Mixing Fabric: Tuesday’s Textile Mix

You know how you’re driving down the road and a song comes on transporting you to the good old days?   The days when pink frosted lipstick, big bangs, and Liz Claiborne perfume wafted freely around every teenage girl?

Well…this is sort of like that, except with textiles.  I’m bringing back my Textile Tuesday with a more grown up shade of lipstick, tamer hair, and a step up to Creed Perfume.  Today I’m laying the foundation.  We’re going to dive into the basics of mixing textiles so in the following weeks we can fly little sparrow.

Like a road map, we start one place and just keeping moving through the steps always heading for the destination…a room with a great mix and texture.  When finished, you should be mixing fabric in X-Large, Large, Medium, Small, X-Small, plain.  If we lived by each other we would do this whole process while sipping coffee and standing around in our flip flops.  But today we have to do it virtually.

Start here.

1.  Pick out your visually graphic fabric first.  This is the biggest, most graphic eye catching print you want to put in the room.  For this fabric I try to look for a repeat of at least 18″.  It could be a large floral, a big paisley, a large geometric or a major toile.  The type of print is based upon your taste.  Whether it’s country, French, chinoiserie, Victorian…this method works every time.  Here’s the one I’m working with today.

Brick House Fabrics

I know this is a huge print but I always recommend putting a huge print in the room when mixing fabric.  For a bold statement, make it into curtains.  For a more conservative approach, make a pillow.  Either way, commit to one big bold XL visually graphic (VG) print.  It makes the room.  Trust me.

2.  Step two is to pull out every color in the fabric individually.  In my VG fabric I have a darker blue, lighter blue, turquoise, beige, and white.  I take my fabric to the hardware store and match it up to paint swatches.  I keep them all together and with me whenever I’m out shopping.

3.  Now match up another big print.  Another big print?  What, am I crazy?  No.  There is science to this.  Look for another big print that is opposite of the VG print.  For instance, in my case I have big sea fans in my VG fabric so I would look for a larger stripe or plaid to offset it.  Something like this.

If your VG fabric is a large scale geometric, you would want to find more free flowing fabric to pair with it.  The repeat should be smaller, something between 6″-12″.

.4.  This is where the fun really begins.  Now pick out fabrics in the coordinating colors that have smaller prints.  The prints can have more than one color from the VG or only one or two.  Find 2-3 fabrics in this medium category to make mixing fabric look fresh.

5.  Pick out a few small and x-small fabrics.  Something that has a very small pattern mixing again free form and more geometric/linear.

6.  Finally, look for some solid colored fabric that coordinates with the VG fabric.  In this case I would find a dark blue, light blue, and turquoise.  Of course, I would ground everything with white.  The solid colors can be used for interest in piping on pillows or upholstered pieces.  The contrast between the blue fabric with the starfish and white piping on a pillow would be stunning.

Congratulations!  You’ve pulled together a room using 8-9 fabrics in one space!  Again, for a bold look…put the big print in big places.  For a more subdued look, put the small prints in big places and just use pops of the bigger print.

Next week we will take on a popular paint color and match it up with a room full of fabrics with sources.  Sound like fun?  I think so too.  Oh how I’ve missed my textiles.  Some people love shoes.  Some love clothes.  Some love jewelry.  Me?  Fabrics! Fabrics! Fabrics!

Now I want to know…do you like big bold prints, or, are you more drawn to visually calm prints?  This little textile fanatic wants to know.

Don’t forget…If you saw something you like…pin it!  I would appreciate it.

Nancy