Hospitality, 6 min read
Upholstery specified for public spaces
Rub counts, foam densities and covers that come off: what actually decides how long a lobby sofa lasts.
Joseph Mnyika, 11 September 2026
Residential fabric choices fail in public spaces for one reason: the fabric is rarely what fails. Seams open first, foam bottoms out first, and covers that cannot be removed become the reason a piece is replaced two years into a ten year plan.
Rub counts are the floor, not the ceiling
A Martindale figure tells you how the fabric wears against itself. It says nothing about seam construction, fill, or the cleaning chemicals a property actually uses. We specify contract grade fabric as a starting position, then spend the rest of the decision on stitching and fill.
A lobby chair is cleaned far more often than it is sat in.
Design for the cover to come off
Zippered, labelled, machine washable covers mean the housekeeping team solves a stain instead of reporting it. High resilience foam with a fibre wrap holds its shape past the point where slab foam has gone flat, and both are standard in anything we send to a hotel.
The test is simple: if the maintenance team cannot service the piece with what is in their store, the specification is wrong.
