Selecting Fabrics

Perhaps most exciting is what happens when you introduce your fabric choice into your room designs. Your fabrics transform the space as though magic. They bring color, pattern, and texture to an otherwise lifeless design.

So, how to select fabrics that will work in your interiors? You start by considering every fabrics in terms of basic guidelines:
Function
Cost
Mood
Harmony

Function

All fabrics should be suitable for their intended use. Durability of fabrics should be the first functional consideration. If you know that the fabric will get frequent use and expected to last for years, you need a fabric that is tough and durable. Among natural fibers, it is wool, among synthetics – nylon and acrylic. Fade resistance is another functional consideration, especially if the upholstered piece will be near a sunny window. Dirt-resistant may be important, too, as is ease of cleaning. Wool is good. So is leather. Many synthetics are naturally stain resistant. Silk is bad for this purpose – it can be easily stained be even clear water. Many fabrics can be treated with a stain-repellent.

Cost

Clearly, you need to select fabrics that fit within your budget. But also remember that an obviously cheap fabric can make your furniture and home design look very cheap.

Mood

Fabrics express mood in three ways – by their color, texture, pattern and style.

Color is the first thing that you perceive when you walk into a room, and it speaks louder than almost any object in a given space. The best way to make the decisions about which colors to use in your home, is to find out the colors that you would comfortably have around you. Simply saying, use your taste and intuition in choosing the color scheme. Choose the colors and combinations of colors that please you – that you feel good being around. If you don’t trust your color intuition or if you prefer to use traditional approach, refer to the color wheel to choose color schemes to suit your home.

Rough textures in fabrics are most often considered rugged, casual, unsophisticated, countryish. Smooth textures are most often considered delicate, formal sophisticated, urban. While individual fabrics may vary in these characteristics, the important point is for you to be alert to the type of mood projected by the textures of your fabrics. A nice, tasteful mixture of different fabrics in a room makes the design more interesting. Say, if the major pieces are smooth, consider using rougher textures elsewhere in the room, and vice versa.

Patterns may be formal or informal, bold or demure, casual or elegant; geometric or freeform, floral or abstract, modern or traditional; sleek and sophisticated or primitive and rustic. Floral print is delicate and feminine. The plaid is simpler and less sophisticated. The pastoral scene is traditional. Geometric and abstract patterns are strictly contemporary. Patterns do not have to be used in any great quantity to have a noticeable tonal impact. Small splashes of pattern – even self-color patters, used for accessories – can create tonal interest in a scheme. They lead the eye through the scheme, providing color and tonal highlights and accents.

Read more about styles here. If you are decorating a room in Victorian style, you would concentrate on fabrics that are appropriate to the Victorian look – such as heavy damask or plush velvet. A patchwork of jewel-like fabric on the wall, pillows, and bedspread bring a touch of opulence to a bedroom. Tiger stripe, cheetah spot and jazzy zebra pillows are guaranteed to create a new decorative look for any room. Most of this is simply common sense that will quickly lead you to select fabrics that make a statement appropriate to what you want the room to say.

Harmony

To create a real harmony, you need knowledge and training or professional help. Harmony means a selection of fabrics whose colors, textures and patterns harmonize with one another and also with all the other elements in the room. Upholstery, draperies, carpeting, wall coverings and accessories are the major decorative masses in any room, and you cannot consider the colors and decorative patterns on any of them in isolation.