Guide · upholstery in Melbourne
An Australian upholstery spec sheet has six lines that matter: rub count, pilling (1 to 5), lightfastness (1 to 8), cleaning code (W, S, WS or X), pattern direction and repeat, and backing with weight and fire certificates. Most buyers read only the rub count. On the bench in our Eltham North workshop, pilling and lightfastness predict how a fabric looks in two years far better than rubs do.
Last updated: October 2026
Get a free quoteCall 0425 832 619We read a spec sheet in this order: pilling, lightfastness, cleaning code, backing, repeat, and rub count last. Rub count: 25,000 Martindale is our minimum for a family lounge, 30,000 and up with large dogs, and the fabric guide covers it. The other five predict how the fabric will look and clean, not how long before it wears through.
| Line on the sheet | Scale | What we want for a family lounge | What it predicts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pilling resistance | 1 to 5 | 4 or better | Whether the seats fuzz |
| Lightfastness | 1 to 8 (blue wool) | 5, or 6 with north or west glass | Whether the window-side arm fades |
| Cleaning code | W, S, WS, X | W or WS | Whether a spill can be cleaned |
| Backing and weight | Coated, knit or none; gsm | Backed, 350 gsm or more | Seam slippage, fraying, stretch over foam |
| Pattern direction and repeat | Up the roll or railroaded; direct or half-drop | Depends on the piece | Metres bought and where the seams land |
| Rub count | Martindale cycles | 25,000 minimum, 30,000+ with large dogs | When the weave wears through |
A fabric rarely wears through. It pills, it fades, or it stains, and the sheet tells you which one it will do first. When we open a 10-year-old lounge the weave is nearly always intact; what sent it to us was fuzzed seats or a colour shift.
Pilling is scored 1 to 5: 5 means no pills, 1 means a fully fuzzed surface. Ask for 4 or better on any seat, accept 3 on a bed head or outside back, and walk away from anything under 3. A 100,000-rub fabric with a pilling score of 2 will look tired before a 25,000-rub fabric with a 4.
A pill is a loose fibre end that works to the surface, rolls into a ball and is held there by the strongest fibres in the yarn, which is why blends, acrylics, loose chenilles and bouclés pill worst. The cloth under a pill is not worn, which is why a shaver tidies it and the fuzz is back in a month.
Retailers call pilling "a natural characteristic", and they are half right: it is not a defect, it is a property you could have read off the sheet. In our Eltham North workshop we strip three-year-old lounge suites in a 3-rated wool blend where the seat cushions look a decade older than the backs they were cut from. On the label, "4-5" is a pass, and no pilling line at all usually means the number was not worth printing. Pills are the fabric telling you its yarn was spun loose.
Lightfastness is scored 1 to 8 on the blue wool scale, and each step roughly doubles the light the fabric takes before a visible colour shift. Five is the floor for any lounge room, 6 for a room with north or west glass, 7 for outdoor cushions. A 4 in a north-facing Melbourne window will shift within one summer.
The test is ISO 105-B02. A lounge from a north-facing room in Ivanhoe or Eltham comes in with the arm nearest the window two shades lighter than the arm behind the door. Fibre decides most of it: solution-dyed acrylics and polyesters sit at 7 to 8; piece-dyed cotton and linen sit at 4 to 5.
Some import sheets quote the American AATCC 16 method in hours, which does not convert to blue wool, so ask for the blue wool number.
The cleaning code tells you what liquid the fabric will tolerate. W is water-based cleaners only, S is solvent (dry) cleaners only, WS is either, and X is vacuum and brush only. For a family lounge we specify W or WS. An S-coded fabric on a seat with children is a mistake you discover at the first spilled juice.
| Code | What you may use | Typical fabrics | Our view for seating |
|---|---|---|---|
| W | Water-based cleaner or low-moisture extraction | Polyester, microfibre, solution-dyed acrylics, vinyl | Best for family and venue seating |
| S | Solvent or dry-cleaning product only, no water | Many velvets, viscose blends, some linens and wools | Fine on a feature chair, risky on the main lounge |
| WS | Either water-based or solvent, spot-tested first | Many blends and performance fabrics | Good all-rounder |
| X | Vacuum and soft brush only | Loose weaves, heavily textured cloths | A show piece, not a seat |
The code is about the backing as much as the face: water cleans a W fabric and lifts an S fabric off its latex or acrylic backing. The S-coded velvets that come across our Eltham North bench show the same two marks: a dinner-plate tide ring where a wet cloth went on a spill, and a bubble beside it where the backing lifted and the pile leans the wrong way. Steam is not a code: even on a W fabric it drives water into the foam and softens the glue line. Australian houses that write "professional dry clean only" mean S.
