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Sunday, July 10, 2016

The Process Of Choosing Fabrics For Pillows

  

This is a post I wrote about the process of finding the perfect summer fabric for pillows in my family room. In this post you will learn that it is a process for all of us to find what will work in our homes and in our lives. We sometimes become somewhat of a Goldilocks, read on and you will see what I mean......

I am sure some of you are wondering why I write blog post like my last post that tells you the process I go through in decorating my own home. (You might want to read the last post I am referring to as well, just click on last post in the above sentence)


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The victories, the disappointments, the mistakes are all part of any design process. Whether you are a professional, or a homeowner that just loves to decorate.

Sometimes it can be a slam dunk, but more times than not it is a lot of planning and experimenting.


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I want you, my reader to become brave enough to try new things and wise enough to admit when it does not work in your home. 

Both are part of the design process, and will help you get to the point of a well designed room that you love.

So with all that being said shall we continue where I left off in my last post?

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My original plan of adding turquoise in the form of pillows to my family room for a summer look was not working as I thought it would.

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I had pinned images that made me think it would work and in my minds-eye it could work.

For some reason it was just too strong of a statement, so that sent me back to the drawing board. 

It helps to write down why certain elements don’t work, and then you will see what possibly will work in your room.(this is where you will be like Goldilocks, too small, too dark, not the right color etc.)

After reevaluating what the room needs to make it cooler for the summer I realized that maybe, just maybe, I need to keep it’s base all blue and white and only add touches of turquoise in the form of books, vases and accessories.


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It will still give me the coolness of blues, but will be more of a visual flow for my particular room.

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Notice how this room is all blue and white and the only turquoise is in the vase? 

The room still reads nice and cool and reminds me of summer. Now this is more of what I think I need.

The hunt began for blue and white fabric that had a larger scaled pattern, different shades of blue. The Ikats were not the direction for me so that meant something with a bit of a flow to it.

In comes my next three fabrics…
#1 is Pindler & Pindler’s Nebula in sapphire
#2 is Pindler & Pindler’s Batik in azure
#3 is Robert Allens Jacobean in indigo

I tried each one in the family room……


collage of all three fabrics

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First image is #2-Jacobean and#3 Batik. fabrics. The middle image is all three choices, and the third image is #1-Nebula fabric.

It is always a good idea to line them up and compare all the aspects of each fabric, pro’s and con’s.

After lining them up the smallest swatch was eliminated because of the smaller scale and lack of different shades of blues.

nebula pindler and pindler sapphire

It was a very close race for  #1-Nebula

AND

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#2- Batik

This is the point that it is important to put the fabrics with all of the existing fabrics in the room, and to view it in the different lighting throughout the day.

After doing this there was a clear winner…….


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Pindler & Pindler’s Nebula in sapphire.

Here are the reasons why this fabric was the clear winner….
Nebula collage
The Nebula fabric worked with every fabric in my room. The colors stayed consistent in all lighting.

Even at night it maintained it’s crisp blue and white look. It has just a touch of black outlining which is perfect with my black touches throughout the room.

nebula collage 3


There was a lot of research that went into finding these fabrics.  I love blogland, and the generosity of fellow bloggers. I can not end this post without thanking two lovely ladies……..

I would like to thank Jennifer of The Pink Pagoda blog for giving me the name of the Batik fabric. Jennifer used this in her home in pillows and in draperies.

Pink Pagoda collage

I would also like to thank Karianne from Thistlewood Farms blog. Once I googled this fabric and found it on her blog, she was so gracious to give me the name and manufacture of the fabric.
Thistelwood Farms collage

The fabric has been ordered and when I receive it I will have my pillows made!
As always,
 To Be Continued………
Since this post was written we have actually moved and we now live in a new home where these summer pillows still work!!!
 Life moves forward and the pillows came along with us!!