JR,

Don't do leather. I have seen housecats destroy new leather furniture within 24 hours after installation. In fact, its the # 1 cause of ruined new leather furniture, by far.

Don't get any kind of fabric with an open weave, such as chenilles or wovens.

Stay with Microfibers. They're 100% polyester and are bonded so tightly together that there are no nits for the cats to get to. That's going to be your best bet of all classes of fabrics, with the bonus that it cleans easily.

Duane Collie

Soft paws are really good for this kind of thing, I may or may not use them.,

de clawing will cause cats pain,suffering, and could turn them into biters. Its illegal in much of the world actually. ( UK, New zealand,europe,france,ect).

if not, you can spray with water/put pads up to protect and/or re home the cats.

You can try rattan furniture, they are good and eco friendly.
Buy it directly from Indonesia as this is the place for the best rattan furniture and this is home of the best rattan.

Here is a link that might be useful: Indonesian rattan furniture

Get a nice, big, carpeting scratching post for them. The cat we had when I was growing up destroyed three couches, stereo speakers, drapes....

In hindsight, I told my mother one day, we never gave him any appropriate thing that he could scratch. Cats HAVE to scratch.

My boy I have now is good about only using is post (occasionally the carpet but it doesn't damage).

I'm thinking through the same problem. In my case, our two cats do not scratch on the furniture. The problem is their fur: the downy fur gets on the current chenille sofa fabric and is really tough to remove. We were thinking leather for ease of fur removal. Anyone have cats and a fabric that they have found both comfortable and easy to get fur off of?

We're planning to get two facing loveseats, and don't want to have to keep them covered all the time, as we now do.

Bump.

Anyone with a fabric sofa that is easy to clean cat fur off of?

I vote leather. We got distressed leather so the paw marks that are there from them jumping on or off don't really show much. They have never intentionally scratched the leather. It is easy to clean.
We have had our set for about 4 years.

Bought all leather for my living room with the thought that the fur wouldn't stick. It worked BUT the cats scratched and clawed every exposed corner. My expensive furniture is a mess with little resale value. I love the furniture because it's so comfy but don't know how to repair or minimize the clawed corners.

Check out this post from the Pets forum. They talk about Ultra Suede as being the best bet. There are also some furniture horror stories to consider.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pets Forum

It really depends on the cats. My last generation of cats never hurt any of my furniture. However, the current pair, now 3 years old, have definitely done some damage to my expensive ultrasuede couches, mainly on the top corners. They've also done some shredding to the dining chairs which have a tweedy fabric upholstery. The cats spin around the chair back and seat chasing their tails. My leather easy chair hasn't gotten any damage, but it's a fairly smooth, tightly fitted leather, not one of the buttery soft ones.

DO NOT get rattan!! We had a small piece of storage furniture with wicker baskets and the cats destroyed the baskets scratching them.

I will suggest an alternative here, buy a sofa that you can easily replace individual parts. These sofas have individual components: arms, backs, seats, and cushions. For instance if a arm gets damage, then this manufacturer will send a replacement arm in the same fabric, same goes for any other part of the sofa. I recommend a tight woven cotton canvas fabric, its easy to clean as microfiber tends to attract animal hairs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Component Sofas

This End Up Furniture Co. offers sofa, chairs etc with solid wood arms and exposed parts. Also they offer replacement cushions and fabric covers.

Here is a link that might be useful: This End Up

I should add that a solid hardwood frame with double dowel joints that is glued / screwed together is the best and strongest upholstered frame available.
When a company says a solid wood frame with mortise & tenon joinery, in translation that is a pine plywood frame cut on a CNC router, and the joints is not a true mortise and tenon, but actually just overlapping tenons that is stapled together with a bit of glue. Its the cheapest way to make a upholstery frame and about 90% of upholstery manufacturers are doing to this to cut costs. At the sacrifice of quality. But you can still buy a quality built real solid hardwood frame that has doubled dowel joints that is glued and screwed, for less than the above mentioned retailer.

Here is a link that might be useful: solid hardwood frame sofas

I've spent most of my life working a full job AND doing Air Force reserves with trips, AND going to school and I still made time for my pets. If there is two of you and you have time to write Houzz, you have time to train your cats! Or research more ways to keep them off the couch because simply buying a certain material will probably Not solve the problem. My suggestion is get a cat post in the room so they have an alternative, better yet a cat tree. It's not that hard. Play with the cats a few times on the tree, add some cat nip, and they should catch on quick. Otherwise, instead of asking the good people of Houzz, ask blogs that are about just cats. Try this one: http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-a-Cat-from-Clawing-Furniture

I have 2 cats and I have 2 cat houses with posts for scratching. They still sharpen their claws on my furniture and one still sharpens his claws on my mattress and box spring. I want to get new furniture but I don't want it to end up scratched up and looking horrible.

With cats, its all about opportunity and attraction.

A tight weave - eg smooth chintz upholstery fabric that would be hard to get a claw into - is best choice. Sheets - microfiber or high thread count.

Another part of the equation is you have to provide them with a suitable place where they CAN scratch. You cant just say "dont do this," you have to provide them with an alternative. Rough textures attract them - so you need to have the only rough textured things in your house be things you WANT them to claw.

I have two big ugly weathered gray sawhorses in my house and the cats have them torn to shreds. I was using them as sawhorses when doing some work and the cats took right to them, so rather then mess with success I just kept them in the house. They are tall enough so they (the cats) can stretch out full length and they dont wobble - which is important for a scratching surface.

Also train kitties to accept nail trims, starting at a young age. They are not "sharpening" claws so much as they are wearing off the excess claw (they grow like fingernails) so if you keep the nails trimmed there wont be such a need to do as much clawing.... though they still like to do it for esthetic reasons (its like graffitti for other cats to see and admire LOL). They can be trained over a period of time by first starting out with touching the paws, then workng up to a foot massage ... at some point they will realize that they LIKE it.... from there you can sneak in the clippers and start trimming.

I have three cats, and had given up on the furniture until I got several Petfusion Ultimate Cat Scratcher Lounges. Actually, I have about ten of them all over the house, and the little furry heathens love them so much that they leave the furniture alone. Don get any other brand, because the others peel and break down quickly.

https://www.amazon.com/PetFusion-Scratcher-Cardboard-Construction-unverified/dp/B004X6UEH6/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1506889941&sr=8-8&keywords=Cat+scratch+furniture