This week’s project might seem like a silly one – pick a fabric already! But F’s curtains are something that I’ve put off for a long while, and if I plan to actually get the car sheets and the foamcore out of the windows, then I have to start somewhere. (Side note: M and I have been scratching our heads over the location of all of E’s flat sheets, and it really took me typing that sentence about the car sheets to realize that they are hanging in F’s windows.) More on where we currently stand on the curtains here.
Picking a fabric is daunting for me. So is calculating how much I will need, purchasing it, buying a fabric liner, hiring someone to make the curtains, and then installing them. But until I actually pick a fabric, nothing else can get done. I keep my eyes peeled all the time for something that really grabs me. Lots of things do grab me, but I still think it’s hard to decide what I like on a bolt of fabric, and what I want to live with for a long while on the most prominent wall in her room.
I like birds. But I’ve got a lot of them. I like small, simple prints, but it’s a big window, and little things tend to get lost. Just seeing the small blue striped sheet and the sheet with little cars on it hanging there showed me that if the pattern is too small, and too faint – well, it might just look like I’m trying to hang bed sheets at the window. It’s a huge three sided wall, and the neutral nature of the gray walls and white woodwork gives me the freedom to get a little bolder on the curtains.
I think I may have found the fabric.
It’s an Alexander Henry fabric and I can purchase it locally here at Fabric Nosherie. I bought 1/4 of a yard today to bring it home and see the colors and the scale in the room. I’ve photographed it below to give you an idea.
It’s one of those strange kind of things that I can’t really explain. If I look at the fabric swatches that I’ve collected and admired for awhile and I place this one among them, it might not be the first one that I gravitate towards. But there’s a reason I haven’t pulled the trigger on any other fabric – and I wanted to figure out just why that is. So I gave myself a little exercise. I put together a sort of quasi-mood board or images of the room, images of other things that I love, images from the past, and photographs of some of my favorite moments in this room. Here is it – you can click on it to view it much larger.
There is a special light that comes into this room that is so different from any other room. I have shades of pale blue and white in other areas of the house, and those rooms really receive a great north light – very white, and very diffuse – throughout the day. It’s calming, and the calming colors look great. F’s room is south facing, and it’s up in the trees, and it gets the afternoon light, and the setting sun light, and the gray walls aren’t in the least bit institutional. In fact, her room kind of glows. I started out thinking that I loved a bolder aqua in that room with the gray, and I still do. But I’ve noticed I’ve shifted to golds as well, and I think it’s really because of the light.
I’ve liked those colors in clothing as well, and I can see hints of these colors and patterns showing up in some of my favorite things the little one has worn. I see the colors in her favorite friends, in her photo albums, in artwork that I particularly love in her room or have made for others. I see them in found objects, and displayed objects around her room. To me, it makes it feel like it belongs.
I also love the departure from the birds, and the focus on botanical prints. To me the two are very much interwoven, and they compliment each other. I love the simple flower shapes – they remind me of a favorite invitation I made for E’s second birthday party years ago – it’s a shape that shows up in cookies that I make and drawings that I share. It feels like it will grow with her, and even as her room evolves as she gets bigger, there are plenty of jumping off points from these curtains.
It looks great with the things that she already has – particularly the couch that it will frame, and the collection of pillows that reside on that couch. It’s a vertical print that I think will look good in a floor to ceiling curtain, with just enough color and just enough white space to not overwhelm.
So I’ve done it. I’ve picked a fabric. It’s going to take me some time to take the next jump – I need to track down some options for getting these things made. But I’ve picked a fabric so I can take the next step – it’s a fabric that’s new, available, and that gives me a little time to order and get it made without worrying about missing the boat. Hooray!
Gorgeous. Nice choice. Can’t wait to see the finished product.