Earlier this year a regular customer came in and spent a wonderful morning looking through fabrics. She explained that she was furnishing a holiday let and was loving the experience as she could choose whatever fabrics she wanted! She did not have to take the opinions of her partner, teenage children, mother etc into account!
Whether you are trying to keep the peace at home or just struggling to decide what fabrics to choose we have pulled together some thoughts. These are based on my own current situation with several rooms stripped bare, refurbished (well almost!), ready to decorate and a highly opinionated family!
Starting with the snug/TV room. The first decision had to be the upholstery fabric for the corner sofa as it must go into the room before the walls can be built. We knew we needed a dark (to hide the dirt!), hard wearing fabric for everyday family use. We wanted to be able to refresh the room with new cushions in the future so the decision to go for a semi-plain was simple.
The sofa had to be soft and super comfortable, so we opted for a brushed cotton with a slight herringbone from Villa Nova called Romo Miro Graphite. We have one large arched window in this room. With the TV sitting close to the right we have opted for a large single curtain to the left. The curtain will be fixed to a ceiling-mounted track and we have opted for a wave heading. These practical decisions were easy but what curtain fabric? Now that is another story.
The kids want to keep it simple and go for grey fabric. I love the simple elegance of grey or neutral interiors, and they would complement the graphite sofa. It also gives maximum flexibility for introducing cushions, rugs, paintings and other accessories. However, my husband and I would prefer this simple, calm and sophisticated look in our living room. For the family snug we wanted to go dark and moody but with a dramatic injection of fun and colour.
We looked at lots of linen fabrics and while we love natural fibres and textures we didn’t feel we were getting the depth of colour required to pull this look together – it needed to be dramatic. After months of searching, we have opted for a printed velvet from the Curious Creatures collection by Becca Who at Art of the Loom. This is one of our favourite new collections for 2020.
We will be painting the walls the same indigo colour as the fabric background and mixing and matching some cushions in this amazing fabric with some plain vibrant velvet cushions.
We can’t wait to pull this together and will be updating the blog and publishing images on FB and Instagram as we progress! Keep in touch to see how we get on.
