Designer Secrets: Coordinating Fabrics For Your Room
Have you ever struggled with trying to pick fabrics for your home? You’re not alone. But designers make the process look so easy. Here are some strategies that the pros use to get the best results every time.
1. Before you go shopping for fabrics, either online or in a store, decide on 2 or 3 colors that you want to find. Often times, designers will pull the colors out of existing things in the room such as a colorful area rug that is staying or tile that is adjacent to the space.
2. Go shopping and pull a bunch of samples in the colors you’ve decided upon. It’s okay if they have more colors than the 2 or 3 you’ve chosen as your focus. Make sure you have fiber contents that will work well for the different intended uses but don’t be too judgmental at this point. Choose a variety of patterns and textured solids.
3. Return to your room with your fabric samples in hand and lay them out. Then, without much thought, eliminate anything you don’t immediately like. Don’t worry about where you’ll put each fabric at this point. Trust your gut instinct about what you like. If you have a hard time eliminating fabrics, group them by type and start eliminating. In other words, put all the stripes together and then take away the stripes you least like.
4. What’s left are fabrics you like. Now think about how you could use each fabric in the room. Start with the big applications first. Consider how the pattern will look on that item. How will it wear over time? Work your way around the room from largest to smallest items that need new fabrics. Depending on your preference for pattern and contrast, you could put together a mix of different fabrics including one stripe or geometric, one large print, one small print, some solid textures, and a few unexpected pops of color.
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