Fabric Friday: Picking Fabrics for Your Space

Pairing fabrics can feel a little overwhelming—we hear you.  In honor of our first Fabric Friday, we thought it would be fun to walk you through our first Mintwood Home project, picking fabrics for pillows to go on founder Heloise’s new bed. After making our initial fabric swatch selections at the Washington Design Center, we came home, poured ourselves a big glass of red wine and laid all of our new fabric swatches out on the floor.

 

Here's our advice: 

If you're looking for pillows, as Heloise was, decide on the quantity and sizes that you want before you begin looking at fabrics. 

Many times the size of your pillows will dictate your fabric choices. For example, larger prints don't always translate well on smaller pillow sizes. For Heloise, she was looking to make two euro shams and two standard shams for her queen size bed.

 

Think about what you're working with.

How many times have you seen a fabric and questioned whether it will actually look good with something you already have? We do this all the time. Sometimes it’s easier to break it down. In Heloise’s case, she was working with:

1.   A charcoal velvet headboard with silver nail-heads
2.   A white matelassé/coverlet and duvet

 

Be practical. Where are these fabrics going? What do you do in this room? What do you want the mood/tone of your space to feel like?

Heloise: The bedroom in my new apartment is really small (which I actually love) and it has great natural light. I wanted the colors and patterns on my bed to feel airy and calm—something that looks put together but comfortable. I love a good nap and need my bed to be something I want to crawl into.

 

Go with your gut. Which fabrics speak to you? Think colors and patterns. What colors do your eyes automatically gravitate toward?

Heloise: With all the fabric swatches laid out on the floor, I kept coming back to the blues and greys. I picked two patterns—Zdenka by Kravet for my Euro Shams and Pumice by Duralee for my two standard shams. I love how the larger floral pattern on my Euros grounds the smaller scale pattern on the standard shams in front, and the greys in both fabrics really complement each other.  I decided to add the white boudoir pillow as a fun way to add a crisp pop, to me it ties everything together. 

 

Heloise's Fabric Choices  

The Finished Look

 

At the end of the day, there really is no secret formula to mixing and matching fabrics. We are big believers in going with what you love.  If you decide to design your own Mintwood Home pillow(s), don't forget, we're here to help and we love hearing from you! 

XO,

Heloise