At the recent Interwoven show, among the featured textiles and innovations, was a showroom dedicated to cork as an upholstery covering. Based in Portugal, Portugalia produces leather-alternative upholstery made from cork, a sustainable alternative to animal hide-based covering.
Steve Sechest, who has a distribution agreement with Portugalia for the U.S. furniture market, introduced the product at Interwoven. “We put that couch on our showroom floor made up in cork,” said Sechrest. “People walk in, do a double take and go, ‘Oh, my. What is this? Is this cork?’” noted Sourcing Journal.
According to Portugalist.com, Portugal is the largest cork producer in the world and produces more than 50% of the world’s cork supplies, according to Portugalist.com. Cork is sustainable because the trees aren’t cut down or damaged when the material is harvested and can be harvested every nine years for the lifetime of the tree (approximately 270 years). The material is harvested by peeling the cork bark in large sheets from the living tree.
Once removed from the tree, the cork dries for several months, then boiled and pressed to flatten the material. Once it’s been processed, the cork is cut into thin veneers and, for furniture fabric, the cork is adhered to a fabric backing and an impermeable finish is applied. The material created is water and scratch resistant.
Currently, Portugalia has more than 90 cork-based fabrics to choose from on their website and indicated that it can also produce exclusive designs, colors, printings, embossing and other specialty cork materials.
Portugalia is in discussions with several major furniture manufacturers, according to Sourcing Journal.
Source: https://www.furnituretoday.com/