On going Obsession: Manuel Canovas

I’m constantly saving images of fabrics that I love. I file them away for client inspiration and then of course there is a massive section of fabric I hope to use in my own home use. For a while now Manuel Canovas fabrics have been quickly filling up my binder.

The one that constantly pops into my head is Misia:

Not only am I obsessed with my dream fabric covering those chairs, but how chic is that dining set!

I always love a floral print matched with a geometric one. It's a perfect combo.

Again dream fabric, with geometric print and now a little polka dot as well.

Nailhead trim and dream fabric!

I’m kinda obsessed with it. It must make it’s way into my home. Only one little snag it is a bit pricey.. it retails for over $300 and, but being a decorator has it's perks I can get in in the low $100’s, but it’s a two yard min.

We shall see…Anyone else interested in getting a yard? Email me (cpavone0107@gmail.com) if you want to split the 2 yd min.

What's on your list as your dream fabric? Come on leave me a comment and share your obsession with me. We can form our own support group for it. :)

Images via 1. Design Sponge 2. Ruthie Sommers 3 & 4 Absolutely Beautiful Things, 5. A Bloomsbury Life

Give-away: $100 credit to Lewis & Sheron Fabrics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my favorite things about being a decorator has to be FABRIC!

For me a piece of fabric can become an obsession, an inspiration and then the thread that ties a room together.

While I love many designer fabrics that I have stored away in my mind for my dream home I always like to look for the cheaper chicken.

So, when Lewis & Sheron Fabrics contacted me for sponsorship and a give- away I knew it was a match made in heaven.

They are always my go-to source for chic fabrics in my clients budget.

Here are some of my current favorites:

Asian Motif:

Bamboo Lattice:

Bengal:

Fretwork:

I seriously could go on and on with all of my favorites. Not only do I love their inventory, but their customer service is amazing. I had a client with her heart set on fabric I posted about it from LS. Well it was out of stock and not returning. They went out of their way to go through all of their inventory and scraps to find me a 1 yard section to cover a chair.

Ok now we get to the good part! In honor of their new sponsorship they are offering a give-away of a $100 credit to their online store.

Here is how you can enter:

-Be a follower of this blog

- Go onto LS Fabrics and find your favorite fabric. Leave me a comment with your pick!

-Want an extra entry? Become their friend on Facebook and you can enter again!

*Remember anyone can enter. Please just remember to leave me an email address.

Good luck!

Give-away is open till 7/6/10 Midnight EST

Shop Girl: B&J Fabrics

Yesterday I spent a beautiful sunny day shopping in the fabric district. Now I’m not going to lie the fabric district is not in the nicest part of NYC. You have Port Authority, Times Square and Penn Station all sort of surrounding you so it can get really packed with tourists, but it is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

 

One of my favorites shops has to be B & J Fabrics!

Pure fabric heaven. Their tag line is, “ Possibly the best fabrics in the world” and I must agree.

 

I made sure I snapped many pictures with my iphone so that you could all feel like you were there with me.

 

Take a look around:

Can you tell which fabric caught my eye in this picture?

 

Loved this navy blue and white chain link.

 

Ah this just made me happy! All those bright colors.

 

Patterned bolts of fabric. The whole store was so nice and organized.

 

You know me and my love for brown & white. This totally caught my eye and it was only $15.95 a yard.

 

Polka dots will always be a classic to me. So I was happy to see oh so many lined up.

 

Now the majority of the shops in the fabric district house fabric for garments. There is very little in the world of upholstery. I’ve yet to find a gem that has remnant of Kravet’s and F. Schumacher that I can dig through.

 

B & J is mostly fashion, but they do have a nice sized collection of cottons in prints and solids that could be used for pillows and window treatments and they all seemed to be around $10-$30 a yard so it’s not that crazy for a nice, clean and organized shop!

Look alike: Josef Frank Fabrics

Last week I got many emails asking for more information on this fabric:

 

That little peek of fabric got many people’s attention so I figured it was worth sharing with all where it is from.

 

I love Josef Frank Fabrics, but I do not love the $200+ price tag per yard.

 

Frank was born in Austria and later on moved to Sweden where he designed over 200 patterns between 1909-1950. Only 34 patterns are currently in product. His fabrics are a wonderful mix of color and blooms and just exude happiness to me!

 

Here are some of his ionic looks:

 

In this room his fabric is used not only on the window treatments, but on the sofa and club chair in the room as well.

