Using vintage fabrics in soft furnishings is a great way to add colour and charm to your home. Cushions, sofas and chairs can be recovered, while bedspreads or a quirky headboard made from vintage fabrics will brighten the bedroom.
As well as
Cath Kidston, Curtains Made Simple has five great collections of vintage fabric;
Grandeur,
Modern Classics,
Summer Breeze,
Vintage Classics and
Vintage Florals Collection.
Vintage fabrics from the middle of the 20th century, are characterised by bright, cheerful, contrasting colours. Designer
Cath Kidston has built a highly successful business using vintage fabrics inspired by designs from the 1940s and 1950s. Kidston's range includes fabrics for soft furnishings, handbags and accessories.
It was Laura Ashley who was the first major influence on the popularity of vintage fabrics for clothes, soft furnishings and wallpaper. Ashley was at first inspired by Victorian floral fabrics, and later, fabrics from the 1920s and 1930s. Her business grew from a flat in Pimlico to a multinational concern, moving into children's wear as well as home furnishings.
Liberty, the iconic London vintage fabric retailer, was founded in 1874 in Regent Street, from where it has traded ever since. It is now a destination store for visitors from the UK and abroad, who flock to admire its range of couture and vintage fabrics.
Due to the influence of Liberty, Ashley and Kidston, vintage fabrics and their use in soft furnishings are widely available from other outlets. Vintage fabrics and their use in soft furnishings are constantly being explored by art and design students, as well as young designers, and the market is constantly expanding, with shabby chic and retro chic in fashion. Now you can add style to your home by clever use of vintage cushions, vintage bedspreads, vintage retro, vintage bedspreads, vintage curtains, vintage blinds, and vintage fashion prints. Stores such as Harrod's sell vintage fabric, retro fabric and floral fabric.
Younger designers are also interested in retro fabrics from the 1950s and 1960s, evoking the era of post-war austerity and the later freedom in outlook and design of the psychedelic era. Today another name for vintage is shabby chic.
Children's bedrooms are an ideal place to decorate with vintage fabrics. Illustrations from artists such as Ernest Shepherd, whose classic works appeared in the original Winnie the Pooh books, can be used for soft furnishings, such as bedspreads, pillows and even wallpaper. The soft colours of many vintage fabrics will provide a warm and comforting environment for any child.
Adult bedrooms can be similarly enhanced with the use of vintage fabrics. You can let your imagination run riot with a mix of candy-striped curtains, floral bedding, paisley rugs and even have a tired headboard recovered in a vintage fabric to save the expense of buying a whole new bed. You will also have something original, which is to your taste only, not restricted by the limited ranges of manufacturers.
In the kitchen, dull cupboard doors can be replaced by curtains made from vintage or retro fabrics. The use of these is sure to brighten any kitchen, and as most vintage fabrics are machine washable, it is simple to keep them looking bright and clean. The seats of kitchen chairs can be cheaply re-upholstered in a matching or contrasting vintage fabric to enhance the look of the most important room in the house.
Your living room is the place you go to when the day's work is over and you just want to relax. Vintage fabrics and their use in soft furnishings can be used to great effect here. New cushion covers are easily made at home. They do not need a great deal of expertise with a sewing machine, but if you do not own a machine, your local upholstery shop will be able to do the job for you, often at less outlay than a High Street store. Also, an upholsterer will be able to advise you on the choice of vintage fabrics, colours and colour schemes for the whole room, and it is worth listening to what a professional has to tell you.
Some vintage and retro fabrics are works of art by themselves, and you can even frame swatches of fabric. These look great along the hall, landing or up the stairs.
Vintage fabrics and their use soft furnishings is a wonderful area to explore, which will give you a wealth of great ideas to make your home superb, a great place to live, and somewhere with your own original stamp all through it.
To look at some of our great fabrics look no further than here;
Cath Kidston,
Clarke & Clarke ,
Vanessa Arbuthnott or
Prestigious Textiles.
We can also fullfil large contract curtain orders for
Hotels, Schools, Restaurants, Pubs and Care Homes.
Choose From Over 35,000 Heading, Lining and Fabric Combinations For Made To Measure Curtains and Roman Blinds