Dwell Studio Discounted

Bella Porte by Dwell Studio at Fabric.com HERE

The New Year gets everyone revved up to do some projects, and if you need designer fabric at discount prices, there is no better source than Fabric.com where they just launched a new line of Dwell Studio fabrics HERE

This fabric called Bella Porte would be a great choice for a padded headboard (DIY instructions from Be Jane HERE)

In fact the owner and CEO of Dwell Studio thinks so! Christiane Lemieux is featured in the February 2011 issue of House Beautiful in the "I Love My Bed" feature. She has launched a new line of furniture that includes an Art Deco inspired headboard upholstered in modern Dwell Studio fabric.

Christian Lemieux in House Beautiful with her headboard design and kids

Padded headboards add instant design panache. So pick up a few yards of Dwell at Fabric.com, and have at it for a fresh new look for the fresh new year.

Padded headboard idea via House to Home

ALSO - Dwell Studio is having a "White Sale" on many of it's fabulous products HERE

Please send me photos of your headboard projects so I can feature your work on Visual Vamp.

Adding Something You All Hate

There was an amazing flurry of comments at Jenny's MFAMB last month HERE

If you like this fabric, get it HERE

Blah blah blah we all hate Imperial Trellis type fabrics. Well in your face trendz haters! I just covered a cutey-pie Saarinen stool in the guest room with a knock-off fabric from Fabric.com HERE

Visual Vamp Guest Room - Count the trendz!
Folk art painting by Charles Gillam

I love it. And I love my one Foo Dog too. And the black and white stripe rug. And the Dwell Studio bedding. And the sunburst clock AND mirror you can't see.

I took all the colors for the room from the crazy wonderful folk art painting and woodcarving entitled "Le Tango" done by Charles Gillam (call: Susan and Charles 504 975-8421 or 504 234-1703).
The painting is an homage to Alberto and me. That's me with the red hair I used to have.

Chippendale Fretwork Fabric by Waverly
Wicker vanity from Ruby Beets

And to twist your knickers further, I put a SEAGRASS rug on the kitchen floor!!! I sprayed it with something called Sisal Guard, and so far (only two weeks) no problems with spills or anything. I always like adding "living room" stuff to a kitchen. Why? I'm crazy! So I added a mirror over the sink too!

Seagrass rug in the Visual Vamp kitchen

In New York, certain apartments during a certain era used mirror in the small kitchens as a backsplash. My kitchen revamp is taking on the feeling of a bistro, where you often see long mirrors, so I thought a mirror over the sink in lieu of a fancy backsplash looks spiffy.

Visual Vamp uses living room elements in the kitchen
The framed photos have a bistro mirror shape


Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles inspires me

I used a good looking inexpensive closet mirror with a black plastic frame from Target.
I stuck it to the wall with Velcro tape. Beware, I still might get a subway sign for the kitchen, though I am thinking of one from Buenos Aires.

Mirror over the sink
in the Visual Vamp kitchen

Long mirror in a bistro - do you get the crazy mind of The Vamp?

Happy Weekend!

I Heart Fabric.com

Fabric.com is a great resource. They have the most reasonably priced fabric, much of it on trend.
Even though I work at a wonderful home furnishing store with access to every designer fabric, I often cannot afford it even if I can get it at cost.
And sometimes I have a client who is on a very tight budget, and I need to find great looking designer fabric really really inexpensively.
Fabric.com is my go-to source.
The customer service is great. There is free shipping if your order is $35. or more.
I have personally used their ivory burlap for drapes, their heavy white cotton for slipcovers, their solid color silk and linen for drapes, their lining and interlining.
When trends first break, prices are high, and it make take a year or two for them to trickle down to the mainstream. If you aren't stuck-up about a designer name, and you can use your creativity to get the gesture of what you see in a magazine, Fabric.com will be a wonderful resource for you.

Fabric trends

Here is a round up of some of my favorite fabrics at Fabric.com based on looks you all once drooled over. I for one, still appreciate them.

