Faux leather Upholstery
Posted: 22 November, 2012 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Fabric Tips, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: Artificial leather, faux leather upholstery, leather, Textiles and Nonwovens 5 Comments »
Pinterest Picks (Photo credit: CieraHolzenthal)
Recently we have had some detailed enquiries about how to upholster with the fine upholstery faux leather that we sell. KOTHEA are certainly NOT expert upholsterers and those questions should be aimed at your professional upholsterer.
Having said that here is a video (below) by Christopher Nejman showing some techniques for faux leather upholstery.
For more information about our faux leather products and colours click <here> or use the links on the right.
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Tatami and Raffia Wallcoverings and Fabrics For Interior Designers
Posted: 27 March, 2012 Filed under: Contract Fabric, home decor, interior design, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: Design, faux leather upholstery, interior design, Madagascar, Raffia palm, Upholstery, upholstery linen 6 Comments »
Raffia and Tatami are often terms that are used synonymously these days by some interior designers.
Tatami are woven Japanese floor mats. Originally they were made from (rice-) straw but now they are made from a variety of materials with better properties for fire resistance, warmth and general comfort. Typically Tatami mats are made to be twice as long as they are wide and they are usually about 2m long.
Raffia (often Raphia in the USA) refers to fibres made from a tropical tree. Specifically raffia is made from the leaves of a specific palm tree called “Raphia ruffia”, which is usually found in Madagascar and more generally in Africa. A different variety in South America is “Raffia taedigera”.
Raffia that is more suited to top market interior design projects will probably often be made from other materials – one of the particular note would be made from high quality cellulose pulp.
So, often when clients ask for Tatami or Raffia they are really often asking for a straightforward, grass-like, woven fabric similar to that shown in the main image accompanying this article.
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Such raffia and tatami fabrics are usually available by the meter and have additional properties making them more superior to traditional variants. For example having high martindale test scores making them suitable for upholstery and coming pre-treated for fire retardancy.
Click <here> to request samples.
Tatami and Raffia by the meter may also be quite flexible allowing it to be fastened around wooden frames and then used as a textured finish for walls and ceiling.
With Wyzenbeek rubs of 40,000 KOTHEA’s 2011 Raffia (Raphia) are also eminently suitable for a wide range of upholstery uses.
Raffias can usually be fire treated to meet a wide range of contract requirements including hotels and marine installations.
This type of raffia weave has been used for thousands of years perhaps most famously as Japanese Tatami mats. They are of course one of today’s modern day design staples for a clean, modern look.
Links:
- What is Raffia? (brainz.org)
- Upholstery Linen – Sourcing Luxury Linen in the UK (kothea.com)
- Home improvements: How to insulate a bungalow (telegraph.co.uk)
- Mohair Velvet & Other Velvets (kothea.com)
- Designer Fabrics & Luxury Wallcoverings 2012 – Latest Collections of Faux Leather & Raffia (kothea.com)
- Tatami Japanese Restaurant (thealzblog.wordpress.com)
- Interior Design – Light up your living room (interiordesignsleeds.com)
- The Four Layers of Building Design, Part 4: Interior Design (kothea.com)
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Designer Fabrics & Luxury Wallcoverings 2012 – Latest Collections of Faux Leather & Raffia
Posted: 23 February, 2012 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Curtain Fabric, Domestic Fabric, Fabric Tips, home decor, interior, interior design, interiordesign, interiors, Panelling & Wallcovering, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: faux leather upholstery 3 Comments »
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.
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Faux Leather in Blue
Posted: 20 February, 2012 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Panelling & Wallcovering, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: faux leather upholstery, 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 Filed under: Companies, contemporary interiors, Contract Fabric, Domestic Fabric, home decor, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, interiors, Press Releases, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: cashmere throw, Cashmere wool, contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics, cushion fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, faux leather upholstery, ideas for designers, interior design, KOTHEA, luxury cashmere throw, luxury fabric, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, natural fabric, silk velvet, Textile, textured upholstery fabric, upholstery fabric, upholstery linen, 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 »
An interview with KOTHEA’s founder
Posted: 27 January, 2011 Filed under: Contract Fabric, News, Press Releases, Stuff We're Doing, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: faux leather upholstery, Kelly Hoppen, Terence Conran, Textile 1 Comment »
Notting Hill Carnival 2007 (London, UK) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
London based Lisa Parsons supplies fabrics to the hippest and most exclusive UK designers. The founder of KOTHEA, her Spring2011 collection-in-progress is about to take Velvet to a new level of opulence.
