I got a great idea and decided to test my theories and fabric selections before buying my new couch.
I've been working a ton lately, which means I've been making more money and wanting to spend it. I really want a new couch and if you've read previous blogs you know that I began shopping for one.
I really liked the sales girl I met at the place I went and she told me that microfiber was a pet friendly fabric. At first this sounded good, she explained that the fur could easily be wiped up. Of course leather was better, she explained, but microfiber was easy too. I liked this idea because I like the look of a microfiber couch but as I thought about it I became more skeptical. Seemed to me that that sort of fabric would draw the hairs out of the cats and be a total mess. So I decided to perform an experiment.
I have a microfiber-ish black jacket my sister bought me for Christmas years ago. I laid that on the couch, right where one of my cats spends most of her day. Alice Parker (my cat) was a little leery of the new bedding but she liked that it smelled like me and soon she curled up right on the jacket. Within a couple hours I noticed a large tuft of her fur on the jacket. But she's a cat and sometimes they shed its a fact of life. It was too early to end my experiment.
After several days the jacket didnt have much more fur. The fur it had was more evenly spaced than the initial chunk and it was pretty evident. So good and bad news. Microfiber isn't a fur magnet like i feared and it cleaned up pretty easily. But I don't want to clean my furniture every day. Also the way the fibers stand up makes the hair stand up and stand out so frequent cleanings would definitely be necessary.
My conclusion, the fabric I currently have is best. Its regular fabric with no textural patterns and it has a visual pattern which helps hide the small daily fur deposits. My decision, I still love the way the microfiber looks. I'm going to keep shopping but I think I'm leaning towards the original couch, although the style is another issue.
BUT, the lesson from this blog is if you are wondering how a fabric will work in your home do a trial run. You may not have any of the fabric on hand but a craft or sewing store would have something you could purchase OR you could ask the furniture store for a sample. Just imagine all of the fabric samples they get every time a new piece of furniture comes out. They're sure to have something you can use for a test if they think they're going to get your sale.
