It is more of a personal preference whether one should go for fabric sofa or leather, each has their advantages and disadvantages.
Either leather or fabric, care must be taken to ensure its durability. And of course quality starts right from the beginning, of which where you bought your product. Leather ranges from imitation leather to genuine full grain leather. Even among those who sells genuine full grain leather there are of varying qualities as well. How the manufacturers do the tanning of the leather do affect the end product quality.
Infact leather is live and requires more maintanance than fabric. Its a skin, therefore moisturising is a must, just like how you take care of your own complexion. Leather if well used and maintained will give you a very nice aged look and shouldnt peel.
Coming back to Fabric sofas. Lesser maintanence is required. The only few things you must do is that depending on the fabric type there are special ways to clean them. Natural Fibre and Man made Fibre might require different cleaning methodologies.
Always ask the salesman to advice you on how to clean your sofa and also what type of fabric is used to make it.
And if you are afraid of spillage, sotchguard your sofa once every few years. It can save you a lot of trouble of dry cleaning as you could quickly clean up the spillage without having the drink to seep into the fibres so fast. It might prevent a stain if you are quick enough.
With Fabric Sofas, its not outdated to use slipcovers. A beautifully done sofa with slip cover will look as if it was a fixed cover!
Lastly with Fabric Sofas, the fabric quality is crucial as well, just like leather quality. Good quality fabrics will have its orginal colour preserved even with years of usage, of course i could recomend the better ones but will not guarantee 100%. It also depends on how u use the sofa too.
Oh…Dont forget the framework of a sofa! A sofa with a well constructed frame using good materials would last 10++ years minimum. With Fabric Sofa it is easier to reupholster as compared to leather. Dont be shocked at the cost to reupholster a leather sofa, each hide purchased to reupholster it might cost as much as a new leather sofa. Due to economies of scale.
Hope this helps.
Marcus
Danovel Pte Ltd - The Handcrafted Fabric Sofa
www.danovel.com