Sustainable Upholstery
At Engaging Interiors we are keen to source and use more sustainable materials to lower the environmental impact of our interiors. In this post we are going to look at a couple of fabric options that are a little bit different to your average vinyl or wool choices. Firstly we have some fabrics by Kirkby Design (who are part of Romo Fabrics). They have a selection of 100% recycled woolen upholstery which have a martindale rub score of around 40,000. We would not use this type of fabric on our busiest restaurants but it would be fine in a lot of other settings. There are two swatches available and they both labelled as Leaf II.
There are a couple of Chenile fabrics which are not as green but still worth a mention.
Recycled plastic upholstery
The fabric that really caught our eye was an upholstery that is constructed from 100% recycled plastic which is processed and finally dyed to the desired colour. It achieves a martindale score of 70,000 and is robust enough to be used on most applications. We are very excited to discover this fabric and to see that there are companies that are researching and developing good sustainable alternatives. This fabric is called Wave and because of the processes involved can be a little more expensive than other options but we have a plan for that.
At Engaging Interiors we are all about minimal waste. ‘What does this entail’? We hear you ask. Well, when we work on a project and put together a specification of materials part of our design process will be to make sure the design the interior around the standard sizes of said material. This makes the design as cost effective as possible. We have good relationships with local craftspeople that we can send our designs to and together make sure elegant, robust and make best use of the materials to hand.
Spent coffee beans within vinyl upholstery
The last fabric we want to discuss within this article is by Malone fabrics. It is a new product that uses spent coffee beans as part of the manufacturing process which produces a final product that only comes in one coffee coloured material. Although this is a vinyl which is inherently highly processed the makers claim that the fabric is phthalate free, vegan and sustainable. From a practical point of view it has a good rub score achieving 100,000 martindale rubs and is breathable and easy to clean. We are looking forward to trying this cost effective option out on a sustainable interior soon.
