Ep. 440: Performance Fabrics 101 with Patrick Shelton

How to Decorate

Caroline McDonald

Arts, Business, Design

4.4 • 838 Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, the ladies welcome to the show Patrick Shelton, Senior Vice President of Sales at Valdese Weavers, to decode what “performance fabrics” really mean and how to choose the right one for your home. With hands-on training across spinning, dyeing, weaving, finishing, and testing, Patrick explains yarn-based versus finish-based performance (and where InsideOut, Crypton Home, Sunbrella, and Ballard’s Performance Queen’s Velvet fit), how to read fiber content, and what to expect for cleanability, durability, and fade resistance. What You'll Hear This Episode: 00:00 Introduction to Ballor Designs Podcast 00:56 Meet the Expert: Patrick Shelton 01:34 Understanding Performance Fabrics 06:18 Types of Performance Fabrics 20:12 Cleaning and Maintenance Tips 06:25 Avoiding Bleach on Performance Fabrics 27:42 Choosing the Right Fabric for Your Needs 29:42 Pet-Friendly Fabric Options 30:59 Upholstery Cleaning Tips 35:26 Understanding Fabric Repellency 39:10 Emerging Trends in Fabric Design 44:52 The Importance of Fabric in Furniture 50:08 Conclusion and Where to Find More Key Takeaways on Performance Fabrics: Cleaning basics: Always blot first and start with water; add a mild soap if needed and rinse thoroughly. Use diluted bleach only on bleach-safe fibers, and clean pile fabrics like velvet in the direction of the nap to avoid damage. For busy or pet-friendly homes: Opt for tightly woven, multicolor or textured fabrics (bouclé, tweed, chenille) that better disguise wear and stains. Tackle spills quickly and clean full cushions or panels to prevent water rings. Trends and biggest takeaway: Expect softer hands, multicolor tapestries, and warming palettes (camels, ochres, terracottas, greens). Above all, your fabric choice is the biggest determinant of how good upholstery looks over time. Also Mentioned: • Shop Performance Fabrics at Ballard Designs - ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3LJf3Pg • Valdese Weavers, Company Website - ⁠https://bit.ly/3X2wUD6 Please send in your questions so we can answer them on our next episode! And of course, subscribe to the podcast in Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. You can always check back here to see new episodes, but if you subscribe, it’ll automatically download to your phone. Happy Decorating! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a weekly podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home.
0:09.1	I'm Caroline. I'm on the marketing team. And I'm Taryn and I'm a product designer. I'm Liz. I head up the creative team.
0:14.8	We're your host. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists,
0:20.9	and other talents in the design world. Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each
0:24.8	episode. We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email us at podcast at balderdesigns.net.
0:30.5	Now on with the show.
0:34.4	All right, we get lots of questions here on the podcast. There are lots of common themes that pop up among them, one of which is about performance fabrics. That is a new, you know, kind of buzzword in the industry, the home industry right now. And we know people have lots of questions about it. What does it mean? So we invited the experts to come answer
0:55.3	your questions, Patrick Shelton from Valdez Weavers and Inside Outperformance Fabrics. With 10 years of
1:00.6	experience at Valdez, Patrick brings deep technical expertise in fabric contents, cleanability,
1:06.2	real world applications of performance fabrics, and he's going to decode it all for us. So, Patrick, welcome to the show.
1:13.0	Thank you so much. Happy to be here and be part of the conversation, and I will do my best, I promise.
1:18.3	Well, there are, you know, obviously we work together. We carry inside out performance fabrics in our collection.
1:24.5	In addition to a couple other varieties. You know, we carry
1:29.8	some umbrella and some Krypton and some other things. But we're going to talk about performance
1:35.9	fabrics as a whole and, you know, just try to get down into all the details, what people
1:42.2	should know when they're shopping, questions they
1:45.4	may have about, you know, where should I put it? What is like the right application?
1:51.7	When do I need it? What is the cleaning like? All that kind of stuff. So maybe we can just
1:57.0	start at the beginning and you give us kind of a rundown of what is what is the
2:02.6	what is the term performance fabric mean to wait wait Caroline what we should start with who
2:08.3	Patrick is I know nothing about he were okay all right Patrick how did you get into this seeing as this
2:14.1	has been you know you guys have so much history so I want to know how you got in here.
	...

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