Which Fabric Is Best for an Ottoman Storage Bench?

There is no single best fabric for an ottoman storage bench — the right choice depends on how hard the bench will be used. For a seat you use every day, chenille and faux leather are the most hard-wearing UK options, both rated well above what a bench needs. Velvet is best where looks lead, such as a bedroom or living room, and cotton suits softer, more decorative schemes. Match the fabric’s Martindale abrasion rating to the room first, then choose on colour and feel.

Fabric is the decision most buyers make straight after size, and it is the one most likely to be made on looks alone — which is exactly how a beautiful bench ends up worn bare along its front edge within a couple of years. The fabric that suits a quiet bedroom is often the wrong fabric for a busy hallway. This guide compares the four upholstery fabrics you will actually find on an ottoman storage bench in the UK, using the industry abrasion measure that tells you how each will hold up, so you can match the fabric to the room rather than to a mood board.

How should you choose an ottoman bench fabric?

Choose fabric in this order: room and use first, abrasion rating second, look and colour last. A bench you sit on daily in a hallway or family room needs a higher-rated, easier-clean fabric than a decorative bench in a spare bedroom. Deciding by looks first is the most common and most expensive mistake.

A storage bench is a working piece of furniture. People sit on the lid, drop bags on it, put shoes on beside it and drag it across the floor when they vacuum. That means the single most useful question is not “which fabric do I like?” but “how hard will this bench be used?” A bench at the foot of a guest bed sees light, occasional use; a bench by the front door of a family home takes constant contact from coats, bags and muddy shoes. Those two benches want different fabrics, even if you love the look of the same one.

Get the order right — use, then durability, then looks — and every fabric on the market becomes suitable somewhere. Get it wrong and even an expensive fabric disappoints, because it was asked to do a job it was never rated for.

What is a Martindale rating, and what number do you need?

The Martindale rating is the UK and European measure of how much rubbing a fabric survives before it shows wear, tested to BS EN ISO 12947. For an ottoman bench you sit on daily, look for at least 25,000 Martindale (the heavy-domestic band). A lightly used bedroom bench can drop to the 15,000–25,000 general-domestic range; a hallway or family bench benefits from more.

The Martindale test rubs a fabric sample in a figure-of-eight motion against a standard abrasive and counts the cycles until the fabric shows visible wear or threads break. The result is quoted as a number of “rubs.” It is the closest thing upholstery has to a durability score, and UK fabrics are graded into rough bands:

• 10,000–15,000 — light domestic: occasional-use furniture only. Too low for a bench you sit on regularly.
• 15,000–25,000 — general domestic: fine for a lightly used bedroom bench.
• 25,000–30,000 — heavy domestic: the sensible minimum for a bench in daily use.
• 30,000+ — contract grade: built for public spaces, and comfortably over-specified for a home bench — a useful headroom if it will take heavy family use.

The practical rule: a storage bench earns its keep by being sat on, so treat 25,000 Martindale as your floor and read anything above it as longevity in the bank. The number matters more than the fabric name — a well-made chenille and a well-made velvet can both clear that bar, and a cheap version of either may not.

How do velvet, chenille, faux leather and cotton compare?

Chenille and faux leather are the most hard-wearing of the four; velvet offers the most striking look with good durability; cotton is the softest and most decorative but the least stain-resistant. In the ISTOOLS range, chenille is rated above 47,000 Martindale, velvet above 29,000 Martindale, and faux leather above 80,000 rubs.

These are the four fabrics you will realistically choose between for an ottoman storage bench in the UK. Each earns its place in a different room.

Fabric	Typical rating	Feel & look	Best for	Watch-outs
Velvet (polyester velour)	>29,000 Martindale	Soft pile, light-catching, rich colour	Bedrooms, living rooms, statement pieces	Shows pressure and pile marks; vacuum in the pile direction
Chenille (flat-weave polyester)	>47,000 Martindale	Textured, matte, cosy underhand	Everyday family use, living rooms	Pile can flatten slightly over years; not wipe-clean
Faux leather (polyester & PVC)	>80,000 rubs*	Smooth, structured, wipe-clean	Hallways, high-traffic and family rooms, kids	Cooler to the touch; *rub figure is not a like-for-like Martindale (see below)
Cotton	Varies by weave	Natural, breathable, matte, patterned options	Decorative, lower-traffic schemes	Absorbs spills; best kept out of the hardest-wearing spots

Velvet

Velvet is chosen for impact. Its cut pile catches the light, deepens colour and gives a bench a soft, plush presence nothing flat can match. A polyester velvet rated above 29,000 Martindale sits in the heavy-domestic band, so it stands up to daily use — the caveat is cosmetic rather than structural: pile fabrics show pressure marks where you sit, which read as lighter or darker shading. That is normal for all pile fabrics, not a fault, and it brushes or steams back. Velvet suits the bedroom and living room, where the look does the heavy lifting and the wear is gentler.

Chenille

Chenille is the quiet workhorse. Its tufted yarns give a soft, textured surface with a matte, cosy feel, and its tighter, flatter construction shrugs off scuffing and pet claws better than a raised pile. At above 47,000 Martindale it clears the heavy-domestic bar with room to spare, which makes it the sensible pick for a bench that lives in a busy family room and gets sat on daily. It hides everyday marks well, though like any woven fabric it is not wipe-clean and wants regular vacuuming.