One of my favorite rooms from Domino. Love the dark tulip table, the chesterfield sofa and the Josef Frank print on the window treatments.

 

My favorite pattern has to be this little number:

With this pattern coming in at a very close second favorite:

So when I found this:

I knew it would be making it’s way to my home and going in my office!

It is also available in a red colorway:

Along with a black colorway:

At only $22 a yard it is quite the bargain compared to the real deal.

 

Little designer secret of mine before ordering any fabric online try calling/emailing Orien Textile and see if they carry it first. It sometimes takes a bunch of tries to get a response, but I was able to get my fabric for $16 a yard!

Lovebirds

Rita Konig’s entryway that was featured in Domino mag has always been a favorite of mine.

 

I love the black back drop and love that the birds are paired together like little couples.

 

Of course it’s no surprise to find out that the paper was designed by design legend Nina Campbell aka Rita’s mom. (Lucky girl!)

 

The design was inspired by a Parisian flower shop known as Odorantes. Both Rita & Nina were quite taken the shops dark walls, collection of taxidermy including butterflies and birds and the vibrant flowers that simply popped in the space. 

 

The wallpaper also comes in a lighter color way:

 

When I stumbled upon this fabric for only $15 a yard I thought it would make for a good look alike:

 

If you don’t want to make the commitment of wallpaper then framing some fabric can give you a similar look or attach it to a wall with these DIY instructions (I’m dying to try this out!)

 

Have you seen any lovebird prints in fabric or wallpaper that I must know about? Share!

 

Images 1-2 via Domino, 3 Nina Campbell , 4 Warm Biscuit

Lusting after Laura Ashley

Never thought I would use the words Laura Ashley and Lust in the same sentence, but alas it’s true.

 

To be honest when I hear the words Laura Ashley I think of florals and matching outfits. When I was little I grew up in Manhattan and right near our apt was the  South Street Seaport, which had a Laura Ashley store. I always remember seeing the matching mother/daughter outfits with the matching window treatments and wallpaper in the windows and thinking I’ll never want a thing from in there.

 

Eating my words now. Don’t get me wrong I’m not running out with my mom to pick out outfits, but I wouldn’t mind  bringing a little Laura Ashley into my life.

 

Tilbury Lapis to be exact.

 

It works nicely in a texture filled, rustic home full of neutrals by Healing Barsanti via House Beautiful.

 

 

Used as a headboard in A Single Man the ikat fabric just oozes glam.

 

One of my favorite uses of this fabric is in a Domino favorite room. The room is a bit preppy, a bit modern and a bit global with the same touch of Tilbury in Lapis.

 

While it is a to the trade fabric I was able to find it online here for only $42.98 a yard.

 

 

I searched high and low for a look alike. While I couldn’t find an exact one this one from LS FABRICS had the same shape IKAT and similar colorings just in different places. Plus it’s only $12.98 a yard!

 

 

What’s currently on your must have list? Any Laura Ashley prints making a reappearance in your home?

Zigging and Zagging

If you know even just a little about me you know that I love pattern! Zig-zag print has always been on the top of my  I LOVE PATTERN  list. It’s a favorite of mine I try to talk everyone in it. My favorite example of the perfect zig-zag has to be by Alan Campbell. His print has a way of coming off  as geometric and a touch ethnic yet simple and classic and can be used as a neutral in most settings!

 

First up is the work of the always lovely and stylish Ms. Harper. She used the print in paper form and I think it give all of her great accessories a unique background that really makes the room.

 

In a room already full of stripes and a bold red the home owners went with the petite zig-zag print for their $10 barrel chair finds! Just another way to see it used as a neutral.

 

At first glance you may not see it, but Campbell’s petite zig-zag is in the sweet nursery below designed by Angie Hranowsky. Yet again it’s the perfect neutral.

 

In the rooms above the zig-zag has taking on supporting roles so to speak in the rooms, but you can also make it the staring member of the room by using it to a upholster a main piece in the room. I would love to take this baby off of Maison Luxe's hands and into my already stuffed house!

 

Of course I know that Alan Campbell’s fabric is not in everyone’s price range, which is why when I stumbled onto this fabric I knew I would have to make a blog post about it.

 

I’m in love and it’s only $5.00 a yard!!!!!

Ebay Fabric Jackpot!

