Fabrics for a coastal house that stays shut half the year

What happens when nobody opens up

The Canadian Conservation Institute, the Government of Canada body that advises museums on caring for their collections, counts textiles among the most sensitive objects they hold. It lists what harms them: light, incorrect relative humidity, the wrong temperature, pests, physical forces and pollutants. A coastal house left shut brings several together.

Damp comes first. The Institute explains that mould grows far faster the more humid the air, and that good air circulation holds it back. In a shut house the air doesn’t circulate, and on the coast there is no shortage of moisture. It also warns against differences in temperature from one part of a room to another, because they create cold spots where humidity gathers and mould takes hold.

Dust and insects

Dust is more than dirt. According to the same Institute, it abrades, it feeds insects and mould, and with moisture it speeds up deterioration. The National Trust, the UK charity that looks after historic houses open to the public, spends the winter closure getting rid of it: its conservators warn that dust left in place cements itself on and becomes hard to shift.

Quiet darkness also invites the wrong guests. The Canadian Institute notes that dark, undisturbed spaces are ideal habitat for clothes moths and carpet beetles, whose larvae eat protein fibres such as wool. The National Trust adds silk and fur — in upholstery, curtains and carpets — and points out that these insects like nothing better than to be left alone.

Light, when the house is open

The other half of the year is the opposite: strong sun and open windows. The Canadian Institute explains that ultraviolet is the part of the light that does textiles the most harm: it yellows and weakens fibres and fades many dyes, natural and synthetic alike. Light damage is cumulative, and it can’t be undone.

National Trust houses pair conservation blinds with UV-filtering film on the glass to keep it down. In a private house, the least you can do is not let the sun work while nobody is there: with the house empty, every hour of light only takes colour away.

Which fibres cope best

No fibre is immune to everything. What differs is what each one is vulnerable to, and that decides where it makes sense in a house left on its own:

Wool and silk

Protein fibres — precisely what moth larvae feed on. Fine fibres, but in a house shut for months they want checking when you return.

Linen and cotton

Cellulose. The Canadian Institute notes that as they age they grow more sensitive to light, weakening and changing colour.

Solution-dyed acrylic

The fibre of awnings and boat cushions, now also made for indoor use. Sunbrella, one of its makers, explains that the colour goes into the fibre before it is spun rather than being applied on top, and that its fabrics resist mould in their own right.

Leather

It grows mould too, given the damp. The Canadian Institute has a whole guide to removing it.

How to leave the house before you lock up

The National Trust calls it putting the house to bed: dusting, covering the furniture with dust sheets and acid-free tissue, and bringing the light down. Add the Canadian Institute’s advice, and the list is short:

Clean before you cover

Dust left under a cover is food for mould and insects.

Covers that breathe

Cotton. The Canadian Institute warns that where there is damp beneath — in the floor or the wall — a plastic cover holds it against the piece and makes matters worse.

Blinds down

Light coming into an empty house only takes colour away.

Air on the move

If someone can open up and air the house now and then, so much the better: circulation slows mould, and movement disturbs insects.

Check when you return

Wool, silk and leather first. Moths leave holes and silken webbing; mould leaves marks and a smell.

When you commission the upholstery

If the house will spend months shut, say so when the fabric is chosen. It changes which fibre makes sense for each piece, and whether it is worth having a cover that comes off to be washed or put away when you close up. A sofa facing a picture window doesn’t ask for the same as a headboard in a bedroom that only opens in August.