Cat proof upholstery recommendations?

[lilynmitz]

Hi all, we're hoping to get a new sofa sometime soon, with a wide range of choice in fabrics. I know the best cat-roof fabric is a thick throw (!), but Ziggy loves burrowing underneath throws and savaging the furniture, so that doesn't really work for us.

So, I'm interested to know from the experience of others what fabrics survive best the ravages of two young and bonkers cats and their claws! What have you found lasts the longest/survives the best?

[Lilith]

Vinyl

Not the most attractive upholstery, but I first read about it in the books of Doreen Tovey, whose Siamese ripped hell out of everything; she was assured that the cats wouldn't touch vinyl and as I remember, they didn't.

Most of my furniture is elderly and cottagey but, wanting a really comfortable recliner/rocker, I ended up with a black vinyl object. My cherished art deco chair and my ?1930s basket chair (amongst other things) have been ravaged down to the bone; the black vinyl's over 10 years old and there's scarcely a puncture mark - perhaps the odd faint scratch on the arms where someone's lost their balance. I don't use a big throw over it either - I did, but I got sick of finding it puked on and having to wash it.

So, while not being a great fan of vinyl, I can recommend it.

I really don't know why either - you'd think it would suffer the same fate as leather - decades ago I had two disgraceful old leather and moquette armchairs - and by the time the cats were through with them they were even more disgraceful

Good luck!

[Kay]

when I replaced a ravaged leather sofa with a new one, I put it at first against a wall in a corner, which protected the back and one side, and placed a large cat tree against the other side - and it worked - after a month I moved it out of the corner and my two never touched it

another thing which I think helps is to have sofas and chairs with legs, which at least makes the sides and back less accessible for stropping claws

[Crewella]

As may well have been noticed in my numerous pics (;) )I'm an old hippie so cover everything in old persian style rugs - some of them are very thin and velvety. Under all that is a 'velour' style sofa cover, which has survived remarkably well!

[MarkB]

We have 6 sofas. The only one that has survived claws is the velvet one. It is real cotton velvet, rather than velour (just as well, as it cost an arm and a leg in Multiyork ) - for some reason, they just don't like the texture.

[lilynmitz]

Pete suggested Kevlar, chain mail or mithril, but I haven't seen those in the shops yet.

[Crewella]

Pete suggested Kevlar, chain mail or mithril, but I haven't seen those in the shops yet.

[meriad]

LOL at Pete

I've always had leather sofas and interestingly enough the cat's don't seem to fussed with them. I have one scratch on one of the seat cushions but that's thanks to a kid wearing sandals on the sofa and the buckle left that scratch (so now any kids in the lounge have to take shoes off )

I also have a velour type material armchair that they do scratch on at times, but it really seems to be standing up to it - I can't see any marks on it at all

Personally I'd always go for leather - purely because if it does get scratched you can usually a) cover it up with a leather polish and b) most decent leather sofas come with a 5 or 10 year guarantee anyway and also you can pretend it's part of 'rustic' look

[lilynmitz]

I remember visiting someone who had about 7 house cats, and a leather suite, but it was full of claw marks. Interesting to hear that yours has survived Ria. Perhaps it helps if they're indoor/outdoor cats?

[meriad]

Oh make no mistake, there are a few scratches on it, but my old sofa they came mainly from Molly because as she got older she struggled to jump up and would slip and same on the sofa now - there are a few tiny scratch marks from them jumping up. But none of mine use the sofa as a scratch post