Can't find furniture to suit our needs

[Traditionalist]

We are shopping for a sofa and 2 recliners with little luck. We want the sofa to be a Lawson style in a pattern, stripe or plaid and cannot find a fabric to suit. We would like recliners that do not look like couch potatoes sit in them--we would like something in a wingback that doesn't look like a recliner. There is a Motion Craft recliner that we liked in the store but we don't want it in leather. I'm somewhat hesitant to order in a microfiber since others have thought the items were different than they expected with just a leather/fabric change. Is this doable or not recommended? If it is, are there any changes we should request? There just doesn't seem to be any cat friendly fabrics out there. We like a Harden sofa but none of the Harden fabrics will do. There is one Motion Craft fabric (a microfiber faux suede) that looks nice and fits our needs but I don't know if we can purchase fabric from them and order the Harden sofa C/O/M. How much of an upcharge might be asked? Our current sofa is 44 years old and came with a cotton velvet stripe fabric which held up so well I had it reupholstered in the same fabric 22 years later. Now I can't find a thing in new or upholstery fabrics. The store suggested we use the Motion Craft fabric and look for a Motion Craft sofa. They do not have sofas on the floor and I don't want to buy something I haven't sat in. I do not want to put thousands into a sofa and not have it be exactly what we need. Any suggestions on what to try? (Losing the cats is not an option.)

[drcollie]

There are hundreds of thousands of fabrics on the market. A lot has to do with price. If you live in a major city center, there are 'Design Centers' in most of them where you can see probably 100,000 fabrics under one roof in a visit, more than you can go though. Then you COM the fabric to the maker. Yes, you will pay more for COM pieces, typically the recliner is priced at COM as the same grade as their level 1 fabric.

Leather will outlast any fabric by a factor of 4 to 1 because there is no friction wear on leather.

Microfiber is nothing more than 100% polyester with super-fine strands that don't trap dirt. It is not longer wearing than other 100 % poly fabrics and like all man-made synthetics will pill over time.