Designer fabrics: Style by the yard

Whether it’s a bedroom wall panel, upholstered chairs, sofa cushions or a table inlay in the guest bath, textiles are a versatile design component that can be used to tie all the elements of a room together.

Many specialty shops sell beautiful fabrics — but adding the quality, individuality and luxury of designer fabrics to your array of choices can give you a far richer pallet of color and detail to help make your home truly unique.

There are many lines of designer fabric, some available exclusively “to the trade” — meaning they are sold only to designers, architects and interior decorators. One place design professionals go to look through fabric samples is the Washington Design Center — 400,000-square-feet of space spread over seven floors with more than 60 showrooms that display high-end furnishings, fabrics and fittings.

Many of the showrooms are not open to the public because they are not stores. Showrooms are spaces that manufacturers use to show their products for ‘wholesale’ to someone in the trade i.e. a designer who brings in a client to make a product selection or ‘pulls’ sample products to take to the client.

“It takes a designer to see more than a fabric hanging on a rack, to see your whole room as one visual and put all the pieces together,” said Brian Croft, who staffs the J. Lambeth & Company showroom.

The designer makes the purchase and typically marks up the price for their client. Tags on showroom products reflect ‘retail’ prices, which for fabrics can range from $100 to $500/yard.

“What’s special about the fabric you get in a showroom is the intricate detail, vibrant color and outstanding texture,” said Joyce Terry, a sales associate at the Kravet & Lee Jofa showroom. “Look at this,” she said fingering gorgeous silk-on-silk embroidery. “You want to pluck the flowers off the fabric.”

Kravet’s showroom is a collection of mini boutiques featuring fabric categories such as stripes and plaids; embroideries, brocades and damasks; contemporary prints and traditional; paisley, chenille, novelty wovens, velvets, silks; and, trims such as floral knots, which Terry calls fabric jewelry. Other showrooms organize fabrics by manufacturer.

Top-of-the-line textiles offer brilliant color, a sophisticated pattern and sumptuous touch. They are exquisite and straddle the highest level of art and design. “You can’t buy such high quality outside a showroom,” Terry said.

For those without a personal designer, the Design Center offers ‘Entr?e: Access to Design,’ an in-house design service that provides a two-hour design consultation with an on-site designer and the ability to make purchases from showrooms during that time period.

Bethesda resident and textile designer Camilla David shows some of her 40 designs at the J. Lambeth & Company showroom.

“My designs are original, unique and manufactured from the highest quality natural fibers; thick cottons and crisp linens,” David said.

The fabrics are hand-embroidered, which means the hand guides the material thru the machine, explains Lambeth’s Croft. “Then someone hand-ties the mini knots decorating the flower center. There’s a beautiful layering of workmanship. It is a craft, which we value.”

David’s design motif is the flower but “it’s not in-your-face floral; it’s very subtle,” Croft said. “Flowers are a traditional design element but she brings it around to the contemporary.” The fabrics retail for $180-$250/yard.

The decorative pleasures of textiles are infinite. They can add warmth and novelty, sensuality and color to any design and should not be overlooked.