I constantly dream of the day that I can surround myself in all of those luxurious designer fabrics from my favorite glossy magazines. With designer fabrics starting at around $100 + a yard this really isn’t in the cards at the moment.

 

I always tell my clients not to give up on their fabric dreams, because with champagne taste on a beer budget we can always add a touch of it in a throw pillow or covered ottoman.

 

This then leads to many, many, many days of searching on ebay for that perfect fabric to appear.

 

Yesterday I found an amazing vendor featuring many of my designer favs!

 

House of KWID Imperial Trellis - 2 1/2 yards is at $51 bucks at the moment.

 

House of KWID- Giraffe 2 1/2 yards is $20 bucks at the moment.

 

 

Kelly Wearstler Bengal Bazaar 1 5/8 yard is only $13 bucks at the moment.

 

Kelly Wearstler Bengal Bazaar 5 3/8 yards is $43 bucks at the moment.

 

I just high-lighted a few of our designer favorites, but Mariannes Fabric and Finds has 30 pages of fabric at some great prices!

 

Any tips you want to share for your fabric hunting on ebay?

Don't forget to enter to win the Sunburst Mirror Give-away!

I want to go to there: DeBois Textiles

Last week Meg from Pigtown Design put a little teaser on her blog. She had found a decorators slice of heaven in her home town. A massive warehouse full of designer fabrics many running as little as $10 a yard!

 

Here was one of her teaser pics!

 

I was dying to know where she had gone.  A couple of days later she not only revealed the store, but went back to it with fellow blogger Michelle from My Notting Hill.

 

Look at what they spotted  this time!

 

I literally wanted to grab my keys and run out the door to snag some KWID imperial trellis out of her hands! But I realized that not only was the store already closed for the day when I read the post, but oh yea it’s in Baltimore and about 4 hours away from me!

 

I dropped my keys and headed towards my calendar instead trying to figure out when to plan a road trip!

 

Of course Meg revealed even more!

 

Due to my vacation to Costa Rica that starts this Friday (So excited!) and the NYIGF the following weekend my adventure to fabric heaven needed to be planned for the first weekend in Feb!

 

Patience is a virtue and I decided I just needed to chill and that soon enough my hands would be on some amazing finds, but then what does Meg do? Reveal even more! (As of Monday she had already been to De Bois Textiles 5 times!!!)

DeBois Textiles doesn’t have an online shop, but I emailed them to see how to get my designer fix fast. A received a lovely and very prompt email back from the President of DeBois Textiles letting me that if I give him a pattern name/vendor/color they can check and see if they have it and I can order it via email!

 

Check out what Meg made with some Trina Turk fabric she was gifted at De Bois.

 

So, lovely readers enjoy! If you are near Baltimore you must run there and grab something great, but leave something around for me.

 

If you are in the NY area I’m going the first weekend of Feb! Road trip anyone?

 

A big thank you to Meg for letting us know about this gem that most people would keep as their own little secret!

 

Another big thank you to everyone that helped with my Dilemma yesterday. All of your comments/advice have really helped me formulate a good game plan!

 

xoxo,

Camila

 

* All images via Pigtown Design aka Meg

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting…

I have no idea why, but for the last threeweeks I keep breaking out into song and start singing, “Everybody was Kung Fu fighting.” Do I know all the words? Nope. Which means I pretty much just sing the first two lines over and over. Let me tell ya Jon is loving it!

Over the weekend I realized that I start singing the song everytime I thought about Chiang Mai Dragon fabric. I have no idea why my brain has decided to make that connection. Maybe because they are both Asian inspired? Or maybe I’ll just never know. Regardless I can’t seem to get it out of my head.

I know the fabric has been around for awhile, but I recently realized that it would work perfectly in my bedroom for a chair that I want to get reholstered. Since then the singing has started and I can’t stop.

Then I get my July issue of In Style and there is a feature on Kristen Bell’s home and her amazing Chiang Mai Dragon covered ottoman from Plantation!

 

She also uses it on her kitchen stools:

Then I went into my inspiration files and found even more shots of my beloved Chiang Mai Dragon:

 

Image credits: 1-3 via In Style, 4. via Maison Luxe, 5. O at Home, 6. The Babs Blog 7-8 Pink Wallpaper 9.Revival Home & Garden

Hmmm maybe if I promise Jon that I’ll stop singing once I get it he’ll agree that it’s a smart investment?

What fabric is currently on your mind?