Designed To The Nines | How to Mix and Match Fabrics Like a Designer

One of the most asked topics I get is how to mix and match home decor fabric for a cohesive professionally designed look. This tutorial walks you through five steps to achieve a designer look.

Start With a Fabric You Love as a jumping off point! Find a fabric that has the colors you want and speaks to you. This fabric should hopefully have all the colors you want to use.

Here is an example of an inspiration fabric I used in my previous home:

I loved it. I ended up using most of the colors in this fabric in my design.

Your inspiration fabric hopefully has at least 2 main colors. You can use more than two colors like my above inspiration fabric. Additionally, you should also choose one neutral such as a cream, white, beige, tan, gray, and sometimes I use a muted green as a neutral.

From the above inspiration fabric, my main colors were gray, brown and green. The green was primarily on the walls and almost could act as a neutral in this, but I am calling it a main color because I ended up using green in dishes and paint on my barstools.

My neutral was cream which was used in the rug, pillows, and window treatments.

Notice I not only used my inspiration fabric in several pillows but also on my captain’s chairs. I scored on this fabric for $1 a yard at a fabric store that I really miss called Home Fabrics so I had about 8 yards or so to work with. I haven’t lived near one in years. I haven’t found anything like it here in the Orlando area. Does anyone know of a place where you can get home decor fabric for deep discounts around these parts?

Choose at least 3 different fabric patterns: One busy pattern, one medium, one small. This can include damasks, ikat, paisley, floral, geometric, plaids, or animal prints. In this room, I use at least six patterns, not including the solids.

To shake things up I used one pillow with scripting on it.

Use different textured fabrics: jacquard, cut pile, cotton, embossed, wool, velvet, etc. Since my example room is a very casual look (it’s on the ocean so I wanted it to have a lighter feel to it, I don’t use as many textures I am using in my current home or in other homes. I used a lot of twills and cottons.

However, there were linens, sculpted wool rugs, and a fur throw. I brought in texture with other elements in the accessories.

Be bold and use fabrics that make you happy. It’s your space so I always suggest surrounding yourself with things that put a smile on your face.

The more you practice the better the better you will get at it. As mentioned in my video tutorial, feel free to play around in stores with pillows and with fabrics. See what works… and what doesn’t.