Designer Fabrics & Luxury Wallcoverings 2012 – Latest Collections of Faux Leather & Raffia

Interior Design 101. Back to basics.

Minimally patterned, plain and simple patterns matter when you choose designer fabrics for your interior design scheme. It’s not just the ‘important’ stuff you have to worry about; it’s all the stuff.

Design after design. Pattern after pattern. Squashed into corners. Covered ceilings. Hung on walls. Something here, something there… OK you might have certain pieces that take centre stage in your grand design but you also have to set the stage with the backdrops, the reflected light, the subtle blend of auxiliary textures.

To a certain degree, if you must, you can compromise on the backdrops. It’s great having a silk panelled wall, relatively inexpensive and good to the touch. Not so good when it fades at differing rates in the exposed sun-lit areas of the room.

So when you choose designer fabrics yes you should be wowed by the colours, designs and textures BUT you should also be wowed and interested in the technical properties. Your clients might initially thank you for a great looking job. They won’t thank you if it starts to fall apart. they may well have already paid you at that point (so you’re OK right?) but will you then get recommended to their friends…probably not. It is so, so easy to make this kind of mistake.

So try faux silk rather than silk. It looks and feels pretty much the same but can be excellent in terms of non-fading.

So try faux leather. A wide variety of finishes and qualities are available and many are great for wall covering (!) as well as upholstery. Great to cover chairs or a bar in a restaurant but also in your kitchen as they can relatively easily be cared for and cleaned. If you love leather you might find that your upholsterer might not love that choice as you are working with hides of varying sizes, whereas with faux leather you are working with a fabric available by the metre.

Click for faux leather or faux silk designer fabric samples.

paint it GREY. (kothea.com)
A Chat With Verity du Sautoy, Interviewed With KOTHEA (kothea.com)
Interior Design {Series} – Intro To… (designyoursurroundings.com)
Design Trends 2012 (busyellebee.wordpress.com)
What’s Your Mood? (tuttiedesign.wordpress.com)
A yacht? No, a Numptia. (earthatdawn.wordpress.com)
Faux Leather in Blue (kothea.com)
Faux leather vs leather: can you tell the difference? (moneyviews.com)
London Fashion week: In bar Spector AW12 (aizakbuyondo.com)
Color Of The Month Series: Last Minute Purple Finds (kothea.com)
Fabrics I like (kothea.com)

Faux Leather in Blue

Posted: 20 February, 2012 | Author: Luxury Fabric, Inspired Design | Filed under: Contract Fabric, Panelling & Wallcovering, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: Furniture, Home and Garden, Textiles and Nonwovens | 2 Comments »

Fine Faux Leather is available from KOTHEA in several collections reflecting varying degrees of technical properties such as thickness, flame retardancy and abrasion resistance (Martindale, Wyzenbeek). Our collections are typically used for contract applications in the hospitality and marine industries.

Here are some of the blue colourways that are available, click an image to view a slideshow

A Chat With Verity du Sautoy – Her Thoughts On Winter Fabrics

Posted: 7 February, 2012 | Author: Luxury Fabric, Inspired Design | Filed under: Companies, contemporary interiors, Domestic Fabric, home decor, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, interiors, Press Releases, Upholstery | Tags: Cashmere wool, contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics, cushion fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, ideas for designers, interior design, KOTHEA, luxury fabric, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, natural fabric, silk velvet, Textile, textured upholstery fabric, upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric, velvet, velvets | Leave a comment »

Truly beautiful Cashmere Silk Velvet by KOTHEA

KOTHEA Fabric Picks For A Chilly Winter’s Day
With Verity du Sautoy of KOTHEA.

We love the seasons. All have their beauties and all have touched our senses in memorable ways over the years. Winter is no exception: lower, more balanced light; quietness and chaos with both the shopping and the weather; festive celebrations; the cuddle of a loved one; the hope and expectation of early spring flowers grasping for rare and tiny glimmers of light; and, perhaps, the welcomed warmth of a beautiful fabric.

Some of my best memories are centred on family: a warm fire; a little baby; or a bouncing toddler. Then an old children’s classic on the iPlayer watched on my Mac as it balances precariously on an elegant coffee table. I stroke my children’s hair with one hand and rest my other hand on my sofa. A generous cushion is warm, encapsulating and a bit of fun for the little ones to hide under. The curtains are not yet fully drawn but they smooth the boundary to the cold outside and give us tantalising glimpses of the world beyond – should we venture too close to the sheers that offer the final, soft protection from the elements.

