Decisions, Decisions

Now that the house is painted, I have moved on to my next "project" - having drapes made for the family room and the dining room.  The existing window treatments (the same on every window in our home) are off-white drapes with sheers. They aren't all that bad but the windows look very boring and plain to me now that the house is painted. Having the drapes made for only the family and dining rooms will have a big impact as you can see one or both of these rooms from almost everywhere on the first floor. The family room has one large window as well as sliding glass doors. The dining room just has one large window.  I would never think about doing anything with the four windows in the formal living room as they are floor to ceiling and are 20+ feet high.  I could have drapes made for our office/tv/exercise room but we close the door to that room when guests are over so no need to spiff it up. 

As you might expect, I had a very good idea of what I wanted for each room.  Many years ago, a dining room featured in an interior design magazine caught my eye and I saved the page for "some day". The room was painted the same terracotta color as ours now is and the homeowner had chosen drapes with a russet/gold/green large floral pattern on a black background.  It was a great look and I wanted to do something similar in our dining room.

Edited To Add - You can see my inspiration for yourself (the two images on the left in the photo below)! I was able to take the page from my "design ideas" notebook, scan it and then upload to the blog.  Technology never ceases to amaze me!

I have been looking for drapery fabric in Bangkok but I checked online and there didn't seem to be much of a price difference between the cost of fabrics here and what I could have shipped to me from the U.S.  All of my "savings" will be in the labor costs to make the drapes.  I also think there is a better selection of fabric available online and I am somewhat familiar with the manufacturers & the quality of fabrics so I know what I would be getting.  

I was so excited when I found this tapestry fabric for the dining room within the first hour of my online search on Monday morning.  I never imagined it would be this easy! 

I loved the pattern & the colors and it was EXACTLY what I had in mind.  It was a bit expensive but I did a quick estimate and thought I would only need about 10 yards for the dining room so I could make it work.  Thank goodness I got sidetracked with something else and did not order the fabric at that time!  Late Monday afternoon, the seamstress emailed me the fabric requirements and she needed 18 yards of fabric for the dining room.  Whoa Nellie!  That extra amount of fabric very quickly put this selection WAY out of my budget and it was back to the drawing board.  I spent too many hours this week searching for fabrics and comparing prices on different websites before I finally came up with these three alternatives yesterday afternoon:

A.

B.

C.

I ended up ruling "C" out because it was a very heavy fabric and seemed more suitable to upholstery rather than drapery.  I went back and forth for HOURS between the other two fabrics before I finally decided on "B".  I thought the floral pattern was larger and brighter than "A's" and there was less of the black background so it wouldn't be as dark.

Choosing fabric for the family room was much harder and I still haven't made a final selection.  I want a colorful floral pattern on a cream/ivory/light tan background but I don't have a specific "look" in mind. The window/sliding glass doors in the family room open to the side & back yards with a lot of bright green foliage (banana trees, birds of paradise plants and palm trees) visible from the room.  I want a color and pattern to complement all of that vivid tropical growth and to bring the view of flora into the house. Does that make sense? As far as color selection, the rug in the family room has pretty much every color in it.  To me, the navy blue and cranberry seem to dominate so any pattern I choose must have shades of those colors in it. 

 

I am having a REALLY hard time finding fabrics/patterns/colors that I like and are within my price range.  There are a lot of ugly floral fabrics out there.  I narrowed it down to these fabrics this morning...

A.

 B.

 C.

 D.

 E.

 F.

 G.

I saw "F" on a website that I first looked at this morning and knew that was THE fabric I wanted for the drapes. The colors (blue, berry, gold and green) were perfect, the pattern was fun and the price was right.  Knowing how much I needed (34 yards), I tried to order the fabric only to find it has been discontinued.  Just my luck.  If I HAD to choose today, I think my selection would be either "A" or "D". There is just something "off" with each of the other choices - either the patterns are too small or too big, the colors are not right, etc.  

I ordered the fabric for the dining room drapes and the seamstress can work on those while I make up my mind about the family room fabric.  Since there is no rush on having the drapes made, I think I will keep looking through magazines, design books and on Pinterest for ideas.  I might even wait and look for fabric when I am back in the U.S. for the summer.  I will keep you posted.

Have a great Friday!