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What is Baize?

baize, green baize, wool mix baize, baize for snooker tables, baize for card tables

Green baize is a traditional wool or wool mix fabric with many household uses

Did you know we stock traditional baize?

A wool-mix fabric used for:

  • card tables
  • snooker tables
  • desk inlays
  • writing slopes
  • jewellery boxes
  • drawers

Did you know that we stock traditional wool-mix green baize fabric? This smooth, hardwearing fabric is traditionally used to cover card tables, snooker and billiards tables, writing slopes and desk inlays. If you want to replace the baize you can buy the fabric in two useful widths from us.

Baize has a myriad of household uses like lining cutlery drawers and jewellery boxes, and covering writing slopes and desk inlays. It can even be used for upholstery. In grand houses green baize covered the door between the family and servants’ quarters; the strong, densely-woven fabric helped to deaden noise.

What size do I need?

Full-width baize is a smooth, strong fabric which can withstand repeated use and is wide enough for use on games tables, card tables and desks. Half-width baize is perfect for lining drawers and boxes. It provides a little padding and protects your valuables from scratching and damage.

The baize we sell at Livingstone Textiles is a high wool content blend (80% wool and 20% nylon). This is very hard-wearing, but significantly more affordable than a 100% wool. Full width baize is perfect for larger projects. It is sold by the linear metre and is 180cm (72″) wide. For smaller items you can purchase half-width baize, also by the linear metre, which is just 90 cm (36″) wide.

How to use

Do you want to refurbish an item of furniture by replacing the baize top or lining? Replacing the top or lining of your box or table is a job you can do yourself. There are lots of video tutorials online, or you can read about how to use baize here. Replacing the baize on a piece of furniture will give a new lease of life to an old friend.

To do this yourself, you will need only some of our wool blend green baize fabric, and a spray glue for even coverage. If you’re local to us and don’t fancy doing the job yourself, we can get our upholsterer to do it for you – just ask us!

So why can’t I just use felt instead? It’s much cheaper!

At first glance the fabric may look like a similar fabric to green felt; in construction, and in how they wear, they are very different. Baize is a woven fabric with a warp and a weft; made with hard-wearing wool, or a high-percentage wool blend. The dense weave of this fabric makes it strong and incredibly hard-wearing, with a smooth surface.

A word about felt

Even when it has a high wool content, felt is a very different fabric. Felt is generally made of low-grade wool, and because it is felted not woven it is an inherently weaker fabric. In areas of high wear, like table tops and drawers, felt will quickly becoming damaged. The fabric will pull and stretch and the surface will suffer with pilling and fuzzing. Although it is great as a craft fabric and excellent for low-wear projects like the bottom of trophies, felt wears too quickly in regular use and is not robust enough to use as a replacement for this strong green cloth.

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