Romo Fabric FAQ: Dining Chairs, Discontinued Romo Fabrics, Rayon, and Velvet Brushes

Every few weeks, the same questions cross my desk: “Is Romo good for dining chairs?”, “What’s rayon fabric, actually?”, and “Can I hunt down a discontinued Romo velvet without losing a week of my life?” I manage fabric and wallcovering ordering for a 10-person interior design studio — roughly $90,000 a year across six vendors. When I took over fabric purchasing in 2020, I assumed the most expensive textile was the safest choice. That cost me a dining chair remake and a very patient client. Since then, I’ve placed somewhere north of 300 orders. Here’s the practical version, based on orders I’ve placed and a few mistakes I’d rather not repeat.

What is the best upholstery fabric for dining chairs?

If a client asks for “best,” I flip it around: best for what? Dining chairs take more abuse than most people expect. Spilled wine, belt buckles, denim rivets, sunscreen, and kids who treat the seat as a trampoline. The right fabric has to survive friction and still look like the designer intended.

In practice, that means checking the Martindale rub count on the spec sheet. For residential dining chairs, I look for at least 30,000 double rubs. For contract dining, hotels, restaurants, or anything with high turnover, I want 60,000 to 100,000. Those numbers are not just marketing — they come from a standardized abrasion test. If a fabric doesn’t list a rub count, ask your rep before you promise anything to a client.

What about the fiber itself? A tightly woven twill or a performance velvet with a protective finish is usually a safer bet than an open linen weave. Cotton and linen can be perfectly good if the weave is tight and the fabric is treated, but I always treat natural-fiber claims with a little skepticism. Romo does some nice twills and outdoor lines that handle dining chair wear well. Their velvets are beautiful, but choose one with a decent rub count and a finish that won’t trap every crumb (note to self: always verify the finish before promising stain resistance).

What’s rayon fabric, and why is it in so many upholstery lines?

Rayon is made from cellulose, usually wood pulp, that gets chemically dissolved and spun back into fibers. It’s a semi-synthetic — not fully natural like cotton, not fully synthetic like polyester. That middle-ground nature gives fabrics drape, softness, and a subtle sheen that’s hard to get from cotton alone.

It also means rayon has limits. On its own, it doesn’t have great abrasion resistance, and it can weaken when it gets wet. A pure rayon seat cover on a dining chair would wear out faster than a nylon or polyester blend. But rayon is rarely used alone in upholstery. It’s often blended with linen, cotton, or polyester to create texture and body. Romo uses rayon blends in drapery and sheer lines, and those feel lovely by a window. I wouldn’t put most of them on a high-traffic dining seat.

The important thing is to not dismiss a fabric just because it contains rayon. Look at the blend, the weave, and the rub count. A rayon-blend velvet with a protective finish is a different animal from a rayon drapery sheer.

What are silver black velvet brushes for?

If your search history includes “silver black velvet brushes,” you’re probably looking at the small brushes used to restore the pile on velvet after it has been sewn, cut, or upholstered. Velvet has a direction, called the pile. When the pile gets crushed, the color changes and the fabric can look patchy. A velvet brush lifts the fibers back up and evens out the surface.

The “silver” and “black” in the search usually refer to the color of the bristles, and different brands use them for different stiffness levels. I’ve seen silver or white brushes marketed as softer and black ones as firmer, but the exact coding is not universal. What matters is technique. Put the fabric on a clean, flat surface, brush in one direction, and don’t press hard enough to create a shiny line.

I keep one in the studio because even a good velvet will look rough after the upholsterer has handled it. One pass with a brush can make a chair look brand new.

Can I still buy discontinued Romo fabrics?

Yes, but you have to change how you search. Romo, like most fabric houses, does not keep every past collection in production forever. Once a line is discontinued, there is no one central warehouse where you can order more yardage on demand. The remaining stock lives with stockists, remnants dealers, and sometimes on the secondary market.

If you’re looking for discontinued Romo fabrics for sale, start by asking your trade stockist to check their remaining rolls. Then try deadstock fabric shops, eBay, Etsy, and even marketplace listings from design firms cleaning out their sample closets. When you find something, move quickly (discontinued fabric can vanish in a week).

One caution: don’t buy discontinued fabric for a project where you might need to reorder the same dye lot later. You probably won’t be able to. Order all the yardage you need up front, and ask for a cutting first so you can confirm the color under real light.

Is Romo Mattress and Furniture Joliet the same as Romo Fabrics?

No. They are separate businesses. Romo Fabrics is a British decorative fabric and wallcoverings brand, part of the Romo Group, with showrooms and trade stockists around the world. Romo Mattress and Furniture Joliet is a furniture retailer in Illinois that uses the Romo name.

If your search was about the Joliet store, you’re in the wrong place here. If you’re shopping for Romo fabric, look for a Romo stockist or the Romo Group’s own showroom resources. Don’t call the Joliet store asking for fabric samples — it’s not that kind of business, and you’ll waste both your time and theirs.

How do I order Romo samples without wasting a week?

This is the question I get from every designer who has waited on hold for someone to send a sample card. The fastest route is to work with a Romo stockist that has your trade account set up. Ask for the specific sample cards or memo swatches you need. If you don’t have an account, call the showroom and ask which local stockists they recommend.

Before you order, write down the exact product codes from the website. That sounds obvious, but I’ve lost two days because I asked for “the cream velvet” instead of the actual reference. Also ask about lead times. Some Romo fabrics are stocked in the UK or US distribution centers; others are made to order and can add weeks to a project. When I compared two suppliers side by side in 2024, the one with a local stockist saved me ten days on a hotel project.

What’s the one thing I’d tell a new specifier about Romo?

Romo is a design-led brand with an enormous range, but that range includes both hardworking fabrics and delicate ones. Don’t assume a high price means high durability. I made that mistake when I first started buying in 2020, and the remake came out of my department’s budget.

Read the spec sheet, check the rub count, ask what the fabric was intended for, and get a physical sample before you show it to a client. It took me about three years and forty orders to understand that “beautiful” and “practical” are not the same thing. Usually you can find both in the same Romo collection — you just have to know which part of the collection to look at.

If you’re ready to use Romo on a dining chair, order a swatch, put it on the seat for a few days, and see how it handles a real life. That test will tell you more than any product description.