The perfect touch: Why we only use pure Italian linen and velvet fabrics for Schplendid sofas
Posted posted on September 22, 2025
At Schplendid we do something almost unheard of in the sofa world: we cover every sofa in the very finest pure Italian linens and velvets — no blends, no polyesters, no shortcuts. It’s indulgent, yes, but it’s also the right way. Here’s why…
At Schplendid we made a decision very early on: if our sofas were going to be covered in fabric, that fabric had to be the best we could possibly find. No cheating with clever blends, no “good enough” polyester disguised with fancy names. Just proper, natural fabrics — the kind you’d be delighted to wear as clothes, let alone sit on every day.
In the words of our founder, Rohan Blacker — a man who has been down more fabric rabbit holes than is strictly healthy — we insisted on coverings that would be “splendid, genuinely splendid… Schplendid, in fact.”
The Schplendid difference
Most sofa makers save money on the part you touch every single day: the fabric. They’ll quietly wrap their frames in poly blends, or spray on chemical finishes to make them feel smoother and tougher than they really are. The result? Cheaper to make, but flat, plasticky, and destined to pill and fray.
We decided to do the opposite. Our fabrics come direct from extraordinary mills just outside Florence — the kind of places that live and breathe cloth. One mill is entirely devoted to linen, and it absolutely shows.
We use three families of fabric, and three only:
Super-heavyweight linen. This is the workhorse and the show-stopper. A fabric with real backbone: dense, structured, beautifully woven. It feels properly luxurious — the kind of cloth that would set you back £160–£180 a metre on the high street. And you need about 15 metres for a three-seat sofa. You can do the maths.
Lightweight linen. Woven with a looser drape, this is linen in its more relaxed mood. Softer, breezier, a little bit undone — in the best possible way. It hangs looser, more chilled, with really gorgeous colours.
Pure cotton velvet. Many velvets you’ll encounter are blends, with polyester lurking in the pile. Ours is 100% cotton. No fillers, no fakes. Just velvet as it should be: lush, tactile, irresistibly stroke-able.
We could have cut corners. We could have done what everyone else does: blend in a bit of acrylic, add a bit of polyester sheen. Instead, we said: if it’s linen, it’s linen; if it’s velvet, it’s velvet. Nothing else.
Why natural fabrics matter
There’s something almost old-fashioned about committing to natural cloth in a world of synthetics. But that’s exactly the point.
They breathe.Sit on a polyester sofa in summer and you’ll know about it. Linen keeps cool when it’s hot, warm when it’s cold. Velvet holds warmth with a gentle softness.
They last. Natural fabrics age like a good leather jacket or a pair of jeans. Linen softens and patinas, velvet deepens and gains character. Plastics just crack.
They’re kinder.These fabrics are plant-based and biodegradable. No nasties, no polyesters, no acrylics, no nothing. When your sofa finally retires, it won’t linger in landfill for centuries.
They’re lovely to live with. There’s an honesty in knowing that what you’re touching is exactly what it says it is. No chemical sprays, no petrochemical fibres pretending to be something else.
In short, these fabrics don’t just look good — they feel good, and they do good.
So how on earth do we do this and keep it affordable?
It’s a fair question. If our fabrics cost £160–£180 a metre on the high street, and a three-seat sofa swallows 15 metres, why aren’t Schplendid sofas priced in the stratosphere?
The answer lies in how we think about profit. Most sofa brands add a percentage margin on top of every cost. So the more expensive the material, the bigger the slice they take for themselves. That’s how you end up with “luxury” sofas that look and feel much like ours, but sell for two or three times the price.
We don’t do that. We keep ourselves lean everywhere that doesn’t touch your sofa — no showrooms, no splashy marketing campaigns, no sales gimmicks. And when we choose to spend more on something important, like pure Italian linen or cotton velvet, we pass that cost directly to you, with no extra profit margin attached.
In other words: you’re paying for fabric, not for mark-ups. That’s why our sofas can be genuinely made of the best stuff, while staying within reach of real people.
