Bye Bye, Bouclé — The Cozy ’90s Fabric Taking Over Sofas, Pillows, and More for Fall

It’s not quite yet peak cozy essentials season, but fall has officially started, and I keep noticing chenille popping up as a furniture upholstery fabric and as a textile material for pillows and throw blankets, as well as bedding in home decor collections. 

As a ‘90s kid, I’m familiar with chenille (Remember crafting with pipe cleaners? Those are actually chenille stems!). But I hadn’t seen so many designers reaching for this fabric en masse like this before. Jeremiah Brent used it in his Crate & Barrel assortment, and Anthropologie Home has quite a few chenille pieces, too, including sofas, chairs, bath mats, and blankets. I’d put money on it popping up in holiday decor for this year.

So if you’re curious about how chenille might warm up your home for the winter months and beyond, you’re in the right place. Consider this your guide to all things chenille, and I’ve even pulled together some shopping picks for you. Once you see how comfy and chic this material is, you’ll be ready to add this home decor trend to your cart. 

Maybe you remember this fabric from a favorite sweater you had as a child — or you’ve laid under a supersoft chenille blanket before. Either way, chenille isn’t new, but it does conjure up feelings of coziness, thanks to its supple hand-feel. “Chenille is a type of novelty yarn,” says Rachel Doriss, design director at Pollack. “It has [a] pile protruding on all sides, creating a soft velvety/plush surface when woven.” 

According to Doriss, chenille can be created from any textile fiber, but you’ll typically find it made of cotton, rayon, polyester, or acrylic. The yarn also takes its name from a familiar form. “It is the French word for caterpillar,” says Doriss of chenille. “Think soft/fuzzy caterpillar.”

Like bouclé or velvet, chenille may be experiencing a resurgence right now because of the time of year — and the way of the world. “We live busy, complicated lives, and there is a desire to feel comfort and coziness at home,” Doriss says. “Lounging on a soft, plush surface is a type of self-care and can help us de-stress.”

A versatile yarn, chenille can also be used for many different types of applications, which might explain why home decor brands and designers are turning to it more this season (it features prominently in Pollack’s Spindrift, Melbourne, Prince Plush, and Luxe Chenille fabrics from its two most recent collections. It’s great for a family sofa but also can be used for accent chairs, pillows, or a bed (as shown just above) and even accessories like blankets or wall hangings. You can also find antique and vintage-inspired chenille bedspreads. Not quite as omnipresent as bouclé or velvet at this point, chenille feels fresh in a room or design scheme.

Chenille also offers a lot of variety within its category, which only adds to its overall design chameleon-like quality. “Some chenilles are very plush, luxurious, and velvety, while other chenilles have less pile and can be woven in a tighter/flatter construction but still feel soft,” says Doriss. “This makes this type of fabric a great choice for many styles. A less plush chenille can look beautifully tailored and have a quiet luxury, while fat fluffy chenilles will feel cozy and less formal.” 

As far as care goes, chenille is fairly low-maintenance, especially if you find a performance version for upholstery. “Chenille fabrics should be treated like velvets, which will always show some amount of crushing,” Doriss says. “The degree to which it crushes depends on the length of the pile and the type of fiber used.” Keep that in mind if you’re someone who doesn’t exactly love the lived-in look, though; you might want something that’s on the lower pile side in that case.

Though these two both have French-derived names and introduce textural touches into a space, chenille and bouclé are not the same. “Bouclé is a bumpy, knotted, loopy yarn, which creates a beautiful, bubbly, textural surface,” Doriss says. “Both are novelty yarns that create a surface in a woven textile. Chenille will read more like a velvet, where bouclé offers a loopy effect.” 

That said, you can find some hybrid chenille and bouclé fabrics out there, especially at a high-end fabric house like Pollack. “The ultimate combination is when we use both types of yarn together in one fabric,” Doriss says. This type of application can give you the best of both worlds by creating a nice interplay between piles and textures.

Want to get extra cozy this fall with chenille decor or furniture? Check out Pollack’s above collections for fabric by the yard. And these picks are a great place to start if you want readymade pieces.