There’s nothing quite like rubbing your hands across the surface of velvet. The interesting richness makes any surface even more crush-worthy. (Now that was cheesy!)
Our new house has a living room and a family room (the rumpus room!). This second entertaining space was a “must have” on our home buying list. Now we have one and have been slowly finding pieces of furniture to fill it.
Embarrassingly, two zero gravity lawn chairs are the only seating options right now. It’s clear, we need a sofa when the budget allows. I’ve been eyeing up some lovely varieties and this got me thinking more about velvet.
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Variety
Velvet is a broad term, as there are different surfaces to the fabric. Some of my favorite types of are:
- Voided
- Crushed
- Pile on Pile
- Velveteen
Nostalgia
And who can forget those marker coloring books where the black lines are a dense black velvet. You can still buy these types of books if you’re feeling inspired to relive these coloring books of yesteryear.
There’s also some holiday nostalgia on this topic, remember velvet covered deer? So many people I knew who had these critters usually had a pair in an unnatural shade of cherry red. Here are a more modern (and realistically colored) take on those deer.
Crushed Nostalgia
(I’m really coming up with some terrible velvet puns!) But in all seriousness, to some people, images of a velvet bring up memories of discolored pieces that have been handed down one too many times. It seems like there was always a friend who had one of these couches in their college apartment. These decades old pieces held up pretty well, all things considered.
Pile on the Varieties
But seriously, the variety of textures, the richness of colors and the unique shapes are astounding. We have multiple cats in our household. Cats love to hang out on couches. From what I’ve read online, it’s easy to use a wet hand or a rubber glove to gather fur into a clump and pick it off a velvet couch. This alone nearly justifies getting one since I hate vacuuming our couch.
Flexibility
Velvet is sort of like a good pair of jeans or black skirt, you can dress it up or dress it down. In my mind, the richness of the surface gives a bit of sophistication no matter the shape or style. Even a more formal shape, can be made more casual and comfortable.
Colorful
For some reason, and it may be illogical, I feel like this fabric comes in bolder and more vibrant colors that other materials.
I’ve found that velvet couches come in a wide range of colors, from more neutral grays to rich jewel tones. You can get a couch in styles to match your life and home decor style – traditional, mid century modern and even coastal. While some sofa materials seem to stick to uber neutrals, think tan, beige and brown, velvet comes in so many rich hues.
There are many mid century modern versions of velvet furniture as well. What I love about these pieces are the mix of fabric and lovely smooth wood.
Comfort
My experience with velvet has been with synthetic versions. While there are options made from silk and wool, I have not experienced them.
From my limited experience, I can tell you that synthetic velvet can get warm while wearing it. I would consider this a pro when you live in a cold region. However, I’m not sure how comfortable large swaths of velvet would be in sweltering humid climates.
A few more lovely accent pieces in velvet.
