Belinda Crestani takes a look at the latest in fabric designs, blinds, shutters and clever innovations and talks to some of the industry’s professionals about ways to make your windows go from drab to fab
Feature Fabric
Beautiful colours and whimsical patterns are the ‘in’ fabrics this season
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| Eye-catching silk geometrics together with a silk taffeta check and stripe incorporating an attractive Ottoman detail complete this lavish drapery collection. The Grandis Collection from Romo is available from Marco Fabrics. | Delicate embroideries are mixed with fresh checks and stripes. Natural materials such as linens and cottons were used to create this floral collection consisting of Cottage Garden, Vintage, Voyage and Fountain. Available from Unique Fabrics. |
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| It’s all about the use of colour in your home. Get inspired with Zimmer + Rohde’s drapery in Move colour 484, available through Mokum Textiles. | The Markham House collection from Warwick Fabrics emanates class and style. |
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| Le Crin Balzane horsehair/polyester sheer curtains from Boyac. | Orsay collection from Villa Nova. Available from Marco Fabrics. |
Trailing patterns in off-white and metallic silver-grey adorn soft, gold dupion silk in Marais, the irresistibly pretty keynote drape fabric from Laura Ashley’s new-season story Petit Palais. Here, with eloquence, the fabric creates a design statement and is complemented by a simple yet classic pleated heading style and elegant gold decorative rod and rings. The picture is completed by the careful addition of ageless styles in upholstered furniture employing beautifully detailed woven jacquards and finely textured shaded velvets. Decorative accessories focus on pleated and patterned silks and sateens, embellishment with beading and embroidery, mirror finishes and cut glass. With colours and motifs reminiscent of the halls of a grand chateau, the understated elegance of Petit Palais is at once both gracious and refined, yet disarmingly charming. Create your own “little palace” with this captivating, delightful and timeless story from Laura Ashley.
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| Yoshino collection from Villa Nova, exquisite silks infused with oriental style, is available from Marco Fabrics. Japanese-influenced embroideries and lustrous silk weaves are complemented by an elegant sheer. | |
| Director of Unique Fabrics, Carol Fry, thinks fabrics work best in the home. She tells us why… Fabric is best because it adds softness to an environment and it also assists with keeping the cold out and in during winter and summer. For me, however, the most important things are that it absorbs sound so eliminates the rattle-bang factor you get with hard window treatments. Advice when choosing fabrics would be to enlist the assistance of a good interior designer and give them a concise brief about what you do and don’t like. Ensure you know what you are choosing is the correct choice for the position you are using it in (the designer is invaluable here). Fabrics create the mood of a home and nothing else offers the variety. |
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| From the Vice Versa collection from Unique Fabrics Runway curtains and blinds. | The Hugo Stripe blind from Unique Fabrics is part of the Vice Versa collection. |