One hot fabric is the Lee Jofa Confetti Dot designed by Kelly Wearstler. Lots of you drooled over this, and I have used it for clients. But it hovers around $100. a yard or more.

Lee Jofa Confetti Dot

Fabric.com has something in the same vein, and in many different color ways (gray, orange, black).

Fabric.com Togo print HERE

The very talented Nicole Cohen from Sketch42 used the Lee Jofa fabric in her home.

She added the beautiful trim, no doubt from her family's fabulous store M & J Trimming in New York. I found some very cute zebra print ribbon at Fabric.com for only $1.24 a yard that would work just fine for a girl on a budget.

Zebra print ribbon from HERE

Skirted console by Nicole Cohen

Madeline Weinrib has some of the best Ikat fabrics, but they are very pricey. I wish I could afford them!

Fabric.com has some prints that really have the feeling of some of the Weinrib dot Ikats.

This dot Ikat-like fabric comes in pink, orange, black, yellow HERE

Madeline Weinrib Ikat pillow around $400.

Of course Fabric.com has Suzani too. Again in many color ways HERE
This black and white one really looks like a Weinrib Suzani.

Black and white Suzani HERE $6.98 per yard!

Madeline Weinrib Suzani chair

There's been alot of flak about trellis like fabrics, but again I still think they are very cute.

Trellis print on Lucite stool

Trellis print from Fabric.com HERE
It comes in so many colors!

Another trellis style print HERE

Greek key style fabrics are fabulous. We all loved what Jonathan Adler did with them.

Jonathan Adler stool

Maybe you have a chair seat or a little stool that you can recover.

Fabric.com has this Waverly Cross Section fabric in several colors HERE

For all you black and white lovers, there is a huge selection of black and white designer style fabrics available. And you have to remember that all these fabrics start at $6.98 a yard and go no higher than $12.- $15. per yard!

Trellis style print drapes

I just ordered a yard of this black and white fabric to cover a couple of Saarinen stools.

Get this fabric HERE - $10.98 a yard!
It reminds me of Windsor Smith

The chevron pattern is great, and beloved by many of us.

Chevron print drapes

Chevron fabric HERE
Again it comes in many color ways

And if you want the carpet to match the drapes ha ha, get over to La Dolce Vita to see these very affordable Flor carpet tiles(!!!!), and enter a giveaway to win a rug! HERE

And some more Ikat - I think this one is as beautiful as any Weinrib fabric. I love the painterly quality of it.

Blue Ikat from Fabric.com HERE

Blue Ikat furniture is so pretty

Have you ever used laminated fabric? It was a big thing to cover dining room chairs in laminated chintz in the 1980's.

Fabric.com has quite a few good looking laminated fabrics that would be wonderful for chairs.

Laminated fabric HERE
It reminds me of Trina Turk

Trina Turk fabric on a chair from perch.

I also love a link pattern.

Links from Fabric.com $12.98 per yard HERE


Windsor Smith links print fabric from Kravet about $150. per yard
See a great DIY project from Nest Egg HERE

Here are just a few images to remind you of how great print fabrics and wallpaper are.



And the use of color is pretty great too.


This images are of the Redbury Hotel.


Hope you can use Fabric.com for a source to get great inexpensive designer style fabrics!

Catting Around With Perennials

Impressively Lush Catwalk Outdoor Fabrics Claws Its Way To The Top

Who doesn’t love a fluffy feline, perched for the world to see as though she owns all she surveys? And who could fail to fall in love with a beautiful deep-pile velvet, from one of the industry’s top high-style manufacturers? Perennials Outdoor Fabrics rises to the top again with the dramatic debut of Catwalk – the newest offering from Perennials outdoor velvets! But looks are deceiving -- Catwalk is no pampered princess. It can be used for your most demanding outdoor applications, as well as any indoor areas that require high performance without sacrificing high design.