At Schplendid we don’t like to think of ourselves as fabric ‘snobs’ — perish the thought! But we do admit to being fabric obsessives. We want you to sit down, run your hand along the arm, and know that what you’re feeling is the real thing. That’s why we went all-in on linen and velvet, and nothing else.
Other brands put their money into showrooms, advertising and sales gimmicks. We put ours into the part you’ll touch every single day — and we only ever charge you for the sofa itself, not for inflated mark-ups.
Sit back, stroke the fabric, and feel the difference.
Q: Why don’t most sofa brands use pure linen or cotton velvet? Because they’re expensive, harder to work with, and don’t fit the “cheap to make, big margin to sell” model. Cheaper sofas use polyester blends or faux velvets that look plush in the showroom, but don’t last.
Q: Does linen crease or wear badly? Linen does have a natural, relaxed look — that’s part of its charm. But the linens we’ve chosen are woven for upholstery. The heavyweight version is structured and robust; the lighter version has that easy, draped elegance that only gets better with age.
Q: Is velvet impractical? Not ours. Pure cotton velvet is strong, durable and loves to be lived with. Over time it develops a richness that synthetic velvets can’t match.
Q: How many colours are there? We currently offer around 20 across the three fabric families, chosen to be rich, versatile, and — if we say so ourselves — very beautiful.
The perfect touch: Why we only use pure Italian linen and velvet fabrics for Schplendid sofas
At Schplendid we do something almost unheard of in the sofa world: we cover every sofa in the very finest pure Italian linens and velvets — no blends, no polyesters, no shortcuts. It’s indulgent, yes, but it’s also the right way. Here’s why…
At Schplendid we made a decision very early on: if our sofas were going to be covered in fabric, that fabric had to be the best we could possibly find. No cheating with clever blends, no “good enough” polyester disguised with fancy names. Just proper, natural fabrics — the kind you’d be delighted to wear as clothes, let alone sit on every day.
In the words of our founder, Rohan Blacker — a man who has been down more fabric rabbit holes than is strictly healthy — we insisted on coverings that would be “splendid, genuinely splendid… Schplendid, in fact.”
The Schplendid difference
Most sofa makers save money on the part you touch every single day: the fabric. They’ll quietly wrap their frames in poly blends, or spray on chemical finishes to make them feel smoother and tougher than they really are. The result? Cheaper to make, but flat, plasticky, and destined to pill and fray.
We decided to do the opposite. Our fabrics come direct from extraordinary mills just outside Florence — the kind of places that live and breathe cloth. One mill is entirely devoted to linen, and it absolutely shows.
We use three families of fabric, and three only:
Super-heavyweight linen. This is the workhorse and the show-stopper. A fabric with real backbone: dense, structured, beautifully woven. It feels properly luxurious — the kind of cloth that would set you back £160–£180 a metre on the high street. And you need about 15 metres for a three-seat sofa. You can do the maths.
Lightweight linen. Woven with a looser drape, this is linen in its more relaxed mood. Softer, breezier, a little bit undone — in the best possible way. It hangs looser, more chilled, with really gorgeous colours.
Pure cotton velvet. Many velvets you’ll encounter are blends, with polyester lurking in the pile. Ours is 100% cotton. No fillers, no fakes. Just velvet as it should be: lush, tactile, irresistibly stroke-able.
We could have cut corners. We could have done what everyone else does: blend in a bit of acrylic, add a bit of polyester sheen. Instead, we said: if it’s linen, it’s linen; if it’s velvet, it’s velvet. Nothing else.
Why natural fabrics matter
There’s something almost old-fashioned about committing to natural cloth in a world of synthetics. But that’s exactly the point.
They breathe. Sit on a polyester sofa in summer and you’ll know about it. Linen keeps cool when it’s hot, warm when it’s cold. Velvet holds warmth with a gentle softness.
They last. Natural fabrics age like a good leather jacket or a pair of jeans. Linen softens and patinas, velvet deepens and gains character. Plastics just crack.
They’re kinder. These fabrics are plant-based and biodegradable. No nasties, no polyesters, no acrylics, no nothing. When your sofa finally retires, it won’t linger in landfill for centuries.