With no time to think I would paint my walls with … Kelly Hoppen’s “Perfect Taupe”. Her colours are fantastic and, in this case, it does what it says on the tin.
My favourite piece of furniture is … an old chair I picked up in a local junk shop and I had it recovered in one of my fabrics; LeapFrog.
The car’s almost full in that small space I would pack … The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, I’ve just started it and a spot of holiday reading beckons.
Guests to my house are intrigued by … this bizarre surveying tool I have in the corner of my lounge. It’s a measuring stick used with a theodolite and it adds a bit of height and interest to a corner of my room. It also detracts from a piece of my husband’s artwork which, although good, I have to compromise on putting on show from time-to-time.
I am … passionate about my fabrics and design; I am always inspired by many of today’s amazing yacht interiors, Terence Disdale is fantastic. I would love to be in a position to commission him.
The hardest thing about work is … keeping my beautiful fabrics at home clean whilst having three children and their 30 sticky fingers. Gulp.
In my spare time … I just said I have had a third child; what spare time! I do love yoga though, with headstands being my forte. I have also designed and made many pieces of jewellery. Chris Farrow made this one up to my design, it has 3 rotating rings with a semi-precious stone on which rotate around a larger holding ring also with a set stone.
The trendiest colour is … hmm, trendy. Difficult one, KOTHEA operates at the top end of the market and I would have to say that the desirable colours there have varied little over the last ten to 15 years. Lower down the market it is different.
My favourite designers are … well I’ve mentioned a few already. I would certainly look at Gotham (Notting Hill) for furniture. John Hutton did amazing chairs and I was privileged enough to sell a few when I worked at Donghia in the 90s. Nick & Christian the famous Candy brothers have done some amazing things just look at One Hyde Park.
The best technology is … I suppose I should say Apple but I love my Blackberry as it helps me stay in touch with everyone and everything.
The most iconic British designer is … without a doubt, Terence Conran. His massive influence has probably been understated.
A plug for your company?…We mostly deal with the very top interior designers; not all of them but many of them. That’s the market we are in and intend to stay in. We know it pretty well and we like to think our fabrics meet their needs. A case-in-point is our new velvet collection. Opulent Cashmere and Italian Silk velvet.
Most interesting use of your products? … Some of the yachts they are specified on are pretty interesting! We’ve supplied some pretty interesting pop stars and celebrities (if you are into that sort of thing). One interesting client came through a Mayfair yacht broker and temporarily wanted his ‘fishing boat’ fitted out wall-to-wall with faux leather. All I can say is that it must have been a pretty large fishing boat and certainly not what I had in mind when I think about fishing boats!
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Upholstery Linen – Sourcing Luxury Upholstery Linen in the UK
Posted: 17 January, 2011 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Domestic Fabric, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, Upholstery, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: Business, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fabric, faux leather upholstery, ideas for designers, interior design, linen, natural linen, natural linens, Textile, Textiles and Nonwovens, Upholstery, Upholstery and Furnishing, upholstery fabric, upholstery linen, upholstry fabric 5 Comments »
Upholstery Linen
Upholstery Linen is notoriously difficult for interior designers to source. Sourcing linens for curtains is easy enough but often linens are not woven with sufficient strength to score Martindale results that are high enough to warrant using the fabric for upholstery.
Some suppliers can be a little evasive and will quote the weight of the linen as a measure of the linen’s quality. The implicaiton being that the higher the weight the better suited the fabric will be for upholstery. There is some thuth in that implication but you cannot say for certain that a high weight linen is inherently suitable for upholstery. Get the Martindale!
Most KOTHEA luxury upholstery linens have inherent Martindale rub tests of around 20,000 rubs with one range further strengthened to 85,000 rubs for contract usage – 20,000 Martindale being eminently suitable for domestic upholstery.
Furthermore when buying upholstery- (or curtain-) linen you need to know whether or not it will shrink when washed. Linen ALWAYS shrinks. So what you have to find out is whether or not it has been pre-shrunk before you buy it. A common way of pre-shrinking linen is through the sanforisation process.