Martindale (ISO 12947-2) rubs a wool abradant over the fabric in a figure-of-eight and counts cycles; Wyzenbeek (ASTM D4157) drags cotton duck or wire mesh straight back and forth and counts double rubs. Nothing lines up, so no formula converts one to the other.
| Martindale | Wyzenbeek | |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | ISO 12947-2 | ASTM D4157 |
| Motion | Figure-of-eight, all directions | Straight back and forth, one direction |
| Where quoted | Australia, UK, Europe | United States and US-sourced imports |
| Family lounge benchmark | 25,000 cycles minimum, 30,000+ with large dogs | US houses typically quote 30,000 double rubs and up for residential |
The imported sheets customers bring into our Eltham North workshop usually show a round 50,000 double rubs and no Martindale line at all. That cloth has not failed anything; it has not been tested the way we read, so we ask for a cycle count. "100,000+" means the lab stopped the machine, not that the fabric failed there. A rub count is a lab's floor, not a lifespan.
Pattern direction and repeat decide how many metres you buy. Railroaded means the pattern runs across the roll, so a long seat can be covered in one unseamed piece. A direct repeat lines up straight across; a half-drop steps the motif down by half the repeat, which on a sofa can add a third to the metreage.
Repeat size is printed in centimetres, along the roll and across it. Every panel must start at the same point in the pattern, so a 64 cm repeat across ten matched panels on a lounge is several metres of fabric that exist only to line the pattern up. A half-drop doubles the working repeat when matching across seams, which is where the extra third comes from: the last 60 cm half-drop we cut for a three-seater in our Eltham North workshop took 16 metres where the same lounge in a plain cloth takes 12. The metreage guide has the numbers by piece. The repeat is the only line on the sheet that costs you metres before we cut a thing.
Upholstery fabric is heavier, carries an acrylic or latex coat or a knit scrim on the back so it will not fray, slip or stretch over foam, and has a Martindale and pilling result. Curtain and dress fabric has none of these. On a seat it stretches, the seams fray, and it is gone within a year.
Upholstery cloth usually runs 350 to 700 gsm against 150 to 300 for curtain cloth, but backing is the line nobody looks for. An acrylic coat stops an open weave slipping at the seams; a knit backing holds a velvet square so it can be pulled tight; an unbacked open weave we advise against for seating. The curtain-weight lounges that come back to our Eltham North bench after a year on a seat all look the same: the front-rail seams stretched open, the cut edges frayed back to the stitch line, and the cloth bagging over the foam. "Suitable for upholstery" on a 280 to 300 cm wide-width curtain cloth is marketing until it comes with a Martindale and a pilling score.
Fire certificates matter on commercial, venue, healthcare and aged-care work, where the spec will ask for an AS/NZS 1530.3 or AS/NZS 3837 result. A residential lounge does not need them. Fire-grade foam is standard on our commercial and venue work and available on any job when specified, and the fire-rated fabric guide walks through it. A fabric sold as contract grade should show all of it together: 40,000 Martindale or more, pilling 4 or better, lightfastness 5 or better, and a fire certificate you can download, not a line that says "FR available".
Good to know
A pilling rating is a 1 to 5 score from the Martindale pilling test (ISO 12945-2), where 5 means no pills formed and 1 means the surface fuzzed and balled completely. Look for 4 or better on any seat or arm, 3 on a bed head or outside back, and avoid anything under 3 for seating. Blends, acrylics, loose chenilles and bouclés score lowest; tight flat weaves and microfibres score highest.
