help! what fabric(s) should I use for my living-room art?
I love the patterns at my local fabric shop, and made the pillows shown above with their cotton prints (the pink one is vintage). I’d like to use their fabrics as art above our couch as well. My plan is to stretch a piece of material over a rectangular wooden frame, secure it in back with a staple gun, and hang. Right now I have a green print (shown above) up as a placeholder, but I wanted your advice about what to put up instead: One big large square of fabric? One solid square of fabric plus two prints? I’d love to hear what you think. Thanks! —Bunny W.
April 18th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Love your pillows bunny, I’d go for something lower and larger that doesn’t compete with the scale of the florals on your pillows. a little graphic.
Also, If you are going to frame prints to keep some continuity, maybe you could consider using the fabric in a frame as well. Or using fabric as matting around or behind the prints instead of on its own. Other homey items like plates could work with the fabric instead of prints too.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I agree with Ellie, with a twist: I would go for a big, big piece of fabric and hang it about a foot lower so it has more connection to your couch — the one that’s there seems to be hanging in space a bit. What about a fabric that tied together all the colors: your couch (looks like a brown, but kind of hard to tell), a blue, and a pink, all in one fabric?
I think a bold print would be the way to go; anything too small or delicate would get lost and not have that much impact.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Thanks to both of you for your suggestions!
(The green print that’s up there is actually usually in my bedroom; I just hung it up for a size comparison.)
Anyway, I’m off to Brooklyn General in a few, and I’ll keep you posted about what I find!
April 18th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
What if you were to sew together a few strips of each pillow then mount that on the frame? That would tie in all the fabrics together. Or check out Anna Maria’s method of painting on top of the fabric with a simple sillohette. She did it on Martha’s show. Looks quite simple and with the right sillohette could be really elegant.
http://annamariahorner.blogspot.com/
Scroll down her side bar a bit and there is a link on how to do this.
April 20th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
If you appreciate a patchwork look, you could combine them and either machine sew them together or randomly hand sew them together with yarn using cool embroidery stitches, then stretch it over canvas strips.
Good luck and post a picture after you do whatever you choose to do!
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I think one big gesture with a nice fabric print is going to be more impactful than a series of small fabric pieces. Everyone is gravitating towards big artwork these days.