If you
follow me on Instagram, or caught
the recent post about my new poster purchase, then you might already know that I'm swapping the
teal DIY back tab bedroom curtains...
...for an absolutely perfect green tweed!
I know that some of you are Team Teal, but the tweed has won some hearts too. Before I show off the new drapes (they're gorgeous, but a little too long - oops!), I wanted to explain my reasoning - and how I suddenly became totally obsessed with tweed.
Finding the teal patterned fabric in the bedroom was so tricky! I was committed to more colourful textiles in the lakehouse, and I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone of
sheers, sheers, and more sheers. It helped that Hubs wanted "real curtains" that would block light and offer privacy. I searched for a long time, but couldn't find a shade of green/teal that worked with the posters. Eventually I found a teal print that had a modern feel and looked nice with the posters, although it complemented the middle poster best. I thought (and still think) these curtains were gorgeous. Trying something different (for me) really paid off!
When I
moved the middle poster out of the room, all of a sudden my beloved curtains looked wrong. I casually started the search anew and was looking for curtain fabric for the office at the same time. I had
a contender in mind for the office, but I really wanted the curtains in both rooms to have a similarly scaled pattern for some continuity. I
corralled all of the viable options in a Pinterest board to show my Mom and she ended up finding
this photo I had pinned a long time ago, from
the show house Young House Love did:
I was really smitten with those luxurious aqua tweed drapes, but because they didn't suit the bedroom I didn't think twice about them. Huddled over my Mom's tiny tablet, we clicked over to
U-Fab. I was positively giddy when I found not only
a bevy of gorgeous tweeds (Hubs would like me to say a "gaggle of gorgeous tweeds), but also what looked like the perfect shade of green for the bedroom - shot with teal, like it was made for me! I immediately ordered a bunch of samples, trying not to swoon at my $15 bill (one reason I've stuck to buying fabric locally for so long). The folks at U-Fab were so sweet, and generously sent over some freebie samples, which was a lot of fun. What is it about getting something free that makes people so happy?
I taped some of the contenders up on the wall and spent a few days and nights contemplating - I like to see fabric or paint swatches under different lighting. This was my original short list for the bedroom (clockwise from the top,
Dapp Cloud,
Dapp Peacock, and
Dapp Elephant):
"Elephant" was
too dark, but the silvery, creamy "Cloud" looked SO good, especially with the bed skirt and the off-white background of the posters. It definitely harkened back
to the townhouse, where creamy sheers and mushroom-hued silk curtains were de rigeur. In the end, the green "Peacock" was
too perfect to ignore. In the office, there were no other contenders because the
Dapp Aqua (which YHL used) looked amazing.
The office is still unfinished, but I'm letting the art work guide my choices. The turquoise looks perfect with the art in there (by
Bert Weir):
I'm going to be honest and say that it really frosts my cake that it took me two tries to get the curtains in the bedroom "right," because the fabric for the first set, even thought it was on sale, cost about $100 at Fabricland. Spending money on something twice is such a disappointment and something I try really hard to avoid, but I couldn't have predicted
my poster splurge. I'm
really excited about the new curtains and I love that the office and bedroom will have coordinating drapes. I think that's going to look really chic and polished, and I'm realizing that texture, as opposed to bold pattern, might be a better fit for me in the long run. I think tweed will have more longevity too.
After the green and aqua tweeds were ordered, I tossed the samples on the dining room table. And that's when it hit me: these tweeds are upholstery weight! Hmmmm... would any of them be suitable for recovering our super comfy dining room chairs? I have kept my eyes peeled for comfortable, more stylish replacements for years, but no chair can hold a candle to these - they are lounge chair comfy, and they encourage us to sit and relax and linger. I've even dragged my laptop out to the dining room and spent whole days working there, drinking in the view, instead of clacking away in the office which, although it has a lovely mountain view, pales in comparison. I don't think our butts will ever allow us to part with the chairs, so recovering them might be the way to go. The "Peacock" actually looks pretty good
with the living room, but I think it would be a bit much beside
the aqua kitchen - it's a pretty saturated green. I think that with such bold statements in the living room and kitchen, the dining room chairs don't need to yell quite so loudly - although they do need to be a little peppier than their current brown,
because they do seem out of place.
A creamy beige, shot with pale aqua (
Dapp Crystal), caught my eye. It really picked up the creaminess of the leather sofa and
the white stained maple counters, but I think cream dining room chairs might be giving us too much credit. It would be a disaster on spaghetti night.
After a bit more sample shuffling, I found "The Magic Tweed" as we call it (
Dapp Blue Jay) - a blue-ish, grey-ish, slightly teal-ish tweed that, at first glance, doesn't seem bright or bold enough to strike my fancy. It's a chameleon, though, blending in and looking more teal, grey, or blue as required.
It is especially adept at picking up
the teal of the velvet chair. We'd like to build a new living room ottoman, something a bit narrower and longer, with hidden storage, and this teal could work for that too. Carrying the same fabric from the dining chairs to the ottoman would be lovely - it would connect the two spaces.
I'm going to get some quotes from some local upholsterers to see how feasible it is, and how much I'd need to save up. In the meantime, now you know how I came to decide that
everything must be tweed ;)