A 5 is the standard floor for a lounge room with ordinary daylight, and a 6, which takes about twice that exposure, is what we specify for north-facing or west-facing glass. Lightfastness is tested against the blue wool scale, 1 to 8, with each step roughly doubling the light exposure before a visible colour change. Outdoor cushions need 7 or better. A 4 will shift within a single summer in a sunny Australian room.
W means clean with water-based products only. S means solvent or dry-cleaning products only, because water can shrink the face or lift the backing. WS means either, spot-tested first. X means vacuum and brush only, no liquid at all. The code describes the backing as much as the face fabric. For a family lounge choose W or WS; S belongs on a feature chair and X on a piece nobody eats near.
Martindale is the Australian and European abrasion test: a wool abradant rubs the fabric in a figure-of-eight and the result is counted in cycles. Wyzenbeek is the American test: cotton duck or wire mesh rubs straight back and forth, counted in double rubs. They use different machines, abradants and failure points, so there is no exact conversion. The same cloth can score high on one and modestly on the other. In Australia, ask for the Martindale figure.
Railroaded means the pattern runs across the roll, from selvedge to selvedge, rather than up its length. Because upholstery fabric is only about 137 to 140 cm wide, a long seat or a banquette back in an up-the-roll pattern needs a seam every 137 cm. A railroaded fabric covers that length in one continuous cut with no seam. Stripes show it most clearly. Most velvets cannot be railroaded because the pile would lie sideways and shade unevenly.
A half-drop repeat is a pattern where the motif on each new width of fabric starts half a repeat lower than the width beside it, so the design staggers diagonally rather than lining up straight across. It looks more natural on large florals and damasks, but it doubles the working repeat when matching panels across seams. On a lounge that can add around a third to the metreage compared with the same pattern as a direct repeat, and far more than a plain cloth.
Yarn-dyed fabric is woven from yarns coloured before weaving, so the colour runs through the yarn and patterns such as stripes and checks are built into the weave. Piece-dyed fabric is woven undyed and dipped afterwards, so the colour sits nearer the surface and is usually a single shade. Yarn-dyed cloths generally hold colour under abrasion better. Solution-dyed fabric goes one further, with pigment inside the fibre itself, and gives the best lightfastness of the three.
Not on a seat. Curtain fabric is 150 to 300 gsm with no backing and no Martindale or pilling result, because it was designed to hang, not to be pulled tight over foam and sat on. On a lounge it stretches, the seams slip and fray, and it wears through at the front edge inside a year. For a wide-width cloth labelled "suitable for upholstery" we would want to see a Martindale figure and a pilling score first; on a bed head or an occasional back, some can work.
Grams per square metre tells you how much cloth is in the weave, and upholstery fabrics usually run 350 to 700 gsm against 150 to 300 for curtain cloth. It is a quick way to spot a drapery weight being sold for seating. It does not tell you durability on its own: a loosely spun 600 gsm chenille will pill and snag before a tightly woven 320 gsm microfibre shows wear. Read the weight with the pilling score and the backing line, never alone.
Heavy domestic is a use category, not a test. It means the fabric house considers the cloth suitable for a main family lounge in daily use, roughly 25,000 to 30,000 Martindale cycles, a pilling score of 4, and lightfastness of 5. Light domestic covers occasional chairs and bed heads, general domestic a lounge in a quiet house, and severe contract is the venue grade at 40,000 cycles and up with a fire certificate. For a family lounge, 25,000 cycles minimum, 30,000 and up with large dogs.
A backing is a thin acrylic or latex coat, or a knitted scrim, bonded to the reverse of the cloth. It stops open weaves fraying when cut, stops seams slipping under tension, and lets the fabric be pulled square over foam without stretching out of shape. Velvets and faux suedes need a knit backing to hold their pile straight. A backing also sets the cleaning code, because water can lift a latex backing. Unbacked open weaves are not seat fabrics.
Every fabric house publishes a technical sheet for each cloth, usually as a download on the product page under a name like specifications, technical data or test results, and the retailer's sample card carries the house name and the colourway code you need to find it. If the sheet is not online, the house will email it on request. If a seller cannot produce a Martindale figure, a pilling score and a cleaning code, treat the fabric as untested and choose another.
Send a photo or the dimensions of your booths, banquettes or venue seating and we'll come back with a rough price and turnaround.
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