AI will give cleaning options. You can avoid the problem if you can find a Sunbrella Velvet Collection fabric you like. Soft, smooth with an upright pile texture your husband or even pets won't phase. Also check Sunbrella 'Bliss Velvet' Chenille. No fading or shrinking. Removable covers For lower pile soft 'cotton-like' feel look at Sunbrella Cast Collection.

For mold Hydrogen peroxide 1:1 with water misted and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Blot with a microfiber towel dipped in plain water. Dry with a hair dryer on cool or low. Brush lightly with a clothes brush to bring up the pile. Dirt and grease, 1/2 teaspoon Borax, 1/2 teaspoon Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, a couple drops Dawn in a quart of hot water misted on the unremovable areas. Worked in with a soft brush or microfiber towel. Rinse with water and towel or shop vac and misted water until clear. Same drying and pile brush.

Kendrah, I'm so sorry you are dealing with a serious health issue, on top of supporting your parents through a health crisis as well. Wishing you strength and a successful treatment.

Kendrah have you looked at these velvets from Thibaut? They are machine washable, sustainable PFas free etc. Club Velvet https://www.thibautdesign.com/products/fabrics/W7230

or their Mirasol Velvet https://www.thibautdesign.com/products/fabrics/W81740

Their Alto , celeste and other velvets can be cleaned by deep steam extraction. Meaning you can have a company come out and just clean them using hot steam/water and no chemicals. .

Back to the D & D building I go! Thanks for the links @Design Interior South. Velvet truly gives me the heebie-jeebies and always has. But I was at Kravet today and walked past this velvet and fell in love with the color. Then I dared to touch it, and it was so very soft, unlike most others I've experienced.

@ mccaroll16 - Thanks for the well wishes and your good memory. I went through multiple surgeries and cancer treatments 25 years ago. The third time it came back I decided to wait and watch (under the care of a good doc) and it hasn't grown since. Knock on wood! But, I do like to be careful about chemical exposures when I can. Plus I have bizarre allergic reactions when I'm around chemicals.

Thankfully my mom is doing really well too. I'm going to visit her next week just to spend wonderful time together. No caregiving needed. I realize my time with her could be limited and I'm so grateful to get as much of her as I can.

You can buy extra fabric for chair arm and headrest protectors. They can be cleaned separately. A headrest protector is like an old fashioned antimacassar, but rectangular in shape and made from the same fabric as the chair.

Other fabric option ...

While nowhere nearly as delicious in feel or color as the velvet Clarke & Clarke, I did get a swatch of Maharam fabric that is close in color and cleaning code is "W/B-Clean with water-based cleanser or diluted household bleach."

I think I need to go with this for peace of mind. I don't want to police my husband in how he uses the chair he spends upwards of 8 hours a day in. (This one is for our living room and we have a matching wingback chair that he uses in his office as a desk chair.) What do you all think?

Slipcovers?

I'm contemplating getting a washable fabric and having the chairs slipped covered instead of upholstered. What's everyone's thoughts on that? Too fiddly and rumpled looking?

@apple_pie_orderI get so made fun of by friends and family for using arm protectors, I can't imagine the ridicule I'll get for a headrest protector!

I love a slip cover in the right application. Much depends on the style of the seating as well as fabric type. Velvet will likely have to be backed especially if there is a skirt or else it will roll. Yes it does have a VERY relaxed feel overall and can get sloppy as fabric stretches. Canvas and twill like fabrics are generally your best bet when working with slip covers. Also I have used acrylics like Subbrella for busy areas or whites because they are so cleanable.

This is the chair. Any thoughts on whether the shape makes it a good candidate or not for slip covering?

Our living room is tailored but has a somewhat relaxed vibe. I certainly love a well upholstered piece of furniture and a shifting cover might drive me nuts. But if it makes it more cleanable I could be convinced!

I’m not a fan of a skirt here.

Evidently, what the velvet is made from can make a difference...Woolite is one recommendation.

https://www.rogerandchris.com/blog/249/how-to-clean-velvet-furniture/

I wanted velvet for my wings, too, but was discouraged when I read cleaning instructions; you have to be careful not to flatten the knap.

Not the same feel, but indestructible, looks like velvet, so I went with Crypton.

https://www.kovifabrics.com/search?q=velvet . Shop around for best prices.

Taking care to not flatten the knap… oy my journey into the land of velvet may be brief. Velvet is so ubiquitous these days I presumed it was easy to care for. I think I’m out!

I may goneith the much easier to care for sample in the pics below. The easy care fabric is the lefthand sample. The velvet is on the right.

Slipcovers done well look like upholstery. I've seen slipcovered wings backs that are spectacular and they do not have to have skirts to look finished and tight.. Ask the person who is doing the slip covers for fabric recommendations. I worked at a drapery/upholstery store outside of Chicago. Our slipcover person was amazing but he would say "no" to certain fabrics.

if I were redoing that chair I would upholster it. The curves at the top and the exact structure of the arm will be lost in a slip cover.

If that is a chair that your husband uses daily, then I would probably recommend upholstering it in a fairly heavy tight woven small scale fabric. I have had velvet wing chairs in my living room for about 20 years now, and they still look great, but they don't get heavy use. Try a performance fabric like Crypton.

