The bathroom reveal is coming on Monday, but not without me needing to try out eight different fabric options for our totally unnecessary but so cute tub niche. I can say, almost unequivocally that I love fabric more than most design elements. There are endless patterns and colors and for the most part, it’s super non-committal and flexible (besides upholstering your sofa, for instance). I started my career styling exclusively for magazines and for whatever reason I found myself in the fabric district in New York every week (shout to Mood and M & J, if they are still around). So my fabric collection is LARGE and for interiors, I absolutely don’t just stick to “decorator” or “home” fabrics (I would for upholstery, obviously, but not for virtually anything else). Often the fashion fabrics are more interesting and fun. So between what I already had and a trip to a few local fabric stores I found no less than EIGHT options that I thought could work.
As you can see the tub stayed in the place that it was originally but we designed and framed it out this little niche mostly to put this curtain idea. I guess I just thought it would be fun and playful and an opportunity to add color and pattern (again in a non-permanent way – so I could have more fun with it). Those shots are before we painted the white to match the white of the tile 🙂
At first, I tried just white, and it was sweet, but definitely low impact. It felt like I was missing an opportunity to be more fun – especially for a kids’ bath.
Almost all of these were real contenders. There wasn’t ANY that we were like “bad, no, take it away”. They all did something totally different to the room. Let’s dissect…
Option #1: Large-Scale Green Damask
Iphone shots coming at you. I liked this one SO MUCH. It instantly made the bathroom more interesting and it certainly worked color-wise. The scale of the damask looked so good with the tile – contrasting without being too competing. But we didn’t stop there…
I love a ball fringe or tassel fringe a lot so I grabbed a few samples (quarter yards) to play with. Admittedly, I wasn’t very impressed with the local selection (New York and LA both have stores full of one million trim options and it’s incredibly fun and inspiring…but Portland was definitely lacking or maybe I just don’t know where to go yet). Some of these fabrics wanted fringe, some didn’t. The more decorative/patterned fabrics looked cute with them but it sure did go old-world-fancy really fast (so less Scandi farmhouse, which is totally fine, but you have to know you are taking it in a different direction).
Option #2: White, But Make It Special
I really liked the white in here – calming and simple, and had it been our bathroom I might have continued to work with this vibe (washed linen, tassel fringe, etc) but it did kinda bore me for a kids’ bath.
The gold tassel fringe looked the best, though, and really pulled in the faucet brass.
It could be pulled back with a tie, creating a cute fun shape, too. These were just two white linen tablecloths that I had (they didn’t match which you couldn’t tell).
Option #3: White, But Make It Special (With A Texture Pattern)
I also loved this Swiss dot fabric, which was so sweet in person (and whimsical) but again, pretty darn low impact. It was also so thin that it would need to be professionally sewn to ensure that it didn’t look messy and haphazard.
Option #4: Bold Pink And Green Floral
Well, that really changed the vibe, didn’t it? Birdie LOVED this one and honestly so did we!! But I don’t think the bathroom was big enough (nor was the niche) to handle this much fabric in such a large scale.
Option #5: Plaid + #6: Gold Stripe
Both of these were real contenders at first. The green plaid felt appropriate (I think it was just shirting material), but a little on the safe side. Then the gold and white was so exciting but very “GO DUCKS” next to the green tile.
Option #7: Sweet Floral With Green And Butterflies
This one was a last-minute add in the fabric store. I didn’t LOVE LOVE the fabric on its own – a little too basic/sweet for me (but I could be biased because it was a cheap fabric so maybe if I had found it vintage I would like it a lot more?). But it actually worked really well! The green looked good and it’s hard to see but there are also gold butterflies.
If we had gone with this one I would def add the ball fringe or tassel fringe – it needed more style to make it cool enough (IMHO). Birdie also LOVED this fabric and wants to sew pillows out of it (their sewing hobby is still in full swing, BTW – y’all we have SO MANY KID-SEWN PILLOWS).
Option #8: Large Scale Teal Gingham
When we put this one up Gretchen and I both loved it. It felt like the right vibe (Scandi farmhouse) but still whimsical and certainly not boring.
It was a “home” fabric and on the more expensive side than the rest of the fabrics (but still coming in at $15/yard and we needed six yards).
Down To Two…
We knew that this fabric would change the rest of the styling of the space – and while these aren’t crazy different they certainly change the mood/vibe. When you see the full reveal you’ll see what we chose on Monday! So if you love curtain porn and want to see this whole space styled out, set your calendars/alarm 🙂
*Pretty Photos by Kaitlin Green
THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED HERE.
