A glass of rosé goes over on the dining banquette during service. You have a cloth in one hand and a bottle of upholstery shampoo in the other. Under the seat cushion, on a small sewn-in tag, is a single letter. That letter decides whether the next thirty seconds save the piece or destroy it.
What the codes actually mean
The cleaning code is set by the fabric maker and tells you which cleaning medium the fabric can survive. It is not advice. It is a limit.
| Code | Means | Do | Never |
|---|---|---|---|
| W | Water-based cleaning only | Blot; use a water-based upholstery product, sparingly, after a hidden test | Solvent; over-wet |
| S | Solvent cleaning only | Dry-solvent products only, well ventilated, tested first | Put water on it — it will ring, shrink or watermark |
| WS | Water- or solvent-based | Either method, still tested; choose by stain type | Assume it is bulletproof; over-wetting still marks |
| X | Vacuuming and light brushing only | Vacuum, brush, and call a professional for anything else | Water, solvent, foam, shampoo — any liquid |
What the codes do not tell you
- The code covers the face fabric, not the filling, the backing or the frame. You can pass the code test and still soak the foam.
- X does not mean fragile-but-manageable. It means you have no cleaning method available. An X-coded fabric with a stain on it is a phone call, not a project.
- Silk, viscose and many bespoke wall coverings behave like S or X even when nothing is labelled. No code found = treat as X until the fabric schedule or the supplier says otherwise.
- Codes say nothing about colourfastness. A W-coded fabric can still bleed dye. That is what the hidden test is for.
Finding the code
- Look under seat cushions, on the underside of loose cushions, on the deck of the frame, and behind the zip flap.
- If the fabric is a fixed wall panel, headboard or curtain, there is no tag — the code lives in the fabric schedule in the yard maintenance file.
- Loose covers and scatter cushions may carry a different code from the sofa they sit on. Check each piece.
- Record what you find. Build a simple laminated card per space so the next stew does not have to crawl under the sofa in the middle of a spill.
The test that is never optional
Before any product touches any fabric, on every occasion:
- Choose a hidden area — under the seat, behind a skirt, inside a cushion flap.
- Apply a small amount of the product to a white cloth, press for ten seconds, and look at the cloth for colour transfer and at the fabric for change.
- Wait for it to dry. Colour loss and rings often only appear on drying.
Onboard Notes
If the code says S or X, water is not a mistake you can apologise for — it is an irreversible one. When you cannot find a code and cannot find a schedule, blot the excess with a clean white cloth, protect the area, and escalate to the chief stew. Doing nothing is a legitimate, defensible action. Guessing is not.