In today’s ever-changing world of fabrics, it can be intimidating and challenging to make a wise selection for your worship space.

Most clients want to select a fabric that fits their color scheme. Yet also want a fabric that they can depend on for its durability, as well as reliability. Certain types of worship furniture can add to the complexity of a fabric selection. Especially when the fabric is for pews.

Pews, by their nature, are one continuous piece of furniture. As they become longer in length present a challenge for some fabrics. It is important that your furniture supplier has fabric expertise. There are many fabrics in the market place. Not all fabrics perform well on all types of seating. Some may perform well on chairs and auditorium seats, but not so well on pews. In other cases the opposite may occur. The fabric performs well on pews but not on auditorium seats.

• Always ask your furniture supplier if they test all of their fabrics for a variety of performance criteria. Including curve-line issues, seam slippage and wrinkling.
• Request current fabric cards from your worship furniture supplier before making your initial fabric choices. If the cards are not updated or confirmed, you could be disappointed later. Your worship furniture representative should be able to answer your questions. Including the technical information shown on the fabric card. Also the different cost options for the various fabrics.
• Once you select fabric choices from the cards, you can then request memo samples. These larger samples will either confirm or eliminate some of your choices. This helps to narrow down your selection to a final choice.
• If you decide to use COM (Customer’s Own Material) or non-standard fabric, make sure that your fabric is tested for use on your worship seating and that it can be supplied in a timely manner.
• If your furniture committee does not have any interior design expertise, you may want to consider what assistance is available from your furniture supplier.

Your final fabric selection will have a huge impact in the overall appearance of your worship space. Making a wise selection will be well worth the time and effort it takes. Ensuring you and your congregation will be happy with the choice now and in the future.