Phahurat for the market route, Jim Thompson for silk, British mills for curtains and sofas that last. An honest guide to buying designer fabric in Bangkok, and what upholstery grade really means.
If you've just moved into a Bangkok condo and started pricing curtains, you'll have discovered that "where do I buy fabric" has three very different answers. Ask a Thai friend and they'll send you to Phahurat. Ask a hotel designer and they'll mention Jim Thompson. Ask us and we'll talk about British mills. All three are right, for different people. So here is an honest guide to buying designer fabric in Bangkok, including the routes we don't sell, because the best upholstery fabric in Bangkok for your sofa depends far more on how you live than on where the shop is.
The three ways to buy fabric in Bangkok
Phahurat and Sampeng: the market route
Phahurat (Little India) and the Sampeng lanes next door are the city's great fabric market, and they're a genuinely good afternoon out. Hundreds of stalls, everything from sari silk to canvas to velvet, sold by the metre or the yard, and a cluster of shops that will run up curtains for you at prices no showroom can touch.
This is the right route if you want a lot of fabric fast, you're dressing a rental you'll leave in two years, or you enjoy the hunt. Its limits are the flip side of its charm. The stall can rarely tell you a fabric's composition, whether it's rated for upholstery, or how it will fade in a west-facing window. And when the bolt is gone, it's gone: matching a second sofa or a new set of cushions eighteen months later is largely down to luck.
Jim Thompson: Thai silk with a name behind it
For Thai silk with real provenance, Jim Thompson is the institution, and its Surawong Road home-furnishings showroom sells fabric by the metre with proper specifications. If you want a piece of Thailand's textile story in your home, this is where to find it. Silk asks for some care in Bangkok light, so treat it as the jewellery of the room rather than the workhorse.
The imported designer houses: the route we know best
The third route is the fabric houses interior designers specify the world over, and it's the one Whiterose exists for. As the home of international wallpaper and fabrics in Thailand, we curate British mills such as Ashley Wilde and the Morris & Co. archive, from ฿1,500/sqm, with every cloth documented: composition, width, what it's rated for. You'll feel it in our Lat Phrao showroom and reorder the same colourway later. This route suits anyone furnishing a home they intend to keep.
What "upholstery fabric" actually means
Not all fabric is furniture fabric, and a beautiful curtain cotton on a family sofa will pill and wear through at the arms within a year.
The rub count. Upholstery fabric is tested on a Martindale machine, which rubs the cloth in a figure-of-eight until it shows wear, and the score is the number of rubs it survived. As a rule of thumb, anything over 20,000 is fine for a domestic sofa, 25,000 to 30,000 suits a busy family living room with children and a dog, and 30,000 upward is contract grade, the sort hotels specify. A curtain-only fabric may score far lower, which is fine at a window and hopeless on a seat.
The width. Most decorative fabrics are around 137 to 145 cm wide, so curtains are made by joining widths side by side. Some plains and sheers come "wide-width", up to 280 or 300 cm, and are railroaded sideways so a whole window is one seamless piece. Width changes how much you need and where the seams fall.
The composition. Bangkok has two climates: the humid one outside and the air-conditioned one inside. Natural cottons and linens breathe and take print beautifully, but expect a little movement with the seasons. Polyester and recycled-polyester weaves hold their shape, shrug off humidity and are easier to clean, which is why so many hard-wearing upholstery cloths are made from them.
How much you'll need. A three-seater sofa typically takes 11 to 18 metres depending on its arms and back, plus a couple of metres more for a pattern that needs matching. Curtains want two to two-and-a-half times the width of the track for proper fullness, so a 2-metre window in a 140 cm fabric is usually three widths per pair. These are rules of thumb; a measure settles the real number.
The British houses at Whiterose, and what each is good for
Ashley Wilde is our contemporary mill: tactile weaves, painterly prints and a modern luxe palette that sits easily in a Bangkok condo. Arden prints watercolour florals onto crisp cotton and rustic cotton-linen, made for curtains that feel effortless. Florian takes the same botanical idea with a fresher hand, plus stripes and woven textures. Toulouse reimagines Indienne prints (the trailing botanicals first block-printed in India for European markets) alongside jacquards, which are patterns woven into the cloth rather than printed on it, and a hard-wearing recycled upholstery cloth, Lois, rated for contract use. And Aubrey is the one we'd put on a family sofa in a heartbeat: a recycled-polyester herringbone tough enough for hotels, in 33 colourways from warm terracotta to Kingfisher blue.
Morris & Co. is the heritage side, the English botanicals that have never gone out of fashion. Flora & Foliage gathers wildflower prints, woven leaves and plush cut velvets for curtains and upholstery, and The Forager builds a quiet woodland around the beloved Fruit design, with a wide-width sheer in the mix. If you're wondering how a pattern that dense behaves in a small room, we've written about William Morris fabric in a Bangkok condo.
Both houses sit in the same tier, from ฿1,500/sqm, and you can browse them together on our fabrics page.
Curtains and upholstery, made for you
Fabric is only half of it. Our curtains and soft furnishings service measures on site, helps you choose fabric, lining and heading (the way the top of the curtain is gathered, from a crisp pencil pleat to a relaxed wave), then makes and hangs the curtains: sheer for soft privacy, dim-out to temper strong daylight, or blackout for bedrooms. Bangkok's afternoon sun does not negotiate, so if sleep is the priority, start with our guide to blackout curtains in Bangkok. Anti-dust and energy-efficient linings are part of the conversation, not an upsell.
For sofas, headboards and dining chairs, we supply upholstery fabric by the metre and will tell you honestly which cloth will survive your household. Ask us about having the piece made up; the answer depends on the piece.
Questions we're asked most
How much fabric does a sofa need?
Plan on 11 to 18 metres for a three-seater, more for deep arms, a tall back or a pattern that has to match across cushions. Send us a photo and the sofa's rough dimensions and we'll give you a real number.
What rub count should I choose for a family sofa?
Aim for 25,000 Martindale rubs or more if there are children, pets or a habit of eating on the sofa. Aubrey and Toulouse's Lois are both rated for contract use, so they clear that bar comfortably.
Can you make the curtains as well as sell the fabric?
Yes. The soft-furnishings service covers measuring, making and hanging, and we'll coordinate the curtain fabric with your wallpaper if you're doing both.
Do you deliver outside Bangkok?
We deliver nationwide. Our own team measures and installs across Bangkok and nearby provinces; further afield, tell us your address and we'll say straight away what we can make and send.
Come and feel the difference
Bring a cushion, a paint swatch or a photo of the sofa to the showroom at 1 Lat Phrao 80 Alley, Wang Thonglang (by appointment, so the books are out and the kettle is on), and we'll pull the books together over coffee. A consultation is always free, by video or in your home, and if we come out to measure, the ฿1,000 site-visit fee is credited against your order. Book a consultation or tell us about your project, in English or Thai, and we'll take it from there.
