Focus On Interiors
STAYING IN – IN STYLE by Barbara Chandler
As the days lengthen and the spring light gets stronger, so our homes that seemed so winter warm and cosy maybe start to look a little sad and drab. This is where furnishing fabrics – in all their marvellous multitude of decorating manifestations – come gloriously into their own. For fabrics are the time-honoured, indeed perfect, way to revitalise a tired room. They offer immediate colour, pattern and
texture, in a huge range of prices. Re-style your curtains, cover a chair, or make a bold blind from a splashy new print. Soften the light and provide privacy with a floaty voile. Or simply add a stash of cushions to your sofa, with an adventurous attitude to mix-and-match. The new season’s collections will add a dash of fashion to please the eye and lift the spirits.
This year’s big fabric news is the 150th anniversary of the much loved English fabric firm of Sanderson. To celebrate, the Sanderson studio is introducing a new collection of “Vintage Fabrics and Wallpapers”, which is a charming revival of their past most vibrant and varied prints, embroideries and wallpapers.
Over the years, Sanderson kept samples as records of every design they produced or marketed, dating right back to when the company was first formed by Arthur Sanderson in 1860. Indeed today, the Sanderson archive is one of the most important collections of historic textiles and wallpapers in the world.
Over the last fifteen decades this quintessentially English company has been at the forefront of every furnishing fashion, setting trends for the whole of Europe. The designs in the ‘Vintage’ collection date from the late 19th century through to the 1980s, and each distinctly reflects its era.
The challenge was to condense such a wide time span into a relatively small range of designs. After much deliberation, a final choice was made: nine printed fabrics, two embroideries and nine wallpapers – but these are just a glimpse of Sanderson’s extensive and unique archive.
The Vintage collection includes styles from the Arts & Crafts movement, jazzy Modernes, fifties Festival designs and Pop patterns. Sanderson has combined the new with the old and used modern printing to enhance each design, adding a new richness and definition to these historical textiles. (www.sanderson-uk.com)
Looking at the broader picture, spring’s main fabric festival is London Design Week, held in the glamorous glass domes of the Design Centre in Chelsea Harbour, Lots Road, London SW10. This year’s event runs from Sunday 21 March to Friday 26 March, but the first three days are restricted to interior design professionals. However on Wednesday 24, Thursday 25, Friday 26 March everybody is welcome, and entry is free. Special attractions include appearances by celebrity designers, classes, lectures and book signings; for details call 020 7225 9101; or go to www.designcentrechelseaharbour.co.uk
So what are the trends for fabrics this spring? On the one hand, colours are bold and strong, with zingy pinks, limes, lilac and a fluorescent orange, bright enough to be neon. Many patterns have a retro feel, with stylised florals often outlined in black for an arty dramatic touch – for example Tricia Guild’s new Barcelona collection at Designers Guild (www.designersguild.com). Missoni’s latest look is brashly flamboyant, with huge “pixellated” florals, influenced by computer design (www.missoni.com). Harequin’s Tempo collection also has a retro feel (www.harlequin.co.uk)
However, there is also a softer prettier colour palette, ushering in a host of ice-cream shades of pistachio, café au lait, rose and gentle tones of sea blue and lavender, fading into neutral creams and greys.
Textured weaves and decorative effects, such as pleating, ruching and smocking, add surface interest and a good choice for those who don’t like too much pattern. And embroidery is ever more intricate, in elaborate blends of colours and stitches, and raised 3D appliqué effects. Also explore the new collections of trimmings, with braids, tassels and fringing for that extra touch of sophistication.
Collections are increasingly more ambitious, including weaves, prints, sheers, trimmings and wallcoverings in a carefully-coordinated offer which totally takes the headache out of colour scheming. Some even feature bed linens and rugs. Take a leaf out of fashion’s book and experiment with “layering”. For example, at a window, hang a heavy plain fabric lined with a pretty print, over a lightweight voile. You could even include a blind for good measure. Tricia Guild likes to hang curtain “panels” at her windows, each in a single width of fabric, in different patterns.
Underpinning fabric style and fashion, however, is an essential practicality. Fabrics must resist fading and be simple to clean, or they will soon look shabby. Your starting point for new curtains, upholstery and so on must obviously be what is in your room already. So collect samples or colour references (a paint chart is handy for this). Take these out shopping. Also note down important measurements such as window and/or sofa sizes. Be adventurous and combine weaves and prints – a velvet, say, or a chenille, with a printed linen. You could also consider mixing patterns – a stripe or check with a floral, for example. Your budget, of course, will restrict your choice, but even a small amount of sumptuous fabric can lift a money-saving scheme.
Always get a good-sized fabric sample, even if you have to pay – it’s worth it. Look at samples in the room where they are to be used during the daytime and by artificial light. Hold curtaining up at the window, and bunch up the fabric; place upholstery fabrics flat onto chairs or sofas.
Remember that curtains hang better when lined, and are protected from fading and dirt. Using a special tape attached to linings enables them to be removed. This prevents wrinkling if curtain fabric and lining shrink differently after cleaning. Curtain fabrics can also shrink at a window from moisture and/or heat – allow extra fabric for this – from 5 to 10 per cent. Sheer fabrics used for curtains look best when very full – a simple gathered heading needs around three times the window width.
