Compare flock and velor | What is best for sofa upholstery

When creating a unique home interior, upholstered furniture plays a significant role. A luxurious, eye-catching sofa can be a subtle finishing touch to a room’s design. And for this, its upholstery must be well chosen. Among the most commonly used materials for sofa upholstery are flock and velor. But which one is better? Our experts will help you sort out the issue.

Features and advantages of flock

More often than other fabrics it is used for an upholstery of sofas. With its appearance, the material is incredibly similar to velvet, looks just as luxurious, very pleasant to the touch, but at the same time has slightly different properties and is distinguished by a reasonable price. Among the main advantages of the material:

1. Strength — flock is a real «giant» among fabrics — it is practically not subject to moderate mechanical stress: even the claws of pets are not afraid of it.

2. Moisture resistance — a sofa with flock upholstery is suitable even for an open veranda. In addition, the product can be cleaned using any detergent.

3. Environmental friendliness — the flock is absolutely hypoallergenic, which makes it possible to use it for sofa upholstery even in a children’s room.

4. Variety of designs and colors — thanks to the use of various additives, flock can have a different appearance. The shades in which the material is presented are rich in colors that do not fade in the sun.

5. Affordable price — with an impressive list of advantages, this indicator is very important.

If the flock had no shortcomings, it would be possible to call it ideal, but, as you know, this does not happen:

1. Absorbs odor — flock is not suitable for a kitchen sofa, and in any other room it will immediately absorb strong odors. The room where the sofa with flock upholstery stands should be regularly ventilated.

2. It wears out quickly — although the characteristics of flock and velvet differ, the first is very similar to the second in one thing — its surface wears out quickly, which leads to the need for frequent upholstery replacement.

Features and advantages of velor

Velor was previously considered a material of exclusively natural origin, but recently synthetic threads are increasingly used in its manufacture, which form a durable and, at the same time, delicate product by embossing. On its surface, you can create not just a beautiful, but also a complex pattern. Velor is fleecy in its structure, soft and at the same time quite practical in operation.

Velor is undoubtedly very effective. Allows you to create a feeling of incredible comfort in the room and give the interior a special chic. It is considered one of the most beautiful fabrics among fleecy varieties. But they love it not only for its stylish look — performance characteristics also play a significant role, and they are at the level:

1. Natural composition — the structure of velor includes natural wool and cotton. It is not only pleasant to the touch, but also perfectly retains heat.

2. A variety of shades — thanks to a huge range of colors, you can choose a luxurious product for almost any interior.

3. High strength — the special structure of the threads allows you to create a soft and, at the same time, very dense fabric, which is characterized by increased strength.

4. Durability — with proper care, velor will last for many years.

5. Ease of care — velor retains its appearance even with «active» care: the material can easily withstand not only vacuuming, but also washing, even the use of stain remover.

We must not forget about some of the features of the fabric:

1. Velor requires special handling — some dirt from its surface is almost impossible to remove (especially from coffee, wine or sauces). Therefore, such upholstery is appropriate only for sofas in the living room.

2. During operation, the top layer wears out — this is especially true for those varieties of velor that do not contain synthetics.

3. It is not cheap — which is explained by the environmental friendliness of the material.

What is best for upholstery?

It may seem that flock and velor are similar, in many ways this is true: sometimes they cannot be distinguished externally, both are pleasant to the touch, hypoallergenic and not afraid of sun exposure. In fact, everything is more difficult. Firstly, flock outperforms velor in moisture resistance: non-woven material is a combination of cotton and polyester coated on the fibers of the fabric (this gives the very “velvet” effect) and excellent water-repellent properties. Velor, on the contrary, is characterized by good moisture absorption due to its natural composition, and this to some extent reduces its service life.

Which option to choose for the upholstery of the sofa, it’s up to you. But a couple of tips, nevertheless, we dare to give:

1. For the living room, velor would be the best option.

2. For a child’s room, it is better to choose flock upholstery.

3. For those who have pets, flock is, of course, more preferable.

4. For a kitchen sofa, it is worth choosing an option among velor products of synthetic origin.