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Here are the details of our new 2011 upholstery linens that are named Recline, Relax and Restful. We have many others, these are just the new ones:
Name: Recline
Usage: Luxury Contract Upholstery
Colourways: 24
Width: 135cm
Comp: 54% Li 35% Co 11% Pa
Weight: >350g/m2
Notes: Martindale >85,000
Name: Relax
Usage: Luxury Domestic Upholstery
Colourways: 24
Width: 135cm
Comp: 100% Li
Weight: >265 g/m2
Notes: Martindale >15,000
Name: Restful
Usage: Heavyweight Luxury Domestic Upholstery
Colourways: 4
Width: 135cm
Comp: 100% Li
Weight: >470 g/m2
Notes: Martindale >45,000
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New images on the KOTHEA web site.
Posted: 18 June, 2010 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Stuff We're Doing, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: faux leather upholstery Leave a comment »
Perhaps not the most exciting news you will read today I know! We have been aware for a few months that our web site images needed to improve. We re-used the same images again and again. So we have finally acquired a new image for just about every page, all reflecting the product we offer in the relevent area! Well, at least you can sleep soundly tonight knowing that we are happy. I joke of course.
Coming from the designer/producer/supplier of fabrics angle makes it a little tricky for us. We do not feel it is our job to stage our fabrics on a photo set in a room of our liking. We are not the interior designers, that’s your job! We may see one of our fabrics in a certain way – for example I always associate our faux leathers with bar stools (misspent youth). However you may well see many other angles: wall covering, cushions and so on. So we try not to second-guess you. the interior designer. So, our challenge is to show some of the fine detail of our products without you being able to either see it in 3D yourself or feel it. Tricky. Have a look.
Anyway, we hope you enjoy the photos (along with the parts of the new collections on flickr) and any comments will be greatly appreciated.
KOTHEA 2010 Fabric Collections
Posted: 14 June, 2010 Filed under: Contract Fabric, Stuff We're Doing, Upholstery Fabric | Tags: contemporary fabric, contract fabric, contract fabrics, curtain fabric, cushion fabric, domestic fabric, domestic fabrics, fake leather, faux leather, faux leather upholstery, interior design, mohair velvet, mohair velvets, natural linens, textured upholstery fabric, upholstery fabric, upholstry fabric, velvet 1 Comment »
Finally! Our summer collections have been decided and we will begin to introduce the new designs and colourways throughout the remainder of this year. We have been inundated with new work in the first part of this year causing our blog posts to be curtailed and our ‘spring’ collection to nearly be an autumn/fall collection. Not that we really do seasonal collections in any case.
I will return later in another post to KOTHEA’s quite remarkable sales figures for the financial year just finished. Most surprising, especially considering we are in the midst of a recession. We had our best ever year and by quite a large margin.
We expect some coverage of the new collections in World of Interiors and Elle decoration but, again, more on that at another time.
Where can you see our collections? Well, we are as elusive as ever but we are starting to digitize some images to our flickr feed (click the images on the right or here). The flickr update is ongoing, there is information on flickr now but some of the images are not final and some images do not have full associated descriptions / product details but we are woking on that this week. Our usual clients will receive the new collections in due course starting in late summer; if you need them more urgently for pressing projects of course we will be happy to oblige. Please get in contact in the usual way.
Not all are in production yet but most sampling is available now.
As a very broad summary we have:
1. New colours of several existing ranges including faux leather;
2. More velvets including patterned and crush;
3. Striped, double width linens;
4. Upholstery weight linen; and
5. A few more interesting one-off designs in limited colourways like the one heading up this blog post.
Share, Accredit & Enjoy!
BS7176 BS5852 Crib 5 - A Guide
Fine Faux Leather Upholstery – New Contract Fabrics With High Abrasion Martindale
Posted: 8 January, 2013 | Author: Verity du Sautoy | Filed under: Contract Fabric, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, Panelling & Wallcovering | Tags: faux leather upholstery, interior design, Textiles and Nonwovens | 5 Comments »It still looks great and also has the added comfort factor of the interior designer knowing that it can be a worry-free product to spec for even demanding contract environments. Providing that it is correctly upholstered and specified it will withstand very significant amounts of abrasion.
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