For upholstery, choose densely woven hard-wearing fabrics. Avoid pale colours, fabrics with a heavy pile that could crush, and looped weaves such as boucle which can snag. Upholstery patterns may need careful matching – with motifs, for example, centred on seat and back cushions; or stripes lining up from seat to back. Get extra fabric if necessary, and check that your upholsterer knows what he is doing. Incidentally, it pays to choose the very best fabric for professional upholstery, the best you can afford. The labour is expensive and you need to make the most of it. Make sure your upholsterer knows which side of the cloth is the wear (or face) side.
Upholstery fabrics should be fire-retardant as specified by the Furniture and Furnishings Fire Safety Regulations 1988, amended 1989 and 1993. Your supplier and/or upholsterer will advise. Some fabrics can be treated (for example back coated) to make them fire resistant. Some fabrics made mainly from natural fibres can be used on top of an appropriate fire resistant interliner.
Keep in mind that the most common width for furnishing fabrics is 140cm (55ins), as opposed to narrower dress-making widths. But you may also find 135cm and 137cm. Wider widths abound – obviously the wider a fabric, the better value per metre. And there is less sewing involved, as fewer widths must be joined. This can cut time/cost of curtain-making. An extra-wide or double-width – say 300cm (nearly 10ft) – means the fabric width can be used as the curtain drop, as a continuous length of fabric.
What a fabric is made of affects how it wears and looks. Natural fibres easily hold their own against the more modern man-mades. Cotton is common, and weights, colours and designs vary hugely. Fabrics made from this fibre may be flimsy and lightweight, or very strong and durable. Cotton takes dyes beautifully, is easy to print, and can be blended with other fibres.
Linen, made from flax, is strong, durable and has a lovely heavy feel. But linen may be expensive. It tends to crease, and so is often blended – for example linen “nions” are traditionally mixed from linen and cotton. Wool is warm, resilient and hard-wearing in many “weights” and textures. It, too, dyes into lovely colours. Wool can be expensive but blends well with other fibres.
Silk is the fibre queen, lustrous, sumptuous and rich. It drapes well, and comes in a choice of weaves and a huge variety of colours. But it fades and breaks down in sunlight, so always line curtains, and have an additional protective blind if possible. Blending with other fibres such as wool makes it more durable. Paper-backed silks are available for walls. There are many man-made imitations.
Man-made fibres include viscose (another name for rayon) whch is made from wood pulp. It is relatively inexpensive and dyes well but may get dirty easily. Nylon (also called polyamide) can have an unpleasant static electricity which attracts dirt. However it is hard wearing and can make fibre blends more durable, and may be used for velvety effects.
Polyester is used for upholstery fabrics, and for attractive sheer curtaining. It is easy to clean but again may attract dirt. Blended with cotton, it makes fabric easier to wash and iron. Acrylic can effectively mimic wool in appearance, and is reasonably hard wearing. Fibre blends are increasingly complex – for example viscose/cotton/nylon, or viscose/acrylic/ wool/polyester. Fibres are described on labels as a percentage of the blend, in decreasing order.
A fabric’s ‘pattern repeat’ is measured vertically from the top of the pattern to where it starts again (‘repeats’). Its size is crucial, affecting not only how the design appears, but also the amount of fabric you will need. (Contrast, for example, a delicate mini-print with a huge blowsy floral). Most patterned fabrics need to match horizontally across the width of a curtain, bedspread etc. Thus each cut length has to have the same number of pattern repeats, starting at the same point in the pattern, so that the pattern matches when the seams are joined. Curtains with large patterns look better with a full pattern repeat at the hemline and a part pattern at the top (heading) where you won’t notice it so much.
It’s also useful to know a little bit about how fabrics are made. Virtually all fabrics are woven, but the trade divide fabrics roughly into “weaves” and “prints”. Satin weaves have a glossy surface on one side. Satin itself is heavy and luxurious in silk or polyester. Sateen is a lighter weight, used for curtain linings. Jacquard are made on complicated looms with perforated cards to create the pattern, but now computer-controlled. Newly fashionable are damasks (sometimes also called jacquards) which have a distinctive woven pattern, with matt and shiny threads contrasted for a rather formal effect. Updated colour schemes include bright shades of turquoise or pink contrasted with grey or black. Silk damasks are particularly luxurious, but linen and cotton, and fibre blends, are also used.
The so-called utility fabrics which are plain-woven textiles have come to furnishing from other uses. They include hessians (sacking) and tickings (mattresses), canvas (artists’ and awnings), calico, muslin, sheetings and even denim. They are cheap, often in wide widths, but may shrink up to 10 per cent. Wash before making up, or leave bottoms of curtains unhemmed until after the first wash. Or simply make curtains overlong. Investigate Russell & Chapple (020 7836 7521; russellandchapple. co.uk), and Wolfin Textiles (020 8428 9911/9955; wolfintextiles.co.uk). Both do muslins, tickings, linens, calicos etc. Ian Mankin (020 7722 0997/ 020 7371 8825 (good catalogue, no website) does plain weaves, checks, stripes etc.
Prints have applied patterns which can be very colourful and intricate. Block printing is done by hand from inked blocks. Fabrics have a lovely craft-created quality. Screen-printing by hand has colour squeezed through a flat “screen”. Modern rotary screen-printing is a highly automated modern version. Perennially popular chintz embraces colourful floral designs, sometimes with a traditional glazed finish. Toiles (Toile de Jouy) are large-scale traditional pictorial designs usually in tones of one colour on a cream or white background. Again, these are newly fashionable.
Digital printing uses a form of inkjet printing, and can provide highly-detailed patterns in a vast number of colours and many scales. It is thus perfect for photographic effects.