They’re lovely to live with. There’s an honesty in knowing that what you’re touching is exactly what it says it is. No chemical sprays, no petrochemical fibres pretending to be something else.
In short, these fabrics don’t just look good — they feel good, and they do good.
You can read more about the wonders of the fabrics in our Schplendid Guide to Italian Linen.
So how on earth do we do this and keep it affordable?
It’s a fair question. If our fabrics cost £160–£180 a metre on the high street, and a three-seat sofa swallows 15 metres, why aren’t Schplendid sofas priced in the stratosphere?
The answer lies in how we think about profit. Most sofa brands add a percentage margin on top of every cost. So the more expensive the material, the bigger the slice they take for themselves. That’s how you end up with “luxury” sofas that look and feel much like ours, but sell for two or three times the price.
We don’t do that. We keep ourselves lean everywhere that doesn’t touch your sofa — no showrooms, no splashy marketing campaigns, no sales gimmicks. And when we choose to spend more on something important, like pure Italian linen or cotton velvet, we pass that cost directly to you, with no extra profit margin attached.
In other words: you’re paying for fabric, not for mark-ups. That’s why our sofas can be genuinely made of the best stuff, while staying within reach of real people.
At Schplendid we don’t like to think of ourselves as fabric ‘snobs’ — perish the thought! But we do admit to being fabric obsessives. We want you to sit down, run your hand along the arm, and know that what you’re feeling is the real thing. That’s why we went all-in on linen and velvet, and nothing else.
Other brands put their money into showrooms, advertising and sales gimmicks. We put ours into the part you’ll touch every single day — and we only ever charge you for the sofa itself, not for inflated mark-ups.
Sit back, stroke the fabric, and feel the difference.
It’s Schplendid.
Browse our Schplendid sofa fabrics and colours here.
FAQs
Q: Why don’t most sofa brands use pure linen or cotton velvet?
Because they’re expensive, harder to work with, and don’t fit the “cheap to make, big margin to sell” model. Cheaper sofas use polyester blends or faux velvets that look plush in the showroom, but don’t last.
Q: Does linen crease or wear badly?
Linen does have a natural, relaxed look — that’s part of its charm. But the linens we’ve chosen are woven for upholstery. The heavyweight version is structured and robust; the lighter version has that easy, draped elegance that only gets better with age.
Q: Is velvet impractical?
Not ours. Pure cotton velvet is strong, durable and loves to be lived with. Over time it develops a richness that synthetic velvets can’t match.
Q: How many colours are there?
We currently offer around 20 across the three fabric families, chosen to be rich, versatile, and — if we say so ourselves — very beautiful.
Sofa fabrics: Compare the difference
Feature
Schplendid Linen & Velvet
Typical High-Street Sofa Fabrics
Luxury Brands (£10k+)
Composition
100% natural (linen or cotton velvet)
Polyester blends, synthetic velvets, sprayed finishes
Sometimes pure, often blended
Source
Direct from Italian mills near Florence
Mass-produced factories
Similar mills, but higher mark-ups
Feel & Look
Luxurious, breathable, ages beautifully
Flat, plasticky, prone to pilling
Excellent quality, but at double or triple the price
Sustainability
Biodegradable, no nasties
Plastics, petrochemicals, chemical sprays
Varies
Price point
Included in sofa price, cost only
Cheap to buy, big mark-ups
Fabric cost multiplied many times over
See also:
A Schplendid Guide to Italian Linen: its history, science, craft and delights
The unique, radical pricing model that makes Schplendid sofas affordable
Why we use Eight-Way Hand-Tied Coil Springs in our sofas
Solid beech hardwood and proper joinery: Why we build Schplendid sofa frames the old-fashioned way
Why we upholster our sofas with coconut and wool instead of foam
Why we only use pure Italian linen and velvet fabrics for Schplendid sofas
Why we use goose down in Schplendid sofa cushions
Why we only use Biofoam (and as little as possible) and never plastic foam in our sofas
Why I Started Schplendid: A Sofa Manifesto