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Choosing a fabric that will bring your interior to life is an art itself. Charles Parsons shares some great selection tips.

Tip 1 Style and Setting

Is it a casual setting where you can use fun colours or trendy prints? Or a formal setting with more traditional patterns, or a muted colour palette? Is the look modern or contemporary? Think about the way you want the setting to look, and ensure it will fit in with other furnishings already in the room. If you want to embrace the latest fashions, make sure it is something that you truly like and can live with for years to come, long after the trend has passed!

Tip 2 Adding Depth and Proportion

You can’t change the size of the room, but you can change the perceived dimensions of the space with cleverly applied colours and patterns.

Drapery stripes tend to be vertical as they draw the eye up, creating the illusion of height and space.

In small rooms, you can make the space appear bigger by using lighter fabrics to make the walls appear to recede. Dark colours absorb light, making a room seem cramped and can give the impression that the room is closing in on you. Choose large-scale patterns as smaller ones can be chaotic in a small room.

If you have an oddly proportioned room, one option is to create an illusion of depth on one wall by using colour. Keeping the other walls neutral, decorate the last wall in a deeper contrasting colour and colour block with plain or textured drapery to give the impression that the wall is further away than it really is.

Tip 3 Pattern Scales

When you’re choosing a pattern, consider the size of the design. Small curtains or blinds won’t show the full potential of a fabric with a large pattern. Similarly, a large curtain in a small-scale design can look busy and fussy.

Mix and match different patterns in the same room. The key to contrasting patterns is to ensure each pattern is a different scale. This prevents patterns from blending into each other and making the room look confused; the eye has trouble distinguishing between them at first glance.

Tip 4 Colour

Colour can change the whole mood of a room. You want to match the weight of the colour to the rest of the room. An electric blue curtain is going to look mighty out of place in a setting decorated in soft pastels, even if the rest of the room is blue! Different colours can work very well together if they are the same weight. Alternatively, a feature piece in a strikingly different weight can have real impact.

Also consider whether you want your furniture in cool or warm tones. Warm tones have an undercurrent of yellow, orange or red, making you think of sunlight and heat. Warm colours bring items closer and create a sense of intimacy and comfort. Cool colours create a sense of space and depth, and tend to have a hint of blue or stark white - it has nothing to do with whether the fabric shade is light or dark. You don’t necessarily need to create a whole room in one tone though. Statement pieces in a contrasting tone bring a welcoming sense of balance to a room.

For more helpful tips and information on Charles Parson's extensive fabric range, visit their website - http://www.charlesparsonsinteriors.com.au

The Dollar Curtains & Blinds team can work with you on how to select the best fabrics for your home, our showrooms cover the whole of Melbourne and Victoria as well as areas surrounding Fyshwick and Mitchell in Canberra, Griffith, Batemans Bay, Merimbula and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales and Mt Gambier in South Australia.

Visit your local showroom to view our extensive range of fabrics and colour choices. Our team can also book in a free in-home consultation with you to work through your interior design scheme and select the design solution best to suit your home's interior style. 

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Whether this is your first time or you have decorated before, it can be a daunting challenge. With so many options, so many things to consider, where do you start?

Maurice Kain is a leading soft furnishing fabric house supplying the Australasian market for well over 65 years. Sourcing drapery fabrics from every corner of the world has ensured the ability to bring on trend design, colour, and quality through to Dollar Curtain’s customers. To fulfil so many different furnishing requirements in consumers’ homes Maurice Kain’s range must be a one stop shop; so we cater to that requirement with jacquards, sheers, plains and prints.

PICK YOUR QUALITY

Our association with Dollar curtains started over 20 years ago. Like Dollar Curtains & Blinds, quality for Maurice Kain is paramount. Three full time QA staff are part of our commitment to quality. All our ranges must meet very stringent criteria. Our in house testing laboratory ensuresno product is released to the market without passing all applicable tests. We look after the quality side of the equation for you.

PICK YOUR COLOUR

When developing new drapery collections, we take into consideration the direction paint and flooring colours are taking and ensure our colourations are working together. If you are starting with a bare room or existing colours, walls and floors are a perfect place to start. Colour takes on what we call “hue” which can be green / red / blue for example, so a great decorating tip is to collect your paint chips, flooring samples and drapery swatches so they overlap each other. This will ensure your “hues” are compatible. Dollar Curtains & Blinds expertly trained consultants are also on hand to help you put that together.

PICK YOUR DESIGN

Florals, stripes, leaves, scrolls, geometrics, or textures, this is where you can make your own personal statement and a true reflection of yourself. Consider the space you are decorating - living, bedroom , dining – it can be as bold or subdued as you like. It is also where you can add tremendous value to your home and create that “wow factor.”

PICK YOUR ENERGY-EFFICIENT SOLUTION

With ever increasing energy bills – correctly installed drapes can significantly reduce your heating costs. This simple diagram explains where the heat is lost and how it can be reduced. Incorporating a quality lining with your drapes also helps with energy efficiency, significantly reducing not only the heat loss during the winter, but repelling the heat during the summer. From the infrared imaging of a typical home it is easy to see where the heat is lost.

For more information on how to best select fabrics and to view Maurice Kain's extensive fabric range visit their website - 

http://www.mauricekain.com

The Dollar Curtains & Blinds team can work with you on how to select the best fabrics for your home, our showrooms cover the whole of Melbourne and Victoria as well as areas surrounding Fyshwick and Mitchell in Canberra, Griffith, Batemans Bay, Merimbula and Wagga Wagga in New South Wales and Mt Gambier in South Australia.

Visit your local showroom to view our extensive range of fabrics and colour choices. Our team can also book in a free in-home consultation with you to work through your interior design scheme and select the design solution best to suit your home's interior style.