Choosing Curtain Fabric For Your Living Room
When choosing fabric for your living room curtains it’s not surprising you feel a sense of overwhelm. What colour will go with you sofa? Is the fabric going to drape well? Layering your home with fabric and colour for a more interesting look creates a more pleasing interior, but how do you navigate your way through the vast fabric collections?
Choose A Base Colour
Choose your main colour first. To help you get started if you find it difficult, start with a piece of art that you love or a cushion, it doesn’t matter what it is as long as you love the colour and would like to explore how it would look in the room.
Choose two patterns
Most interior schemes look better when you add two patterns. Remember to scale up or down, for example if you want to add pattern to your sofa, choose the largest pattern, it could be a broad stripe, large geometric/paisley or floral design, then you would scale down the pattern in your cushions or curtains.
A lot of fabric design books do the work for you, with a floral, stripe and texture, voila! It’s as easy as painting by numbers if you want to do this yourself. If you are looking for a more curated style then choose something from other design fabric collections and let your imagination flow. It’s a bit like putting an outfit together, you wouldn’t choose exactly what’s on the store mannequin but rather seek out pieces you know suit your personal style.
Layering With Texture
Adding texture to your interior will create some depth, this can be a textured rug or if you prefer a solid colour in a sofa, you would use a textured fabric. Bouclè is proving very popular and looks like it will be around for some time, if you aren’t ready to make the full commitment try it out in smaller pieces like an accent chair, footstool or pouffe. Using texture in this way creates another dimension especially in a neutral scheme as you don’t want the overall look to appear flat.
Using texture in this way creates another dimension
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Which Patterns To Choose
Florals and stripes work well together, florals and geometrics, pattern on pattern can also work if executed well, the main thing to look for is a common colour theme throughout in order to create a pleasing look with some form of continuity.
Choose fabrics That Won’t Date
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When choosing fabric for your curtains it is also really important to look at how the fabric will drape, there are no straight lines in fabric and if you like your curtains ‘just off the floor’ or to ‘kiss the floor’ as it’s sometimes known in the industry, you need to know just how this fabric will behave. Natural fabrics like linen and wool will behave naturally and you cannot force them into straight lines. Some fabrics behave differently to the temperature of the room causing shrinkage or stretching. (It’s also not advisable to dry clean your curtains unless you know how the fabric and lining will react).
A good indication on how a fabric will drape is by doing the handle test, scrunch up the fabric in your hand and if it creases easily it may not give you the look you want. If it pulls with you it could stretch and sag over time.
