Steeped in JOIE DE WEAVE
India’s textile tradition is her strength and benchmark. Our fabric heritage spans the country, and no matter where we’re from, I think all of us have grown up with at least one tactile memory, my own favourite being the softness of my grandmother’s silk sarees that she wore with such ease, and even further back, the fantastically intricate tatted and crocheted pieces my great-grandma dotted our home with.
If you’re thinking about refreshing your space, consider first doing so with textiles. They are the convenient chameleons of the decorating world, adding personality and a pop of vibrancy to any area. Fabrics have the power to instantly update a space with colour, texture, or pattern. While classic textiles convey a rich sense of history, they can also make a room feel decidedly modern.
The most obvious places to spot interesting textiles are on cushions and rugs, but one can’t just put any two pieces together for a harmonious look. Most ethnic textiles contain such a riot of colours that matching them with every other item in your home isn’t that important, or even possible. Instead, use the principles of colour and scale to create harmony. Offsetting large and small-scale in the same colour family will contribute texture without making the area feel overwhelming.
You could even take one single beautiful vibrant piece to be the focus of the room, say, on the carpet, and offset it with beautiful woven cushions in solid colours to complement it.
Choose a single hue as your theme for the room, and layer it on your drapes, rugs or throw pillows, with a complementary pattern appearing on an accent chair to just give your room some punch. If you’re like me, and can never ever pass up a beautiful fabric, then you must have a shelf-full of brocades, embroideries and so on just begging to be shown off. I find that displaying them as art is the best way to give them their place in the sun. Loop one end around a wooden dowel and hang it from a hook, and voila, an everchanging art exhibit. Using fabrics in unexpected ways can lead you on an inspired journey, one where labels don’t matter. It will lead you to search for the unusual in everything, the love behind a hand-crafted piece, maybe bringing back beautiful textiles as souvenirs instead of mass-produced fridge magnets (which I love, to be sure, but get me a length of silk and I’m a happy camper, indeed!) Turn to page 31