Textile industry professionals must stay aware of trends that will define popular upholstery fabrics and materials during the coming months. What do customers want most and why?
1. Fabrics that withstand everyday life
Many people want upholstered products that will keep looking great during daily use without requiring special cleaning products or devices and ongoing effort. Upholstery manufacturers have listened to feedback and created numerous high-quality options featuring excellent durability and plenty of style.
Ashley Furniture recently debuted a new furniture collection featuring high-performance fabric. The thoughtfully engineered material does not fade when lightly rubbed for cleaning, and it resists liquid absorption or particle adherence that could lead to permanent marks caused by spills or other accidents. An executive explained that the company’s internal market research data indicated customers want long-lasting, easy-to-maintain options that resist stains.
Similarly, as customers determine their preferences for 2024, many want materials that emphasize worry-free style. Interior designer Timothy Corrigan serves many high-end clients through his work. He said they often ask him for options that will not require them to change how they live in their homes. Corrigan responds by suggesting fabrics that will not get permanently marked by water or heat-related accidents.
He also cautioned against automatically assuming all high-performance offerings have such characteristics, bringing up how he recently saw one such material categorized that way that required dry cleaning.
It is easy to understand why the most popular upholstery fabrics are often those that provide hassle-free maintenance and will continue looking beautiful for years. Providing lifestyle-matched products also requires catering to customers with health concerns, such as asthma. One example comes from two companies collaborating to develop a textile coating that reduces people’s exposure to dust mites and pet hair. The involved parties also planned to create upholstered furniture with the coating already applied to the fabric.
2. Customized options
Inflation and rising steel prices have made the furniture market less attractive and costlier to people interested in new pieces. Some customers are making the best of the situation by opting for customized upholstering to give their pieces a new look without buying new items.
Alex Bass is an interior design professional who anticipates people will use customized upholstery to refresh old ottomans or pillows, particularly if they want to experiment with bold prints or options that add memorable colors and textures.
Custom upholstery also aligns with color drenching, a broader design trend where people paint everything in a room — from the ceilings to the radiators — the same hue. Clients might select their favorite shade for the space and then buy custom-dyed fabric to cover the couches, armchairs and other soft furnishings. Industrial equipment used to color the material often features real-time control capabilities and proprietary software to meet specific needs and increase productivity.
Textile manufacturers can take advantage of this trend by staying updated about popular upholstery fabrics and the colors people demand most often. Setting clients’ expectations about costs and the time required to achieve a custom hue is a practical way to earn repeat business.
3. Sustainable choices
Furniture shoppers are increasingly interested in eco-friendly fabrics and materials for upholstered pieces. Consider a sofa made from the cork of recycled wine stoppers. Its upholstery features natural wool and hemp. Designers were eager to offer a product that upheld the circular economy rather than contradicting it.
Then, a creative proof-of-concept example came from Mexico, where a shop and gallery space featured upholstery made from reclaimed plastic. The material came from banana plantations, where growers used it as a crop protectant.
In May 2024, Duvaltex — which offers office furniture textiles — expanded its sustainable fabric collection by introducing three new biodegradable choices. Internal tests indicated the material would break down in less than four years, making it a conscious option for people interested in greener products.
These possibilities show how manufacturers may choose to reflect improved sustainability in popular upholstery fabrics. Many people want to consider the long-term implications of what they purchase and will prefer to minimize their environmental impacts whenever possible.
This emphasis spreads into research, too. For example, researchers developed a new textile coating that does not contain the substances commonly called “forever chemicals” because of how long they stay in the body and environment.
Tests showed the new coating performed even better than conventionally coated fabrics by absorbing less water and drying faster. The group believed their innovation could produce water-repellent upholstery fabrics, among other improved materials.
The characteristics defining popular upholstery fabrics
These are some of the things customers want most when shopping for upholstery. Manufacturers interested in embracing these trends should put themselves in the positions of typical buyers, using that perspective to shape which colors, features, textures and other aspects are reflected in their product lines. Such consumer-centered mindsets will keep textile companies profitable and responsive to commercial demands.
Focusing on broader perks, such as sustainability and high-performance materials will also protect textile brands from the risky approach of capitalizing on colors or other identifying factors that could go out of style.
