The Simple Upholstery Trend That Will Dominate Outdoor Furniture In 2025

Interested in spending more time in your backyard or on your porch during the summer season? Since the answer's probably yes, you might want to start thinking about how you can arrange, upgrade, or maximize your outdoor living space. Your patio chairs and sofas are a great place to start. A comfortable place to sit can make it easier to enjoy a meal with your family in the garden on a warm evening, or soak up the sunshine during the day. These kinds of furnishings are also essential for bridging the gap between your indoor and outdoor spaces, since they allow you to create a practical and aesthetically-appealing extension of your interiors. However, you might need to pay close attention to the way that they're upholstered, or they will sometimes end up looking dull and uninviting.

But there's a simple upholstery trend that will dominate outdoor furniture in 2025: contrast welt, which is sometimes referred to as piping. The design adds a wrapped cord of fabric around the outside of your furnishing's cushions and pillows to give everything a distinct border. The color of the welt, in this case, will vary significantly from the primary colors of the furniture. This can, for example, prevent bland solids from overstaying their welcome. Adding contrast welt or piping to your chairs and sectionals will ultimately give your entire patio a more luxurious, curated appearance. Plus, the feature pairs well with most other trendy ideas for designing your perfect patio.

If you're on the hunt for new patio furniture this season, you'll probably come across plenty of sofas and sectionals with welt or piping in the upholstery. The design helps protect the seams along the edges of the cushions, which ultimately makes the product a bit more durable. However, before you buy anything, you'll want to know the difference between self-welt and contrast welt. Self-welt uses the same fabric as the rest of the upholstery, which creates a simpler, unified look. Contrast welt instead introduces a brand new color, which helps give the furniture a more distinct personality. When you're deciding on the latest addition to your patio, make sure to think about the colors that are already present within the space. Contrast welt could be great for complementing accent colors, or linking your new furniture to your existing pieces to make them look more like a set. Piping could even help outline bold fabric prints, so that they're more eye-catching.

Don't feel like purchasing new patio furniture, but still interested in trying out this trend? One option is to reupholster your existing pieces. However, this can sometimes be expensive. You could instead attach piping along the sides of your sofa's pillows with a zipper foot on your sewing machine. If you do, don't forget to use durable, weather-resistant fabric. Another option is to ask yourself if the sofa piping trend is right for your living room instead.