Forget Lint Rollers — The Pros Use This $5 Tool to Fix Velvet Furniture Instead

From sofas and chairs to my current bed, I’ve had a lot of velvet and velvet-look furniture over the years. There’s something so luxe about this fabric; it’s plush, soft, and just a little bit glamorous. Velvet upholstery is also fairly easy to clean and tends to hold up well over the years, even with pets and kids. But it can look a little, well, messy at times. 

It’s not that velvet furniture pills, rips, or stains super easily. It’s more that rubbing against it a certain way — and even sitting on it — can cause it to ripple, crease, and weirdly look uneven in color. Ever leave handprints or butt prints on a velvet piece? I know I have. These things all happen because of the material’s nap, or the dense fiber construction of the velvet. 

Because the nap is somewhat high, it can be brushed in different directions. And that leads to a change in the way light reflects off of your sofa or chair, hence the annoying two-toned color effect. Brushing the nap in one direction may make it appear darker, while the opposite direction can make it look lighter, and sometimes, vice versa. 

So if you’ve ever had the frustrating experience of getting up from a velvet seat (or, say, after leaning against a velvet headboard) and seeing streaks or pressure marks, I got you. Yes, you can use your hand to realign the nap, but the pros have an even more effective solution: a clean, dry paint roller cover. 

Any furniture stylist will tell you a paint roller cover is the key to keeping your velvet pieces looking their best. That’s because you’re taking something with its own nap to realign and smooth the velvet’s nap. Ultimately, it’s a lot easier to control the pressure you’re applying with a roller as a tool versus a hand, which can leave its own marks, oil smudges, and even flatten the pile over time. A paint roller won’t do those things and couldn’t be easier to use. 

“To smooth out pressure marks and creases on velvet furniture, give the piece a once-over with a clean paint roller cover,” says Traci Gallagher, a designer at Java Street Designs and stylist. Essentially, you’re brushing the fibers back into the same direction evenly and consistently, which causes the piece to look smoother, uniform, and less rumpled. 

Don’t spend a fortune on a fancy paint roller cover. You can find them at practically any home center, hardware store, or online retailer that carries DIY supplies. A roller with a dense nap or something made of foam works well, since these materials will just glide over the surface of the velvet. You might even have a spare unused roller from a paint project that you can repurpose as your go-to velvet “brush.” 

The trick to this hack? Roll very lightly and consistently in one direction. And there you have it. This is how the pros fix pesky marks and creases on velvet, and it works every time.