We do not promise a number of years. A bar stool in a busy bar and an armchair in a suite are not the same chair, so the promise that matters is made before anything is cut: the right cloth for the room, specified to a number you can check.
The number is the Martindale count. A machine rubs a sample in circles under a set weight until the weave gives way, and the count is how many rubs it took. It is the measure your own specifier will ask for, and it is a property of the fabric rather than an opinion about it.
We specify to the use, not to the swatch. Tell us the room and the traffic and we will name a cloth that suits it — and say so plainly when the one you have chosen will not last in the place you want to put it.
The second number is the fire test. In the Netherlands and Belgium upholstered seating for public use is tested to EN 1021-1 and EN 1021-2, the cigarette and the match. We specify fabrics and fillings that carry that test data, and we will send you the sheet for the ones in your project. Ask for it, from any supplier.
Every order leaves with attic stock: ten per cent extra fabric, kept for you. Three years from now a re-covered seat matches the room, because the roll it came from is still on the shelf. It is the cheapest thing on any quote and the first thing anyone regrets leaving off.
| Martindale | Where it belongs | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| 15.000 | Domestic | A private living room. Not a project. |
| 25.000 | General contract | Offices, a quiet dining room, guest-room seating. |
| 40.000+ | Heavy contract | Hotel lobbies, restaurants, bars, anywhere the public sits all day. |
| 100.000+ | Extreme | Transport seating. Rarely needed, and it costs what it sounds like. |
Sending your own fabric? Send the roll's data sheet with it. If the count is wrong for the room we will tell you before we cut, not after.