Dominika B Tana Lawn

I work for a fabric company. I love fabric. I can’t pretend that it (fabric) is a be-all and end-all to life and that somehow it will make your life complete. It can’t. But what it clearly can do is complete the sensory experiences in the parts of life that, if you choose, you have control over…the parts of your home. Memories are not just photo-like snapshots in your brain; they are stored, multi-sensory splashes of emotion.

Here are my Winter picks. They are actual ‘picks’ that I’ve recently purchased or are about to purchase.

Take my sofa as an example. My sofa isn’t Read the rest of this entry »

Interior Designers: How to specify A Luxury Cashmere Throw For Your Client Projects

Posted: 25 November, 2011 | Author: Luxury Fabric, Inspired Design | Filed under: Domestic Fabric, Fabric Tips, home decor, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, modern homes, modern interiors, The Business Of Interior Design | Tags: bed throw, cashmere throw, Cashmere wool, cashmere-throws, interior design, luxury cashmere throw, sales and marketing in interior design, Textiles | Leave a comment »

: Luxury Cashmere Throws

Luxury Cashmere Throws are often used by many designers to add that special finishing touch. The good ones look great and feel fantastic. As well as being aesthetically pleasing a throw can also be functional – keeps you warm!Bearing in mind how often your client will interact with (touch/use) such an item over time it is very important to specify your cashmere throws properly.

Of course you can buy them from very many places. But how do you get a really good one? I mean really good, the best?

We have put together a series of designers’ worksheets. Here is a link to the main one <click here>. The worksheet goes through some of the things you should be looking for when coming to a decision on what to specify.

When looking at specific designs you might then want to look at this worksheet. <Click here>.

All the worksheets are listed here, <click here>.

Luxury Cashmere Throws

Posted: 2 November, 2011 | Author: Luxury Fabric, Inspired Design | Filed under: contemporary interiors, Domestic Fabric, modern homes, modern interiors, News | Tags: cashmere throw, Cashmere wool | 2 Comments »

Luxury Cashmere Throw

We’ve added some new designs and qualities to our luxury cashmere throw range. If you click on the main image to the right you will get taken to our main website where there are further designers’ resources for specifying cashmere throws.

We also have downloadable pdfs on the same site giving scanned colourways of our luxury cashmere throws as well as detailed images of each design and fringe options.

All our cashmere throws are 100% pure cashmere. They are the best quality and most luxurious you can buy. You should specifically look at our higher ply cashmere throws which almost all other UK based cashmere throw companies are unable to source and sell. The higher ply gives a thicker and more luxurious feel. when combined with the quality of the yarn and the attention to detail of our weavers the difference in quality can be very easily seen and felt.

Please <click here> to email us for further information.

Please note that we only sell to the trade.

Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Tea (kothea.com)
Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Malt (kothea.com)
Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Rose (kothea.com)
Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Lipstick (kothea.com)
Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Redcurrant (kothea.com)
Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Ruby (kothea.com)
Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Cabernet (kothea.com)
Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Raspberry (kothea.com)
Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Chateauneuf (kothea.com)
Luxury-Cashmere-Throws-Colour-Blackcurrant (kothea.com)

Chevron 66-501-11 Tundra

Posted: 8 September, 2011 | Author: Luxury Fabric, Inspired Design | Filed under: contemporary interiors, Domestic Fabric, modern interiors, Panelling & Wallcovering, Stuff We're Doing, Uncategorized | Tags: luxury fabric, wall covering, wall paper, wallcovering, wallpaper | Leave a comment »

Chevron 66-501-11 Tundra, a photo by KOTHEA on Flickr.

We all love wallpaper but surely, just for at least one room, it’s time to move into 2011; or 2012 for that matter. Remember that wallcoverings come in many foms not just paper. KOTHEA are now releasing 7 Raffia Wallcovering Designs each in a range of colourways.

KOTHEA’s ‘Chevron’ design is a classic weave of natural cellulose with an approximate 15cm horizontal pattern repeat. At 106cm wide each standard roll is 36m long with a cut-length service available.

Via Flickr:
We all love wallpaper but surely, just for at least one room, it’s time to move into 2011; or 2012 for that matter. Remember that wallcoverings come in many foms not just paper. KOTHEA are now releasing 7 Raffia Wallcovering Designs each in a range of colourways.