured, brushed, embossed, printed, coated, pile, knit, and the natural-fibre route - with what each one is bought for and what to write on the order. It is written by a weaving mill, and it is explicit about the boundary of what this mill makes, because that boundary is the useful part of the answer for anyone reading it.
The upholstery fabric types and what each one is for
| Type | What it is | What it is bought for | What to specify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain-weave polyester | A flat, plain-woven cloth with a matte surface and a stable hand | Covers, slipcovers, box cushions, decorative panels, and the base for anything that gets a finish applied | Weight (GSM), finished width, composition, abrasion rating, colour fastness |
| Twill polyester | A diagonal weave, softer in drape and harder-wearing than a plain weave | Seat and back faces, cushions, and any face where drape and wear pull in the same direction | Weight, weave, yarn count, abrasion rating, seam slippage |
| Brushed polyester | Peachskin or microfiber, sanded so the surface reads as suede rather than as a woven cloth | Headboards, accent seating, soft furnishing faces where touch decides the sale | Yarn denier, brushing route, weight, pilling grade, colour fastness |
| Embossed polyester | A three-dimensional relief pressed into the surface with heated engraved rollers, not a printed repeat | Decorative panels, headboards, and design-led upholstery where texture carries the story | Motif, embossed or printed, weight, repeat size, colour fastness |
| Printed polyester | Rotary screen or digital print applied to a greige base | Collection-led upholstery, one-off designs, and short programmes | Print method, colour count, fastness grade, panel-to-panel shade match |
| Stain-resistant polyester | Base cloth carrying a C6 fluorochemical finish for water, oil and household-mark resistance | Covers, slipcovers, and family-room seating where spill resistance is the selling point | Finish type, wash durability, number of washes tested, stain classes covered |
| Coated polyester | A backing or face with a coating layer, for opacity and liquid resistance | Contract and medical-adjacent upholstery, and blackout drapery | Coating type, coated or laminated, backing weight, blocking spec, cleanability |
| Pile and cut-pile upholstery | Velvet, corduroy and the other yarn-pile constructions, where the depth of the pile is the surface | Premium seating and headboards where lustre and depth are the point | Pile height, pile fibre, backing, abrasion rating, crush or shading behaviour |
| Knit upholstery | A knitted stretch construction, usually with an elastane or spandex component | Fitted covers, seat pads, and anything that has to stretch over a frame | Stretch percentage, recovery, backing, wash and abrasion rating |
| Non-woven and bonded upholstery | Fibre or foam bonded into a sheet, with no drape at all | Low-cost, high-volume covers where drape does not matter | Weight, bonding, surface, backing, fire rating |
| Natural-fibre upholstery | Cotton, linen and wool faces, and the polyester stand-ins for them | Heritage interiors, breathable seating, and programmes with a natural-fibre brief | Fibre and blend, weight, finish, and the honest polyester substitute if the programme is price-led |
| Heavy seating body cloth | Dense contract-grade seating fabric well above the light decorative weight range | Structural seating and contract furniture | Weight, backing, fire rating, seam construction, shrinkage - and a supplier who makes that weight, not a lighter one |
Which of these this mill weaves
The honest version of that table is narrower than the table, and saying so is the point. This mill weaves 100% polyester and nothing else, on 650+ waterjet looms, with daily output above 200,000 meters. Within upholstery, that means:
- Woven flat, in plain and twill. Greige from 55–120 GSM, 160–330 cm wide, finished to 150–315 cm and 60–140 g/m². This is the base cloth for every finished upholstery route.
- Brushed routes - peachskin and microfiber - for soft faces and headboards.
- Embossing, geometric and floral, at 5,000 meters per specification.
- Rotary and digital print, with digital keeping no printing minimum when the design is still moving.
- C6 stain resistance with 30+ wash durability, at 5,000 meters per colour and specification, with multiple finishes stackable on the same base.
- GRS and OEKO-TEX documentation where the market asks for it.
And these it does not weave: pile and cut-pile, knit, non-woven, natural fibres, and heavy seating body cloth. For a pile requirement the honest polyester answer is a different construction - dobby texture or brushed microfiber - rather than the same fibre in another colour, and the velvet alternative page sets out that reasoning in full. For a weight above our finished range, the right answer is a mill that weaves that weight.
Two routes carry the detail and have their own pages: stain-resistant upholstery covers what C6 chemistry does and does not promise, and embossing patterns covers what a pressed relief can and cannot replace.
How to write the PO line
An upholstery order that names the type, the weight, the finish stack and the quantity can be quoted against a sample without a second round trip:
- Type and construction. "Brushed polyester" and "plain weave with an emboss" are different products that happen to share a weight band.
- Finished weight and width. Two numbers, and they decide the loom, the yarn and the price.
- The finish stack, in order. Stain resistance, emboss and print are three separate routes with three separate floors, and they stack - a programme with a treatment and an emboss is quoted at the higher relevant floor.
- Performance. Abrasion resistance and pilling are separate tests, and colour fastness is a third. A line that names one of them is naming a test, not a fabric.
- Quantity and programme intent. 5,000 meters per colour and specification for woven and treated routes, with the floors in the MOQ guide and digital print as the exception.
If the programme repeats a construction that has already run, quote the construction code rather than the description. If it is new, approve a treated sample against the care the end customer will actually apply, because the finish changes the hand, and the hand is what a cover is judged on after it is installed.
Where to go deeper on each type
The upholstery fabric landing page sets out our programme and the commercial terms. For the tests and the vocabulary, the polyester fabric types guide covers the wider construction catalogue, what durable fabric actually means separates the five tests that do not agree with each other, functional fabric treatments covers the finish routes, and peachskin against microfiber and plain against twill settle the two construction questions that come up most.