Catwalk, the first jacquard-woven outdoor velvet of its kind, takes high-performance luxury into dangerous new territory with patterns that reach flamboyant new heights of ferocity and fun. Touch the wild leopard-inspired design, and feel a pile so lush you’ll fear the scratch of a startled feline! Surprisingly versatile Catwalk is available in four distinct color ways. A dressed-up tri-color of fawn, black and tobacco brown makes a charming Sophisticate. Alley Cat, in colors of nocturnal black and rich chocolate is anything but common. Chic and sleek in soft white and ivory, Cool Cat slinks its way into your heart. And stand back for the most untamed of them all: Crazy Cat sizzles with hot hues of orange, pink and lime.

The wildest thing about Catwalk? These are not mongrel prints, but true jacquard-woven designs with the high-class pedigree we’ve come to expect from Perennials Fabrics. With these passionate designs, exteriors will be styled like they’ve never been styled before. But don’t forget, they perform double duty indoors too; just one more aspect to purr about. From fiber technology, to design, to quality assurance, every step in the production process is under Perennials Fabrics care and control. All very good reasons why Perennials Fabrics have character and longevity, providing long-lasting protection in colors and designs never thought of before.

To the trade. You can order it from perch. New Olreans 504 899-2122

www.perennialsfabrics.com

Ikat You Can Afford

Urban Outfitters has a great looking Ikat chair at a very affordable price.

Urban Outfitters Ikat Slipper Chair - Only $325. HERE

Ikat is here to stay. The bright bold graphic print just seems to work on antique furniture frames, on pillows, and on contemporary furniture. It's just the needed punch of bold color that often bridges your old things into the realm of the new and refreshed.

Urban Outfitters Ikat Slipper Chair - only $325. HERE

Contemporary Ikat fabric is not cheap, ranging from $50. a yard, and up from a variety of fabric houses, to well over $200. per yard from Madeline Weinrib who does the best interpretation of it.

Madeline Weinrib fabric on a 19th century frame - over $3000.

You can find affordable Ikat fabric direct from the source from a place called Uzbek Craft for less than $20. per piece, but you have to buy several pieces to cover a chair. They also have very well priced pillow covers. And Uzbek Craft has a great selection of that other beloved textile, the Suzani!

Do what Jefferey Bilhuber does - just add a little Ikat pillow toss

Material Girls has a great roundup on the subject HERE, and it's well worth taking a look.

Blog Press Release: Perennials Fabrics

Perennials Outdoor Fabrics Offers Customized Textiles

Every designer has one (or more!) of those stupefyingly demanding customers who take so much additional effort to be pleased, especially in the area of interior design where the look of an entire project determines a signature style. You can show swatch after swatch, and somehow there’s nothing that hits the sweet spot.

Designers know that the exciting array of choices available through Perennials Fabrics can solve nearly any problem. But for the absolute perfect choice, Perennials goes one better: they will custom make any fabric you can possibly, possibly imagine. This company is the best in the world at what they do. World-class fabrics that work indoors and out, in textures from the toughest wearing awning weight to light-as-a-feather sheers, and everything in between.

And now…what? I’m going to have Maserati make the exact car I want from a drawing on a napkin? Well… yes! Prints: bold and graphic or subtle or whimsical. Give them that camera-ready napkin drawing and watch them go. Sheers: think romance, blowing with the passing breeze. Bring in a fabric swatch or a Pantone color. Woven: think design and details. Perennials is famous for hard-wearing jacquard-loomed fabrics in dazzlingly complex and subtle designs. Even trimming: custom cords, knots, puff balls and more!

Of course there are minimum lengths for custom-made fabric and specs to follow, and with customized comes cost. But that’s understandable when you’re dealing with the best of the best. Perennials Fabrics are routinely chosen for the top residences and contract applications around the world.

As a designer, your favorite thing (other than collecting your check at the end of a long project and opening the champagne) is designing! Knowing that you have the freedom to create the perfect, customized fabric for your most important projects makes your life easier and the whole world a lot more beautiful.


www.perennialsfabrics.com
PO Box 1267, Dallas, TX 75225 - USA,
214.468.0777 (v), 214.878.5448 (c)