Lightening The Living Room With Designers Guild Fabrics

These past few months I have slowly been making some new cushions, blinds and curtains for the living room. I wanted to lighten the room as although it is South facing, it still needs some help with light at times.

The sofas are both pink ( luckily Andy likes this colour) and I love to put pinks and greens together, so my first choice for some of the cushion fabric was Santiago in mint from Designers Guild. I made up some envelope cushions in it – it’s a plain weave made from polyester. It’s very sturdy and easy to sew with.

I also love, love, love stripes – especially on silk, so chose from the Franchini collection – Noir. Again very easy to work with, surprisingly so, actually considering it’s silk. The cushions are so crisp and tactile. I have plans now to use the turquoise colour way on another home project.

When I first saw this digitally printed print by french fashion designer Christian Lacroix for Designers Guild, I was kind of mesmerized. It’s very clever because as you can see, the butterflies almost look 3D with their shadows. It creates movement on the cotton and the palettes used are really vibrant and striking – I had to have this design in the mix because it’s so intricate and it feels like adding extra artwork, but just on cushions instead.

Talking of artwork, I hope you like our new print on canvas by the lovely artist Jessica Zoob ? I have been a fan of Jessica for a long time and was lucky enough to meet her last year at the Amara Awards. She was as sweet as I thought she would be. Totally in love with it. It’s called  ‘ Feeling Good ‘ and it makes me feel that every time I study it.

Back to the curtain making … I used a corduroy ribbed velvet in ‘ Snow ‘  – it’s lovely to touch, very soft and rich. I’ve used this before for a bedroom and would recommend it for blinds or curtains. It comes in so many shades. Bliss !

It’s the first time I have made such big curtains. I added to widths of fabric to each side and was please that I did as it added extra volume which I think you need for the cosy effect. Of course, to use less you could make eyelet ones, but I like pencil pleat ones the best.

The blind has turned out well and I was really happy to finish them and rest my fingers as with both the curtains and the blind my thumb had gone numb with all the hand stitching !

Putting all of these different textures together has added warmth to the room but the colours have lightened it. If that makes sense ?

What do you think of the fabrics ? Do you like my updated living room ? I hope so. Do leave me a comment under the post – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you want to have a look at some more gorgeous Designers Guild fabrics and their collaborations, wallpapers, paints or gifts –  have a look here and feel free to ask me any questions of you are tempted to use of them yourself.

Lucy x

I was sent fabric by Designers Guild for this post. All opinions are my own.