The Kovi velvet is very durable but cleaning code is stilk solvent. Kovi also has Ultrasuede which is just as durable but cleans with water and is washable. Not exactly the same look as velvet and not quite as soft but similar. Your husband won’t wear it out. We’ve had a sofa covered in that for 25 years and I just throw seat and back covers in washer and it comes out looking brand new.

@Diana Bier Interiors, LLC were not much fans of prints and were after a solid performance type fabric, but are you suggesting a print because it might hide dirt better?

Nothing else in the room has a print and I was hoping for this chair to visually disappear as much as possible rather than stand out.

I’m not after velvet in general, I was just swept away by how fabulous the particular color of this velvet is, but I’m dropping it and velvet like a hot potato thanks to everyones valuable insights.

Soft face twill woven with a subtle diaginol pattern and smooth texture on skin. I'd go modern and inviting with deeply saturated true black. Canvas Raven Black 5471-0000 Link. There are 54 colors.

No, Kendrah, I was not advocating any sort of print. A small scale woven upholstery fabric with texture would be good. These are from Kravet, to illustrate what I was trying to advocate for:

These types of fabrics are closely woven and the "pattern" is only discernible up close; it disappears from a distance. They are usually very durable and practical.

@Diana Bier Interiors, LLC do you have a link to the top golden Kravet fabric you showed a pic of? Thanks!

My husband and I were just playing around with the chair and decided regardless of what fabric we get, we will have a throw in a small basket on the floor next to the chair. When he is going to settle in for any length of time, he'll drape the throw over the whole upper part of the chair.

It is sensible given that he sleeps there a few nights a week. You change and launder sheets, we should be able to change and launder whatever he's leaning up against in grimmy t-shirts, sometimes after working out. Gross!

Yes, Kendrah, it's from Kravet, a Gaston Y Daniela fabric, called Enea in colorway "Oro."

https://www.kravet.com/gdt5518-005?queryID=cd4f643b6486b587fc59174a94761902&objectID=212902&indexName=kravet_production_kravet_us_products

There are other colors as well, which you can see on the website.

Kendrah - I have some thicker linen flat sheets that I have in folded a basket in the living room that are thrown on the sofa - my SO falls asleep sometimes while we watch a movie at night. He also sometimes comes home after playing golf - and his clothes are a a bit sweaty. I fold the sheet in half = double thickness. I like linen because it stays cool/breathes + holds water (sweat) = doesn't go through to the sofa. I have three flat sheets for the sofa that are a similar color to the upholstery.

I've seen linen bedding colors that are similar to the upholstery that you are considering (or you could do a different color if you don't want them to blend in with the chair).

FYI - my sofa is slipcovered - it looks like it's upholstered and has squared off thinner arms + no skirt. It looks the same as it did four years ago = no bagging on the fabric (my sofa has down wrapped cushions also - I fluff and flip cushions once a week - but the fabric still isn't baggy).

We have an upholstered wingback chair-recliner that I found in a small furniture store decades ago. My husband has claimed it but (untruthfully) said he wouldn’t use it in our current home. So I upholstered it in ivory only to have him change his mind.
It has a cheap Wayfair throw on it (which fits poorly, but I tuck it in) and it gives him a cushy fabric to sit on. And I don’t get upset.

The upholstery fabric you love the most should be chosen and a slipcover should be made so you can remove it when you’re entertaining. We do so little entertaining, the slipcover on his recliner rarely gets removed.

At the other end of the Great Room are two ivory chairs that look great and he doesn’t like.

@RedRyder, don't you love when they change their minds???!!!!!

I think the slipcover idea (in a washable fabric) is an excellent one. It's so much easier to take something off and toss it in the machine, and the cleaning is much more thorough. My DH, before he passed away, also spent a lot of time in his chair, and I wouldn't have wanted to police him either. One additional idea: Can you get extra yardage, and have them made into protectors just where his head will rest (and/or arm rests)? This would make it easy to just wash this frequently rather than the whole slipcover. I had a sofa made in a machine washable performance fabric and I purchased enough extra fabric to cover the entire seat. It's nearly undectable when on. Since my dog loves the sofa, this gives me an easy way to clean it regularly. Every now and then, she gets up on the sofa when I have the cover off drying somewhere, and gets a bit of dirt on the seat, and I'm reminded of how much I love having the washable seat cover.

The slipcover idea is nice in theory, but many upholsterers do not do slipcovers. It's becoming rarer to find someone who does this type of work.

The head and arm protector idea has already been proposed if you read the previous comments.

Absolutely have protectors made!

Anyone here remember sofas that were encased in custom plastic? My memory of my grandmother’s apartment is the crinkling sound whenever we sat on her sofa. Luckily we have other ideas now, but the need to protect “good fabric never goes away.

Haha, I remember only too well the plastic covered upholstery! It was awful, especially in the summer when your bare legs stuck to it!!!

Hi Kendrah, you might also look into Scalamandre. They have some beautiful small scale woven fabrics.

Kravat and Kori also make nice upholstery fabrics. What color, weave, style are you looking for?

There are several good online fabric stores that send samples quickly. I recently recovered a pillow on a wooden bench that has been in my bedroom for decades. That pillow has been recovered 3 or 4 times.

I remember my dad had plastic covers on the seats of the car. We lived in the southwest. Also remember chipping off the hard almost charred plastic. I think there were also fabric covers on top of the plastic covers for the front seats. Don't do that to your chair.