Designer Fabrics
(Top ten tips for selecting fabulous fabrics for your home)

 1.  Choosing the right fabrics for your home or any space can be the most joyful but the most intimidating experience.  Therefore choosing just the right fabrics is important as you won’t be re-decorating every year. Make sure you decide on a theme first. Scour magazines and the Internet, watch high end decorating programs on TV so that you can get comfortable with a look and style that works for you. 

2.  You’ll be using fabrics in specific places. These will include soft goods like sofas and loveseats, chairs, ottomans, cushions and pillows, draperies and other window coverings. In a traditional or cottage environment, guest room or daughters room you may also require a round decorator table or covered vanity.  This is an intelligent way to “create” an expensive looking piece of furniture.   

3.  In fine decorating magazines you will probably notice that there are groupings of fabrics in any given room which make it attractive and interesting. All these fabrics work together to create a sum total which co-ordinates pleasingly adding balance and harmony.  Study your favorite photos and room settings and the sites of professional interior designers carefully and you’ll begin to see a pattern emerge.  There is a formula for this magic and once you understand it doing your own decorating will be a joy rather than a self doubting nerve wracking experience.   

4.  Generally speaking, you will be looking for four fabrics. That’s all. You may even be able to use less, but four is generally the magic number.  The first one you search for is what we call “The Diva”.  This is the fabric with the boldest, largest or most important pattern. It may be chintz or a woven, but it is the fabric that sets the mood or style of all your soft goods and, in fact, the room. The Diva can be a floral; a print with images, such as a Chinoise or Toile, but it will be the dominant pattern of all your fabrics. It will rarely be a stripe. Check or dotted pattern, these are your next selection as they are supporting characters. 

5.  Once you have chosen a Diva that you love, select a check or stripe or even a dot that works with it. Depending on how formal or casual a room is you may choose a casual check like gingham, or a sophisticated stripe like damask. These fabrics are important but are always second to the Diva. Always ask for sample so that you may choose co-ordinates which happily marry. 

6.   Your next choice will be a plain. Not relegated to be a simple plain Jane, the plain plays an important role. Often it’s used to cover larger pieces like sofas which can be overwhelming, (or expensive), if covered in your Diva. The plain will coordinate in color and texture with the other two.  For example if the other two contain a particular shade of blue or green, you may want the plain to be the same tone of blue or green only devoid of pattern. As with the check or stripe, keep mode or style the same, a burlap type fabric would hardly work with sophisticated and formal damask. Fabrics must belong to the same basic style family in order to work together.    

7.  Lastly, choose a fabric which represents texture. This will include everything from leather to velvet, but without an actual image or pattern.  Choosing a texture adds yet another interesting element to the room. It may be used on a single leather chair, like a big leather wingback, or a small ottoman, bench or pillows, as in velvet.   

8.  If you’re wondering what to do about draperies or window coverings, you may want to use you Diva here, or you may choose your check or stripe, or even your plain.  Rarely will you use the texture characters. Leather drapes seem, well, a little heavy and industrial, unless, of course, that’s a look you’re going for.   

9.  If you choose your fabrics using this formula, choosing paint colors will be your next task and it will be a breeze. Just take your selection to a good paint retailer and select your color. It should be easy to find just the right one. Eyeball the paint chips and fabric samples together in the room where they will end up. Your eyes and senses will then tell you. You’ll also find that choosing carpets, broadloom, accessories and furnishings this way will help you prevent expensive mistakes.  

10. Fabrics are also a marvelous way to change the look of your soft furnishings during changes of season or to take perfectly fine old pieces of quality and modernize their look. If you’ve acquired a fine old sofa or settee through inheritance or at an auction or flea market, try using your imagination and some funky fabrics to transform them from dreary “little old lady pieces” to fun and fabulous. These pieces can be easily re-upholstered by a good upholstery specialist and given new life. Or try slipcovers which are like little covers or coats for your soft furnishings and dining or occasional chairs. This is a terrific way to change the look of this furniture and also prolong its upholstered life.