Faux leather

Faux leather earns its place on practicality. It wipes down with a damp cloth, does not absorb spills, and takes constant contact from coats, bags and muddy shoes without complaint — which is why it belongs by the front door. Rated above 80,000 rubs, it is the most abrasion-resistant of the four on paper, with the important caveat below about how that figure is measured. The trade-off is feel: it is cooler and less breathable than a woven fabric, so it is a better hallway choice than a lounging one. For the hallway job specifically, see how to make an ottoman bench work in a UK hallway.

Cotton

Cotton is the softest and most natural-feeling of the four, breathable underhand and available in patterned and floral finishes that a plain pile cannot offer. It suits a decorative bench in a lower-traffic room — a bedroom corner, a dressing area — where its looks are the point. Its weakness is spills: a natural woven cotton absorbs liquid readily, so it is the fabric to keep away from the hardest-wearing, most accident-prone spots and to spot-clean promptly.

What about linen and wool?

Linen and wool are both used in upholstery generally, but they are far less common on storage benches specifically. Linen creases and marks easily and wool sits at a premium price point, so most UK ottoman benches use velvet, chenille, faux leather or cotton instead. If you have your heart set on linen or wool, check the exact fabric rating and care code before buying.

Two fabrics come up often enough in searches to be worth addressing directly. Linen has a beautiful, natural, slightly slubby texture and suits neutral and natural interior schemes, but pure linen creases readily, marks with water and needs careful cleaning — qualities that count against it on a seat that gets sat on and knocked. Where you do see “linen” on furniture it is often a linen-look polyester blend chosen for exactly that reason. Wool is genuinely hard-wearing and naturally flame-resistant, but it commands a premium price and is more common on sofas and armchairs than on storage benches, where it rarely justifies the cost. For most buyers, one of the four main fabrics above will do the same job for less. If linen or wool is a firm preference, treat the fabric’s stated Martindale rating and care code as the deciding details rather than the fibre name alone.

Why can’t you compare a US “double rub” number with a UK Martindale rating?

Because they are different tests. The UK and Europe use the Martindale test; the US uses the Wyzenbeek double-rub test. The methods differ and the numbers cannot be converted directly, so a listing quoting 100,000 double rubs is not equivalent to 100,000 Martindale. Treat double-rub figures on imported listings as a rough indication only.

Much online furniture advice is written for the US market, where abrasion is measured by the Wyzenbeek double-rub test rather than Martindale. The two use different machines, different motions and different abrasives, so their numbers are not interchangeable — a big-sounding double-rub figure on an imported listing does not translate into an equivalent Martindale rating. When you are comparing benches, compare like with like: Martindale against Martindale.

There is a second, subtler trap that catches even careful buyers. A coated fabric such as faux leather is not tested the same way as a woven textile at all; its abrasion resistance is usually measured on a different standard again, which is why our faux leather is quoted in “rubs” above 80,000 rather than as a Martindale figure. That number is genuinely high, but it is not directly comparable with a woven fabric’s Martindale rating — so read it as “very hard-wearing,” not as “three times tougher than the chenille.” The honest takeaway is that all four fabrics clear the bar a home bench needs; the choice between them comes down to feel, cleaning and room, not to chasing the largest number.

Which fabric suits each room?

Bedroom: velvet or cotton, for looks over heavy wear. Living room: chenille or velvet, balancing durability and comfort. Hallway: faux leather, because it wipes clean and takes constant contact. Children’s room: faux leather or a high-rated chenille, for spills and scuffs. Match the fabric to the traffic the room actually sees.

Pulling it together room by room:

• Bedroom (end of bed): gentler use, so looks can lead — velvet for a statement, cotton for a softer, decorative feel. For getting the length right against the bed, see what size bench fits a UK king or super king bed.
• Living room: daily sitting and footrest duty — chenille for hard-wearing comfort, velvet where the piece is a centrepiece.
• Hallway: the highest-contact spot in the house — faux leather earns its place by wiping clean.
• Children’s room: spills and scuffs are guaranteed — faux leather or a high-rated chenille cope best.
• Small flats: where one bench does several jobs, prioritise a fabric that handles the busiest of them; see choosing a storage ottoman for a small UK flat.

Once you have the fabric settled, the pillar covers the rest of the specification — sizes, lid mechanisms and construction: read what to look for in an ottoman storage bench. You can also browse the velvet and textured footstool range or the buttoned Chesterfield range.

Does fabric choice affect UK fire safety?

Yes, indirectly. Upholstered ottoman benches sold in the UK must meet the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988, which govern the fabric-and-filling combination, not the fabric alone. Any compliant bench will already meet the standard; the fabric’s flame behaviour is one part of how that compliance is achieved.

UK upholstered furniture is covered by the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire Safety) Regulations 1988, and storage ottomans fall within scope. Compliance is a property of the finished piece — the fabric tested together with its filling and any interliner — rather than of the fabric in isolation, which is why some upholstery fabrics are flame-retardant treated during manufacture. In practice this is not a decision you make at the fabric-swatch stage: a bench sold legally in the UK already complies. It is worth knowing simply because it explains why you cannot judge fire safety from the fabric name, and why a compliant bench is the baseline, not a premium feature.