The cloth book · seven to choose from

The right cloth, first time, no surprises.

Velvet turns three colours as you cross the room. Linen creases and never stops. What each of the seven does well — and what nobody else mentions.

Ask about a cloth Compare the seven

Close on the diamond quilting of the teal velvet headboard where it meets the gold frame. — Velvet, as close as a photograph gets Teal velvet · diamond quilting

01 — In the light

See it in your room,not on a screen.

Hold the sample against the wall it is going on, at the hour you are actually in that room.

A deep navy velvet headboard, buttoned and bordered with a line of studs. — Deep buttons pool the pile Navy velvet · deep buttoned

A cream fluted headboard with narrow vertical channels. — The flutes do the work, not the colour Cream · narrow flutes

A small armchair recovered in a bright botanical print, beside a stack of fabric samples. — A pattern has to be placed, not just cut Botanical print · recovered armchair

02 — The book

Compare all seven.Rule out five.

Feel, wear and light in one line each. Then Watch for — the cat, the nap direction, the seam somebody should have mentioned.

The seven materials compared by feel, wear, light and what to watch for.
Material	Feel	Wears	In light	Watch for
Linen Cloth	Cool and crisp under the hand, with a slub that catches the light unevenly — which is the point.	Creases readily and will not stop.	Absorbs light rather than reflecting it.	It will crease around a buttoned face.
Wool Cloth	A firm, close handle with a faint diagonal running through it.	Naturally springy, so it recovers its shape after being leant on.	Slight sheen along the twill.	Very fine wools can pill where a shoulder rubs.
Bouclé Cloth	Nubbly and three-dimensional.	The loops are the weakness and the charm: they can snag.	Breaks light in every direction, so it never looks flat and never shows a shadow line.	Not the one if there is a cat, or a dog that jumps up.
Velvet Cloth	Smooth one way, resistant the other.	Cotton velvets mark and recover; synthetic pile velvets shrug most of it off.	The most dramatic of the cloths — a single colour will look like three depending on where the light is.	Pile direction has to be agreed before cutting.
Leather Hide	Firm and cool at first, then it warms and softens to whoever uses it.	An aniline hide takes on a patina and marks honestly.	A low, even sheen that picks out every curve — which flatters a shaped silhouette and exposes a badly made flat one.	Hides are a natural size, so a wide headboard needs a seam.
Oak Timber	You can feel the grain through the finish, which is most of the pleasure of it.	Hard and stable.	Pale and reflective.	Oak reacts with iron and water — a black stain near an old screw or castor is a real repair, not a polish.
Walnut Timber	Closer-grained than oak, smoother under a hand, with figure that moves as you move.	Softer than oak.	Deep and warm with a definite figure.	Old walnut veneer is often thinner than a coin.

03 — Before the colour

Three questionsand you will know.

How will it be used?

Traffic first, colour second. A headboard leant on nightly is not a spare-room chair.
What is the light in that room?

Matt reads chalky at noon and amber under a lamp — same cloth, two colours.
What can you live with?

Linen creases. Bouclé snags. Velvet flattens. Pick the one that will not bother you.

A charcoal sofa on pale timber legs with cushions and a fabric sample book on the arm. — The books live on the arm Charcoal sofa · sample book

Found a cloth you love?

Show us first. Curtain and dress cloth is almost never woven for upholstery — a curtain weave goes baggy the moment it is stretched over a sprung seat.

Woven tightly enough to hold its shape under tension
Wide enough on the roll to keep a seam off the face
A repeat small enough to match across the face without doubling the metreage

The workshop’s own cloth books and colour range

Tell us the room.We will get you down to two.

Tell us what it has to put up with — the dog, the sun, the nightly lean. Seven becomes two.

Tell us about your room