American-made Style Guide & Furniture Primer
If you’re looking for a classic upholstery fabric, you can’t do much better than linen. Made from the fibers of the flax plant, linen has been around for thousands of years (it was even used as currency in ancient Egypt). It’s still loved today for its beauty, feel, and durability. Considering getting a sofa or chair upholstered in linen? Here’s what you need to know about how it’s made, when it works, and when you might want to go with a different fabric. (more…)
Velvet, with its plush feel and sheen, is pretty much the original glamour fabric. For most of its history—from China, where it was made for the first time more than 4500 years ago, to Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries—only the very wealthy could afford it. Thankfully, these days, velvet is still super luxe but a lot more affordable.
It goes without saying that when you order a sofa, you have to pick out the style, fabric, and finish. But you don’t have to stop there. While most furniture pieces are designed to look great no matter what, you can also add extra details to make a more unique sofa or chair.
You can’t always add these design elements (some manufacturers are more flexible than others), but when you shop at our site, thestatedhome.com, you can get as creative as you’d like. Just reach out and we can talk through your ideas! Here are a few of the ways you can customize a piece: (more…)
Shopping for a sectional can be like navigating a foreign land: There are a lot of unfamiliar terms and if you mix them up, you’ll end up facing the wrong way. A sectional is a sofa that comes in, you guessed it, sections. It’s typically two pieces, but can be more than that if you add in seats or come up with a more unique layout. Learning the following sectional lingo will help ensure you get the right pieces to create the layout that’s best for you. And once you figure that out, head over to thestatedhome.com to shop our selection! (more…)
We’ve done a lot of talking about what you should look for in a sofa, but it’s just as important to know what features you should stay far away from. Consider the following our “avoid at all cost” rules—spot them on a sofa and leave it at the store. And if you want to make your sofa shopping experience super easy, head over to thestatedhome.com for our selection of gorgeous sofas.
If you’ve ever had a well-loved sweater, you’re probably familiar with pilling – those tiny little fuzz balls that appear on the surface and make it look less-than-new. But pilling isn’t just something that ruins sweaters, it can also fuzz up sofas upholstered in certain fabrics.
Pilling occurs when loose fibers in the fabric move out to the surface (it’s just a natural tendency fabric has). Once there, friction twists them into small balls—more commonly known as pills.
One of the more irritating things about the pills is that you can’t just vacuum them off—they get twisted together with fibers that are still secured to the fabric and hold on tight. (Don’t worry, we’ll talk about how to get rid of them later.) The only way you can really avoid this is to never use your furniture—and who wants to do that?
On the bright side, pilling doesn’t mean your fabric is wearing out before its time. You won’t start to see bald spots or notice thinning areas. It’s just something that happens with new fabric. Before long, the excess fibers eventually stop floating to the top. Also take heart knowing that pilling happens in one form or another to almost all fabrics.
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