Sunbrella Searching

Since I last posted about the hunt for our kitchen bench fabric, I've had some really nice correspondences with the people from Sunbrella. They actually took the time to send me an e-mail, offering to help in our search after they saw our blog post. Umm....how nice is that - They just got a loyal customer for life on this end of the computer.

I've waited until we had figured somethings out before posting an update as I know that some people are also interested in finding out the answers to what we've been researching.

First of all, my highly anticipated Restoration Hardware samples came in the mail yesterday. And again, they didn't disappoint. I loved them in-store, and I love them in my house. The Natural one (below) is much too light, but I adore the classic Linen. Surprise, surprise, I love Linen over here.


If you want to fall in love, go into Restoration Hardware to see their outdoor line!

So, I do love that fabric still. But, it may be all a mute point. Although they are branded as Sunbrella fabric, we're likely not going to actually find that fabric in any store. Read on.

There have been 2 issues that Sunbrella and I have been working on together.
Number 1- Finding that Restoration Hardware Linen Fabric and
Number 2 - Finding a place in Canada, or specifically Toronto that sells it.


Restoration Hardwares Outdoor Line advertises that it is Sunbrella Fabric, but it turns out it's "Exclusive" to Restoration Hardware. Buggers.

So here are the answers.

The Restoration Fabric - is exclusive to Restoration Hardware. *sigh* Ok, so that's out the window. But I still have that sample above, and can bring it with me to stores to try to match the texture & weight.

Finding a store in Toronto, or even a Canadian online retailer has proven to be difficult. Some amazing readers of our blog have offered to buy the fabric for us from one of the stores in the US (oh my goodness, you are so awesome!) But my concern is that fabrics can very much vary from what you see online, to what they look like in your house. Like paint. So I'm someone that needs to order samples. (If they don't ship fabric to us in Canada, they aren't going to ship me a sample.)

However, knowing this dilemma, Sunbrella pointed me in the direction of OutdoorFabrics.com.
Sunbrella mentioned that they ship to Canada. You can even order samples from their site, which satisfies my anxiety over here. So, we're getting a little warmer.



Looking online, these are the ones that at first glance seem to match my love of Linen. I swear, I didn't look at the names at first, 90% of them just "happen" to have Linen in the names. Again, go figure. But you can see how they vary very much from sample, to sample.

So, what's the outcome of all of this?

I'm still hunting, but at least I have some samples of fabrics I love that I can bring with me to stores to try to match. I may even order some samples from OutdoorFabrics.com.

On a very positive note, Sunbrella has gone out of their way to help me in this search, responding to my e-mails within hours, which makes me want to find their brand of fabric that much more.