Silk, leather, chenille, damask, cottons, and velvets are just some of the names we use to describe the wonderful assortment of fabrics we have available for our homes. With so many choices, where do you start when it comes to designing your room? The first thing you need to consider is the function of your room and who will be using it. If you have children, pets, or a high traffic area, you will want to steer towards more durable fabrics that won’t hold a stain.

Generally, the tighter the weave of the fabric, the more durable and long wearing your fabric will be. For upholstery, fabrics like denims, leather, jacquards, velvet, chenille, prints and nylon are great choices for durability. Most of us are familiar with fabrics like denim, leather, prints and velvet because these fabrics are used in clothing, but don’t always know what jacquards or chenille fabric looks like. Jacquard fabrics include damask, tapestry and brocades which are produced in an elaborately patterned weave on a mechanical loom called a Jacquard loom. Chenille is a heavy fabric woven with a soft tufted cord.

The fibers or threads that are woven into fabric originate either from animals, vegetables or man. Animal fibers include silk produced by the larva or cocoons of the silk worm and wool which is made from the fleece of domestic sheep. Vegetable fibers include cotton or linen, which originates from plants. Natural fibers normally are soft, comfortable, absorbent, cool and absorb stains faster than manmade fibers, but usually clean better. Synthetic fibers include acrylic, acetate, rayon, polyester, olefin, and nylon. These synthetic fibers dye easily, are strong, durable, and resist soil, but have a shiny artificial feel and don’t clean as well. By blending these fibers, fabric manufacturers can create beautiful fabrics that have the benefits of both natural and manmade fibers.

So what fabric should you choose for your upholstery? Leather is a great choice for durability, but it shouldn’t dominate in a formal setting. Nylon is known for being resilient, extremely durable, and wrinkle resistant, drapes well and doesn’t stain easily. Cotton is a good choice because the fabric’s comfortable in both cold and warm weather, it’s absorbent, versatile, and durable and it wears well in heavier weights such as denim or canvas, but can soil easily. Wool is a great choice for cold climates, can resist soil, but it’s expensive and can sustain moth damage. Silk is a beautiful strong fabric that works well in formal areas and resists soiling, but is cost prohibitive and not as durable in high traffic areas. Acrylic blends are a good choice because they are washable and resilient. And polyester blends are attractive because they are strong, durable, resist wrinkles and don’t stretch or shrink. Olefin is also durable, strong, and resists both soil and abrasion. In general, however, the fabrics that hold up the best on upholstery are flat weaves like damask, jacquard and cotton.

So how do you maintain your beautiful upholstery fabric? First, keep your upholstered furniture out of direct sunlight so the fabric won’t
bleach out. Have your upholstery fabric fibers sealed to resist stains and blot out stains and spills immediately, but don’t wipe them. Vacuum your upholstery regularly to keep dust from imbedding in the fabric and turn your reversible cushions regularly to evenly distribute wear. And finally, make sure that you save your manufacturer’s tips for cleaning your fabric or upholstery.

Part 2
If you are just beginning to think about designing a room from scratch, start with an item you love such as a beautiful fabric and begin to create rhythm in your room by combining fabrics that relate to each other in color or style, but not in pattern size. Using a pattern or color throughout your room can unite mismatched furniture and accessories. To have balance and make your space harmonious, your patterns should range in size from small to large. After you’ve decided on a color, determine how formal your room will be, the style of furniture and the look of your walls. For example, if you have rough textured walls and more rustic furniture you will be selecting from casual fabrics that coordinate with those design elements.

If you are purchasing large quality upholstered furniture, consider covering the upholstered pieces in solid colored fabrics. Then you only have to change your accessories or window treatments that have patterned fabric as your color scheme changes. Having a solid colored fabric also gives your eye a place to rest between the patterned areas of the room.

Remember to balance the patterns that you select throughout the room so they don’t make your room feel too heavy on one side and ensure that the pattern fits the scale of your room. If you have a large room, then normally you would select larger patterns and if your room is smaller, pick smaller patterns so the fabric doesn’t overwhelm your space. And if you want to create height in your room, use patterns on your window treatments or a vertical stripe in your upholstery.

To mix patterns, start with your dominant pattern first in the most intense colors. Be careful when you select this larger scale pattern, because it will make the strongest statement in your design. Your secondary pattern should have a similar style to your dominant pattern, but have a different type of pattern that’s usually half the scale of the first pattern, but in the same colors. For example stripes, plaids, checks, dots, tweeds and geometrics blend well with a bold dominant pattern. Another option for your secondary pattern is a much smaller pattern maybe ¼ to 1/3 the size of the original pattern with a similar style. For your third pattern, you can select a pattern that is similar to either of the first two patterns with a few of the same colors from the other patterns. For your fourth pattern on, try a tiny design in a simple pattern such as a stripe, check or other small scale print.

Don’t place bold patterns on top of each other, because the effect will be too busy and the patterns may compete. Try to use similar colors in the same color intensity when mixing patterns and relate them in style, texture and motifs. Mixing pastels with a strong hue of the same color doesn’t usually work. Normally, you mix bold patterns with bold stripes or checks and delicate or formal patterns with delicate fabrics. For example, formal textures with smooth surfaces blend well with fabrics such as satin, damask and velvet. And informal textures blend well with fabrics like corduroy, burlap, muslin, tweed and canvas. With leather, you could use interesting textures such as fur, suede and/or tapestry fabrics to add textural interest.

To select an accent fabric for your upholstery such as pillows, table runners, throws and dining room chairs, normally you would pull one of the more intense colors from your upholstery fabric. Then use this accent fabric to draw your eye around the room at a glance. If you select a busy pattern for your accent fabric, the energy level of your room will increase and if you use a simple pattern or paler hue, the room will have a calmer effect.

For a monochromatic color scheme, ensure that you use a wide variety of fabrics in the same color to create textural interest, so the room doesn’t feel too bland, but make sure that you don’t mix whites with another color family of white such as off-white.

If you still don’t feel confident enough to mix patterns on your own, then you can pick a set of companion fabrics that have been selected by fabric companies to be compatible in a room design. The only thing you would have to decide then was the color scheme that you preferred. And if you wanted to add another pattern, just remember the general rule of thumb for patterns, large scale pattern with several colors, medium scale pattern with less colors and a small scale pattern with only a few colors.