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Picture this…
You’re browsing online for furniture and you come across this nice-looking sofa. It has all the details you’re looking for and even comes in your favourite shade of burgundy. Without taking a look at it in person, you decide you love it anyway and order it for your living room.
Once it arrives, the delivery people unwrap it from its box and you notice the fabric colour is off. Because it isn’t the right shade of burgundy your whole living room theme is ruined. You lost your money, there’s no way to return it, and your husband leaves you because your living room looks terrible!
Okay… that ending might’ve been a little bit dramatic, but taking a closer look at your choice in the fabric is important when ordering furniture online.
At La-Z-Boy furniture stores in Ottawa and Kingston, we recognize the importance of visualizing your living room furniture in your own space before making a decision. That's why we provide free fabric samples.
According to Magaly del Castillo, the interior designer at La-Z-Boy Cyrville, fabric correctness is an essential part of tying your room together. “You could have this idea to have a bright red accent in your room, but your accent chair is one shade off from the rest and everyone notices,” she says.
So, how do you ensure your fabric catastrophes? Ordering fabric samples! Fabric swatches are squared samples that some furniture stores offer to help visualize what a furniture cover will look like in your home.
But what are the advantages of ordering fabric swatches? Let’s find out!
In This Article…
- Visualizing Fabric Texture & Colour
- Ensuring Furniture Quality
- Helps Avoid Costly Mistakes
- Making Conscientious Decision On Sustainability
- How to Order a Fabric Swatch
1. Visualizing Fabric Texture & Colour
To begin, one of the biggest benefits you get when ordering fabric swatches online is being able to actually visualize the material in your living space.
This means feeling the fabric with your hands and seeing what the colour will look like with your other pieces. This can help gauge how you feel about a certain texture if the colour lines up with your other furniture pieces, or accents if you’re putting together an accent piece.
Magaly also notes that seeing a fabric cover digitally, rather than physically, is completely different. “When you have a fabric with you and you want to see it next to a furniture piece for proper visualization, you can do that with your actual piece of fabric; with an online image, it’s not that simple.”
Say you were trying to redesign a room altogether, and you were looking for inspiration without visual and tangible aids. The level of precision from a fabric swatch can make a difference between a well-coordinated space and a disjointed one.
If you ordered a fabric swatch, and you’re not the biggest fan of it, no harm done! Not only have you saved money on an unenjoyable fabric for your room, but you’ve saved yourself from being stuck with a custom furniture order you may not be able to easily return.
2. Help Avoid Costly Mistakes
Speaking of making a good financial decision, ordering fabric swatches may save you the headache of accidentally ordering a furniture piece that isn’t what you were quite expecting.
As mentioned before, colour and texture play a valuable role in your furniture selection and if your chosen cover isn’t what you were expecting, it could lead to an unfavourable outcome.
If you order a fabric swatch beforehand, though, you can have that visual representation without worrying about spending unnecessary money on a furniture cover you think you’ll enjoy. Instead, you know you’ll enjoy this cover and what it offers for your room.
Some people may argue that ordering a fabric swatch may be a longer process than just ordering the furniture itself. But, you may thank yourself later on, if your furniture isn’t what it was cracked up to be.
3. Ensuring Furniture Quality
Another factor to consider is the type of fabric you order. All furniture stores, including La-Z-Boy, have varying degrees of fabric grades that go into the construction process.
Understanding fabric quality helps you distinguish between furniture covers and assess their quality. “You want to make sure that your furniture lasts you a long time. You wouldn’t want something to fail on you one or two years after you got it,” Magaly says.
You may also notice when you have a fabric swatch, you may not be able to tell if it is susceptible to fabric pilling more so than others. Even though you can’t easily tell, Magaly reassures that fabric pilling is a natural phenomenon that occurs with any fabric material over time.
To learn more about Fabric Pilling and solutions, take a look at this article.
Fabric costs increase with both higher quality and greater quantity of usage. However, spending a little bit extra may save you money down the road. To learn more about La-Z-Boy’s Furniture Quality, take a look at this article.
4. Making a Conscientious Decision On Sustainability
Along with finding out the quality of your fabric, ordering a fabric swatch can also help determine the type of material you’re interested in.
This can also mean that you can make a conscious decision to go sustainable, with an eco-friendly option that matches your space.
Magaly says it best when choosing the right cover for your furniture, “Playing around with different textures allows you to figure what you love and hate out of a fabric. Even so, with our selection, for example, you also get the opportunity to see what a specialty fabric can look like in your home.”
Some examples of specialty fabrics available include stain-resistant, antimicrobial, environmentally friendly options, and even some with nanobionic technology.
How to Order a Fabric Swatch
After learning about the benefits of fabric swatches, you might be interested in how you can order some from La-Z-Boy. Well, it’s as easy as clicking this link and ordering them right now!
Online customers have the option to order up to 3 free fabric samples at no extra cost. You can also do this process with leather swatch samples as well, with no extra cost associated with them either.
It is important to note that fabric swatches can only be ordered online and not in person at a physical location. It is also important to remember that fabric swatch samples ordered are a representation of the fabric sample at that time. Should you decide to wait a while after ordering your furniture, samples may not be as accurate as previously realized.
So, if you have a fabric swatch sample, it is highly recommended to make a decision on which furniture fabric you’d like to go with fairly soon after receiving it.
Magaly lets us know that fabric swatches can also be requested by an interior designer if you decide to work with one. “We might already come with samples ourselves, but if you request we bring some, we certainly can do that too!”
If you’re interested in knowing more about What to Expect from La-Z-Boy’s Interior Design Services, take a look at this article.
Tips for Effective Use of Fabric Samples
Magaly also fills us in on certain tips to follow once you have your fabric swatches:
1. Label and Organize: Remember to keep track of your fabric swatches by labelling them however you feel makes sense (by colour, texture, ranking, etc.). This will make comparisons easier for you.
2. Compare and Contrast: Not only can you compare fabric swatches with your pre-existing furniture, but you can also compare them with each other. This will help assess how they look in different rooms as well as different lighting conditions in your home.
3. Consider Care Instructions: Check if the swatch sample comes with care instructions. This information can be crucial in deciding if a fabric is suitable for your lifestyle and maintenance preferences.
If you follow these tips, you’ll be properly using your fabric swatches for your personal gain!
What's Next?
Now that you understand the benefits of fabric swatches, you have a better grasp of why you should order them and how to use them.
If you need a little bit of help determining what kind of fabric is right for your lifestyle, no need to worry! Our design consultants are always eager to lend a helping hand. You may also take advantage of our interior design services to see how our fabric can fit in your home.
Start shopping by visiting any of our furniture showrooms located in Ottawa or Kingston, or you can schedule a visit online before coming in.
To see a glimpse of what we have to offer, take a look at some of our best-selling furniture items:
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