Jump to content

Deb's Blog

  • entries
    12
  • comments
    6
  • views
    11,502

Fabric auditions (or "Playing with Textiles"


Deb

1,549 views

I've been happily painting interior woodwork for the past few days.  I ended up making some changes to the colors and had to repaint two rooms before I was happy with it but now with five different shades of green (one for each room), it's looking the way I want it to.  So, back into dry fit it went to get a total look of the rooms together and I still like it!  Yippeee!!  

This means I'm on to the next step.....window curtains.  It may seem a bit odd to be thinking about window coverings before the house is even built, but I've learned that the best way to get a perfect fit is to make them while I can still lay the walls flat on the table and work with them that way.  Once the house is built, I'd have to reach inside the rooms and, well, I can't contort my hands and arms that way anymore.  This ensures a perfect fit and once they're done I'll just set them aside to be glued in place after the house is done.  The curtains are all going to be made of a semi-sheer ivory silk that's so light it almost floats and I'm anxious to see if I can get the proper draping to make them appear to be billowing in the breeze.

As long as I'm playing with textiles, I might as well do some furniture dressing.  It's a change in tasks that alters the repetitive movements for my hands so the break is beneficial as well as fun.  But first I had to do some auditioning of fabrics.  This means that I get to have a Fabric Flinging Day where I start pulling fabrics from my stash and fling them around the sewing room on top of wallpaper till I see combinations that sing to me.  If you've never done any fabric-flinging, I heartily recommend it coz it's a lot of fun!

There was one fabric in particular that I've been saving for several years with this house in mind.  It's a gorgeous lilac floral print and I only have a 12"x12" square of it....just enough for a small bed.  Of course I'd put it somewhere so I wouldn't lose it........and promptly forgot where that safe place was.  LOL!  After four rounds thru every drawer and bin in the sewing room I finally found it.  Yay!  

The other fabrics were some I'd been considering but overall, I just dug around til I found fabrics I liked and tested them against the wallpaper to be sure.  That was step 1.  Step 2 was to put the house back in dry fit and put the fabrics into the rooms to see how they looked in perspective.  That was so much fun that I decided that if I *reeeeally* wanted to be sure, I'd better put all the furniture in the rooms and then try the fabrics again.  <chuckling>  Okay, so that was just an excuse to put all the furniture in the house and play a little bit, but it was tons of fun!  Wanna see? 

This is the house in dry fit after being wallpapered and the interior woodwork installed with the fabric just laying around.  So far so good:

large.fabric_audition.jpg.f7be46569e91be

Here's the house after I got out the furniture to play, er, I mean, test the perspective.  

large.fabric_auditions_with_furniture.jp

Shall we go room by room?

This is the formal parlor where guests are entertained.  The fabrics are a tone-on-tone burgundy, a solid burgundy, a solid mauve, and a solid green that pick up the color of the flowers in the wallpaper.

large.formal_parlor_fabric_selections.jp

The second parlor is more casual and filled with games and entertainment for the family.  I haven't completely decided on this room yet, but I'm leaning toward a blue wedgewood print and a coordinating solid blue.  There are tiny blue flowers in the wallpaper so it picks up that color as well as the undertone of blue in the green of the woodwork.

large.family_parlor_fabric_selections.jp

 

There are two bedrooms on the second floor.  The first one has a light purple tint in the wallpaper so that's where my lovely lilac print will go along with two shades of lilac dupioni silk.  You can see the ivory crinkle silk that I'll be using on all the windows taped to the wall in here. I made a mistake and put the rug in the wrong bedroom.  It goes in the next room.

 

large.bedroom_1_fabric_selections.jpg.f2

 

The second bedroom is the Tin Hearts wallpapered room and I found a pretty tea rose floral print with roses that echo the same flowers in the wallpaper.  The coordinating fabrics are a soft peach silk and a sage green dupioni silk.  It's such a soothing combination that I want to shrink down and sleep there!

 

large.bedroom_2_fabric_selections.jpg.35

 

Finally, there's the attic which is a combination bedroom and artist's studio.  The fabrics in here will be a yummy ivory silk, a soft pink dupioni silk, and a pretty pink and green floral.  They all pick up the colors in the wallpaper which is exactly what I was hoping for.  The wallpaper in this room is one of the eye-pulling focal points of the house and I want to really harmonize those shades.  

 

large.attic_fabric_selections.jpg.a90890

 

There actually is more reason to staging the furniture right now than just playing with it (although I won't deny that I'm playing!).  Each of the chairs, cat beds, vanity stools, benches, and couches will be dressed so the pops of color will spring forward when all the furniture is dressed.  By visualizing the placement along with the fabrics, I'll know if the color is strong enough to balance the room properly.  

So I'll leave the house in dry fit this way while I start working on dressing the furniture.  I'm hoping to be able to do some silk ribbon embroidery here and there as well as adding some touches of lace all around.  It's an exciting part of my building process to do all the custom decor along the way!

0 Comments


Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.

Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...