IMO the Sunbrella ia the right choice and I am curious as to why only white in a space with kids and pets.

Can you use one of the darker colors I see in the rug instead of a light color? I just have two black and white cats, no kids or dogs, and I get it. I think you're fighting a losing battle with light upholstery under those conditions. The only thing that is going to make light upholstery last longer is daily vacuuming. I bought inexpensive fleece throws to put on my furniture where the cats like to sleep. The cats are attracted to them so they prefer to sleep on them. They're easy to throw in the wash and when company comes I take them off and hide them.

We renovated our house with the assistance of a designer and love the look of the chairs she chose and aren’t trying to reinvent the color scheme. I think the rest of the room needs the lightness of the chairs. I don’t think the current fabric is stain resistant though. We haven’t had stain issues so much as the griminess. I am just hoping to choose the best possible fabric to resist this. I see that Pottery Barn sells pet furniture throws that you can get in the fabric to match your chair, which sounds like a good option. And I’m starting to come around to the idea that maybe I should consider the slipcovered version for its ability to be machine-washed, despite that not being my preference—if my main goal now is to have chairs that don’t look permanently grimy.

Do NOT get Heathered Basketweave in ivory . We did, 2 years in all I can say is that it is GARBAGE. Did not hold up, PB will NOT stand behind it. My advice? Don't buy from PB, you can get a better value elsewhere. Ballard minimally, spend a bit more, get a lot more value.

Oh no! The performance Heathered Basketweave is what I’d narrowed it down to. Was it pilling, stains, tears?

I thought I’d post an update if anyone is interested. Initially I had decided on the PB performance Heathered Basketweave in alabaster, which is slightly darker than the ivory. I sat in an Ayden slipcovered rocker glider in the store that was pretty comfortable and was thinking of this chair as a good option. The slipcover also still had a fairly tailored look.

We decided to stop in another local furniture store as well and sat in all the chairs on display a’la Goldilocks. By far the most comfortable chair was a Rowe upholstered rocker glider (Kara) in a Crypton fabric (Nomad Snow) that was fairly light-colored but had some other colors woven in that I thought would help disguise dirt a little. The chairs were also kept in stock for quick delivery. The selling point was a program ($300 up front for 2 chairs) that would offer a 5 year warranty with the store arranging for any cleaning or replacement needed during that time. Rowe also has another identical looking chair in a slipcovered version I could order if I wanted to go that route as well.

Before going back to the store to arrange the purchase, we decided to go all-out with removing the seat and back cushion covers and washing them in the machine with Oxiclean. This is specifically discouraged by the manufacturer but we decided at this point what did we have to lose? This actually helped a lot. Not perfect but greatly improved. We couldn’t do this with the body of the chair but used a bunch of Folex and even Bissell Pro Oxi Power Shot to try and get the grunge out there. Got some improvement though not 100%. I plan to get it professionally cleaned and in the meanwhile have put some fleece pet blankets I bought at Pottery Barn down to protect from the dog. We’re thinking we can hopefully get a few more years out of these chairs and go for the Rowe chair with the protection plan through our local furniture chair when it’s time for replacement.

Also I purchased the Gleener fabric shaver that PB sells on their website (but I got it on Amazon). This really helped with the pilling on my current chair and it looks much better.

Love it! I wash the cushion covers of my old cotton velvet RH couch a few times a year (cold delicate) and they look great afterward - I am with you, there's no downside to trying it out :)

@ Jeffrey Christensen What was the issue you had with the performance heathered basketweave? I'm looking at a sofa in this right now as it seems to be more durable than other fabrics. Thanks.

I thought so too. Love the look and feel. Then I bought a sofa covered in it. pilling like no tomorrow, within 18 months, you could see fabric pile gone and texture appears threadbare between the pilling. The couch looks 12 years old after 2 years. My wife and I live alone , no kids to mess with the furniture. I called Pottery Barn and received a "virtual shrug" in response to my complaint. NEVER AGAIN. I have spent over 12000 with these clowns and that is the best they can do? Makes my blood boil when I think about it.

@ Jeffrey Christensen Sorry to hear that. That's crappy of them. I've looked for so many sofas and pilling seems to be an issue with almost all of them unfortunately. It's insane at these price points. Did you try a fabric shaver for the pilling?

I did, worked pretty well, every 3 months or so, but the fast wear was horrible. I agree, I expect and demand quality when I drop >$4,000 for a couch. My son got his couch from RH and while expensive, it seems to be a quality piece. My wife and I are going to order a new couch from a designer. I think if you really want quality, don't do PB or Crate etc... I am done wasting money on these chains that do nothing but find ways to charge more for cheaply made products.

I suppose the fact that they stopped even allowing reviews on their own site should have told me something.