Trendsetting fabrics

Soft home furnishings aren’t absolutely vital to make a room habitable, but
they bring out its flavour, and you’d certainly know if they were missing.

The great thing about soft home furnishings is that they’re so flexible, but
still have the power to change the look of a room. If you start from a neutral
base, you can change a room’s theme dramatically without having to change
the furniture, the carpet or the decoration on the walls.

Scatter cushions are one of the most versatile items in your creative locker
and readily available from most stores and in catalogues. For example,
imagine you’re going for urban neutrals in your living room. You’ve chosen
shades of ivory and pared-down furniture. However you want the look to be
modern, not just bland, so you add coffee-coloured scatter cushions. Then a
new season in furnishings rolls around, and everything’s suddenly inspired by
nature. All you need to do is pair your coffee-coloured cushions with seablue,
and you have a great colour combination. However, sometimes a new
season’s look makes your cushions look dated, and no amount of clever
contrasting will help that. In that case, you can re-cover your cushions in a more up-to-date style. Keep the old covers in storage ready for when the look rolls round again.

Rugs are another great example of soft home furnishings that can utterly change the look of a room. Perhaps you’ve recently used ceramic or marble
tiles as flooring. It looks good, but it’s chilly and forbidding to your feet. So
put down a soft rug and make the room more welcoming and cozy. Of course,
you don’t need to have a hard floor to justify putting down a rug. If you’re
creating a decadent vibe in your bedroom, there’s nothing like an exotic rug
on top of a thick carpet to convey a sense of luxury.

Finally, window treatments help to pull the whole look together. Whether it’s
billowing curtains you want or minimalist blinds, framing your window with the
right material is a statement of intent that should define the whole room.
Home furnishings such as drapes and rugs usually play a supporting role to
other considerations, and there is some justification for this attitude. It’s only
right that you should consider structural issues and the kind of furniture you
want, especially since these factors involve more financial outlay and
disruption.

However, soft furnishings go a very long way to creating the look you want,
so, when you’re decorating a room, don’t neglect the softer side.