Indoor Outdoor Fabric for Upholstery, Patio Furniture, Awning & More

Shop Outdoor Fabric by the Yard

With hundreds of selections of indoor outdoor upholstery fabric from the top brands in the industry, Decorative Fabrics Direct is an excellent source for these specialized furniture upholstery fabrics, for marine cabin use, patio furniture upholstery and canvas coverings. We provide our customers with selections from the very best outdoor fabric performance brands including Sunbrella, Outdura, Sunbelievable, Covington, Richloom and Performatex.

Many of our outdoor fabrics can also be utilized in various indoor applications, especially where stain resistance is important. At Decorative Fabrics Direct, you can browse indoor outdoor upholstery fabric by color, brand or end use, making it easy to refine your search to your project needs. For superior UV and weather resistance we suggest you browse the high-performance outdoor fabric category, order a sample for a closer look and then purchase outdoor fabric by the yard and at wholesale direct prices.

Best Outdoor Fabric Brands

The outdoor fabric market is dominated by a select few top brands that produce beautiful designs and extremely high-quality fabric that is mildew, stain, UV and weather resistant. These brands are widely used when a quality outdoor fabric is needed by both residential and commercial customers. For almost any outdoor furniture or upholstery application, Decorative Fabrics Direct features brands that will provide the durability, style and color to fit your project needs. Below are some of our most popular high performance outdoor fabric brands.

• Sunbrella Outdoor Fabric - Sunbrella is a leading brand and pioneer of high quality, high performance solution dyed acrylic outdoor fabric. In addition to outdoor use, many decorators and consumers are choosing outdoor upholstery fabric by Sunbrella for their interior upholstered furniture projects due to the fabric’s easy-to-clean properties.
• Sunbelievable Outdoor Fabric - Sunbelievable is a high styled performance fabric for indoors or outdoor that is available in both solution dyed acrylic as well as solution dyed polyester. Both have the full compliment of properties you are looking for whether using this indoors or outdoors. Top USA designers create the looks for today at tremendous values.
• Outdura Outdoor Fabric - This historic American mill specializes in high performance outdoor fabrics. Their large selection of 100% solution-dyed acrylic fabrics are fade resistant, stain resistant, water resistant, mold resistant, mildew resistant and easy to clean.
• Covington Outdoor Fabric - Covington is a well respected upholstery fabric source for providing a large selection of outdoor fabric. Their solution dyed fabrics feature a wide range of beautiful patterns and colors suitable for most any decorating project - indoors or outdoors.
• Richloom Outdoor Fabric - Richloom features a variety of outdoor performance-grade fabrics with superior durability and cleanability while maintaining a soft hand. These fabrics are fade resistant, diluted bleach cleanable, breathable and the perfect product to decorate your home either indoors or outdoors.
• Performatex Outdoor Fabric - Performatex is a high performance brand in the solution dyed polyester performance fabric category. Offering the latest in colors and original designs for today’s lifestyles, Performatex boast a strong performance story that is suitable for most any indoor or outdoor upholstery fabric application.

Common Uses for Indoor Outdoor Fabric

There's a lot of versatility when using an outdoor fabric for upholstery. A premium outdoor fabric is produced to withstand mildew, moisture and fading from UV light. Additionally, many selections are perfect for indoor upholstery especially when moisture and stain resistance is paramount. Below are some of the most common applications for outdoor fabrics:

