Bradington -Young & of course Barcalounger If you're in the chair that many hours a day, and expect it to last a long time, you'd be better off with leather. Easier to maintain long term & less likely to absorb body odor. Here is a link that might be useful: Bradington -Young

Don't order furniture online unless you really know what you are getting. There are two schools of thought when approaching furniture that will get heavy wear. One is to go as cheap as possible with the realization that it will be bad in a year or two. That way you don't feel as bad when it gets beat up and your investment is minimal. It's a horrible feeling when you spend a lot and it does not last much more than the cheap stuff. The other school of thought is to get as high a quality product as you can with the hope that it will endure the abuse or that it is worthwhile to repair when it does look bad. If people expect a lot of wear on the fabric, one option is to get a slipcover style sofa which you can just change the cover each time it starts getting bad, but it doesn't sound like this is the style you are going for. Leather is noted as generally being more durable than fabric as well as not collecting animal hair all the time. However, leather can still tear and get holes and it tends to be more obvious when it does vs a fabric. There are some heavy wear fabrics out there, but you really need to go to a real furniture store and check out their fabric swatches and look for the information for durability of it and washability of it. A fabric rates W or WS for cleaning is going to be much easier to clean than one listed as S. You also want to make sure you choose one with a heavy wear rating. Talk to the salesman at the store. A good one can help steer you to the fabrics that will hold up the best. You can get just as durable furniture with mid level furniture as you can with high end furniture with certain brands, but you have to be careful. A lot of what you are paying for high end is a higher level of craftmanship, more attention to detail to upholstery, and a possibility of greater style (not to mention the exclusivity of the brand name). None of these factors necessarily make the furniture that much more durable. For starters, two mid-level brands to look at are Flexsteel and Smith Brothers. For flexsteel, stay away from their made in China Latitudes line. Otherwise, they are very durable in terms of frame, springs, and cushions. They do have some fabrics that wear very well. Where they tend to lack some competitors at the price level is fit and finish of the upholstery. The seams and stitching are not always on par for the price, but they are still a durable couch. Smith Brothers gets a lot of love here and elsewhere. They are made in Indiana and get a lot of good marks for quality of construction. Great frames, springs, cushions, and workmanship. Its possible neither one of these companies have a style that will suit you. I would get offline and get into furniture stores to see what they have. Ask a lot of questions about build quality and durability of specific fabrics. Ask to look at the swatches and get the ratings for wearability and cleaning. If the salesman is blowing a lot of fluff or can't really answer questions adequately, see if there is someone there that can or skip the store entirely. Ask about their after sale support. Do they have an onsite repair shop? The ones that do tend to offer stronger after sale support (but not always and there are still good stores without repair shops) and may be able to do authorized repairs on site without having to send stuff to the factory. Don't buy immediately. Get the information on make and model and do some research. See if you can find information online about the brand. If you have questions about construction features or build, ask questions here and at other sites and see if the brand is reputable. Good furniture stores won't pressure you to buy on the spot unless their product is sketchy and they know if you see something elsewhere you may be gone. It's not uncommon for shoppers to be in five or six times before buying and the good ones will be patient with you and be willing to help as much as they can.

Sueb20, I was wondering about that particular "technical term," lol. Good to think about. I think I'm off the mohair, then. SOmeday I'll retire from New Mexico to Duluth or Saskatchewan (someplace COLD!) and at that point I'll do the mohair... (: Nanabella, how was the 100$ cotton velvet re stain removal? Good warning re the chenille. I don't like chenille much, but wear is important to keep in mind. Speaking of which, budge, can you tell me more about linen, its wear and ease of spot removal? I am not enthusiastic about slipcovering; part of the reason for reupholstering is to remove the current skirt and expose the chair's legs. I tend to think of a slipcover as down to the ground. I think I'm leaning toward the velvet, either cotton-poly or just plain old cotton, though I'm interested to hear comments about linen or linen tweed as an option. Thanks for these good comments, all.

I think there may be different qualities of microfiber. I've gotten a lot of fabric samples from different stores, and some of it is definitely thicker than others... Most of it is that suedey-looking stuff, while a few have either a kind of herringbone pattern, or (my favorite) a thin diagonal stripe like a twill. I laid the samples across the arm of my current sofa so that my cats could lay on them and I could see how bad the hair situation would be. This is FAR from a scientific test, but what I've found is this: The most expensive microfiber was "UltraSuede" - it was the WORST with cat hair. The stuff does NOT brush off. The suedey ones were a little better, but not great. The herringbone ones were great at camouflaging the fur, and the brush-off wasn't bad. I've seen this type of fabric at a lot of different furniture stores. The Doss fabric (thin diagonal stripe) seemed also to be pretty good - the lighter colors camouflage the hair better than the darker colors. (So what am I getting? A dark chocolate brown. Sigh.) I've seen this at Room & Board, Crate & Barrel, and even on one sectional in Macy's. There is another fabric similar to the Doss, but with a zig-zag pattern. It's kind of cool - I think I'm going to use it (in light spring green) on the chair. This is from Crate & Barrel. Hope this helps. Good luck, Sheila! --Tracey