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Prints Charming

Jill Evans demonstrates how beautiful fabrics can add character and personality to your home.

Print really can be charming. The time for playing safe is over. When everything is neutral, it can look as though you are not intending to stay there but just getting the house ready to sell. This does not mean to say that you need prints everywhere of course, as just one or two touches in small areas can make all the difference. If you can find some prints that are ‘a little bit different’ then so much the better.

Furnishing fabrics fall into two categories: prints and weaves. Prints are plain woven base cloths, generally of cotton or linen, printed with one ‘screen’ per colour in various designs. Simple prints may have one or two screens and more elaborate designs may have about 20. The quality of basecloth is all-important to the appeal of the printed fabric. This country has a great tradition of printed fabrics with many international companies as well as our won using our printworks.

As well as the major fabric companies with their excellent prints, there are others that are not as well known and who offer something very individual. A small but well-respected fabric company is based in Tiverton and is something of a secret at the moment… but not for long. Called Brocante, they use natural-looking colours such as indigo, coffee and mulberry red, with the designs printed in a slightly faded way on textured linens either in its natural colour or off-white. These charming designs are available to buy online.

A similar small up-and-coming Westcountry company with quote a different style is Emily Bond. Her designs have a sophisticated naivete and are printed on pure linen with unusual subject matter that appeals to men as well as women and children – something to be remembered. They never look twee or fussy, and although this design references are generally country-based, these patterns work just as well in the town. The designs include Dairy Cow - a stencil-like white cow shape on natural coloured linen; Labrador — black silhouettes of the dogs on a black-and-white striped background; and Dachshund - red dogs on natural. There is even a Saddleback Pig design which is great fun and quite a talking point. It is also an online business, so it is easy to see the designs, order swatches and look at them in your own home.

Another company well worth considering is Vanessa Arbuthnott who also sells online. She prints in lovely combinations of soft colours on linen union, which makes it suitable for many furnishing uses including upholstery. Her designs are often taken from nature, such as Up in the Air, which shows swallows swooping and gliding across the open sky. The soft colours make her designs very easy to use as they tone so well with popular colours of paint, and she also offers printed checks and stripes in similar colours.

The Mulberry Company may be well known for its fashionable handbags but to interior designers it is also well known for its Mulberry Home furnishing fabric Flying Ducks. Originally a design created in 1930, it has become a modern classic just like many of the handbags. There are several good design shops in Devon who could order it for you.

If you don’t hays the internet, you could telephone and ask any of these companies to send swatches or brochures. If the design is large, you may not be able to see all the colours in a small swatch so it is best to ask for a Iarger ‘returnabIe sample’ so that you can drape it in situ and live with it for a few days.

Whether you decide on using printed fabric in a small way for a cushion, a blind, a windowseat, a dining-chair cushion, for example, or in a Iarger way for loose covers, upholstery or curtains, prints will make a big difference adding personality and interest and turning your house into your own special home.

Photographs: Brocante, Emily Bond, Venesse Arbuthnot

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