• Patio Furniture Fabric - Patio furniture has to be equal parts durable, weather resistant, stylish and comfortable. That’s a tall order for a piece of fabric. However, several manufacturers produce outdoor fabric that meets each of these qualities. Typically a cotton, linen or blend of cotton and linen are not produced for outdoor applications and will tend to fade, mildew and tear when used in a setting exposed to the elements. Premium indoor outdoor fabrics produced for patio furniture will allow you to leave your patio furniture exposed to the elements while retaining fabric color, cleanliness and comfort. For outdoor patio furniture and outdoor seat cushions browse our high performance outdoor upholstery fabrics that have a stylish design and color with the technical specifications to be water resistant, mildew resistant, and UV resistant.
• Water resistant Outdoor Furniture Fabric - While most high quality outdoor upholstery fabric isn’t technically waterproof as most are produced to be breathable. This allows for any rain to evaporate from the cushion itself and not stay trapped deep down in the cushion; thus, the fabric is water repellent and resistant to water damage. Just be sure you use outdoor capable cushioning as well as sewing threads for outdoor use.
• UV Resistant Outdoor Furniture Fabric - One of the biggest requirements of the manufacturing process of premium outdoor fabric brands is UV resistance. There is a metric referred to as “lightfastness” that determines how resistant a fabric is to fading when exposed to sunlight. Many performance outdoor fabric yarns are solution-dyed before weaving which provides full depth coverage of color. In the process of extrusion, a treatment is added to provide the fiber with UV protection. This process dramatically increases an outdoor fabric’s “colorfastness”.
• Outdoor Awning Fabric (Including RVs) - Another application where you tend to see outdoor high performance fabrics is in commercial awnings, residential awnings and RV awnings. Our awning capable fabrics such as those made by Outdura are specifically made for awnings and have similar outdoor qualities to our outdoor upoholstery fabrics, the difference being that with an awning you want very, very little water to pass through the fabric so these are woven tighter to achieve that result. Outdoor upoholstery fabric, on the other hand needs more breathability so that furniture rained on can have the rain evaporate from the cushion when the sun returns. In these applications where the fabric is directly exposed to light and weather on a consistent basis, the outdoor awning fabric needs to be durable, highly water resistant, mold resistant and UV protected. In RV’s the fabric is also rolled up and down each time you dock in a new location which brings a durability factor into play. High performance awning fabric brands like Outdura specialize in awning-specific fabrics that will give business owners, homeowners and RV owners peace of mind that their awnings will stand up to the elements.
• Outdoor Canopies - Outdoor fabric canopies are commonly found in both residential and commercial applications typically over a seating area or lounge. Canopies require the use of a high performance, weather and fade resistant fabric that is suspended between anchors. Look for our line of awning and topping fabric that fits the bill here.

Outdoor Upholstery Fabric FAQs

What is outdoor fabric?

High Quality outdoor upholstery fabric is manufactured to be UV resistant, lightfast for good consistent color, mildew resistant and water repellent. Outdoor upholstery fabric also must have breathability so that the cushion does not trap rain after a storm. Being breathable allows the sun to evaporate any water held in the cushion. Awning and Marine topping fabric, on the other hand, must be close to fully waterproof. In summary, outdoor fabric can be used in a wide range of applications from outdoor furniture, patio furniture, outdoor cushions, to outdoor industrial fabrics sucha as awnings and marine topping. Topping and Awning fabrics, while similar, are made to be closer to waterproof due to their final applications and their requirement to avoid all water as reasonably possible. Outdoor upholstery is a bit different as the upholstered piece of furniture when made with all outdoor components, including outdoor sewing threads and outdoor cushioning, need to be breathable so any residual rain or even garden hose washing will evaporate and not allow mold and mildew to form deep down in the cushion.

Where can I buy outdoor fabric online?

DecorativeFabricsDirect.com offers the finest quality, best prices and widest selection of outdoor upholstery fabric available online. Shop outdoor fabric by brand, pattern or color and order samples for a closer look. When you are ready to order by the yard you can be sure of receiving quality outdoor fabric at factory direct pricing.

What is the best fabric to use for outdoor furniture?

For outdoor furniture upholstery, you will want to select a fabric that is UV resistant, mildew resistant, water repellent and durable. Leading outdoor fabric performance brands are Sunbrella, Outdura, Sunbelievable, Covington, Richloom and Performatex, all providing excellent selections for outdoor upholstery applications. All of these brands are available online at wholesales prices from DecorativeFabricsDirect.com.

How do I clean outdoor furniture fabric?

There are various types of outdoor fabric so it is always best to reference the manufacturer's cleaning specifications. Many selections are extremely easy to clean with soap and water and there are many high performance outdoor fabrics such as those produced by Sunbrella, Outdura, Sunbelievable, and Covington that can be cleaned with a diluted bleach and water cleaning solution. At Decorative Fabrics Direct, each fabric ordering page displays the appropriate cleaning method for each fabric selection.

How do I repair outdoor furniture fabric?

For cosmetic repairs of small tears and rips, you could try to patch using a weather resistant tape or a fabric patch using a waterproof adhesive. However, in most cases you are much more likely to be satisfied by ordering new fabric and having the cushions reupholstered. Decorative Fabrics Direct has hundreds of the finest outdoor fabric brands such as Sunbrella, Sunbelievable, Outdura, Covington and more available online by the yard and at wholesale prices.