When choosing furniture upholstery fabrics, designs and colors, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Cats are one, dogs are another and the rest of your room décor is a third. Sunlight is yet a fourth, but if you ask the right questions and get the right answers in the form of a written guarantee, then you should be fine. There are other things, so here is a brief discussion of each of them.

In using the term 'fabric' we are being fairly loose and are referring to any form of upholstery covering, including leather. Anybody who has owned leather chairs or sofas will understand the problem - in fact, even those with regular fabric coverings will know how cats just love to destroy furniture.

It's not that they mean to - it's just that a leather sofa is a very convenient scratching post, and while you might get away with a few snags on woven fabric upholstery, you have no chance of that with leather. Whether it is a genuine skin or faux leather, once it has been given a rip with a claw, it will do nothing but deteriorate. A tiny claw hole will increase in size until you cover it with a throw or get it recovered!

Dogs are not quite as bad, but dogs and leather furniture are also antagonists. Perhaps it's because they know it's from another animal, but dogs tend to attack natural leather sofas more than those covered with the artificial equivalent. So, Tip #1 is that if you have pets, choose a fabric, and one that cats don't like - if there is such a thing!

When choosing upholstered furniture you usually have one of two options regarding the upholstery fabrics, their pattern and their color. You are either offered the fabric that comes with the pieces you choose, which within a named range will be the same for each individual piece, or will be able to customize by choosing your preferred upholstery fabrics from a given range.