Swatch Gate

The Bench saga continues... why saga you ask. Well, choosing the fabric to re-upholster it with has grown into an epic event.

Maybe I should back up a bit. We last left off with the bench having gone from this to this


The wood came up like a charm, if I do say so myself, but the broken springs and ripped fabric were a not so fabulous. So, I visited some upholsterers to get quotes for the repairs, and possibly to re-upholster it for us (I can work a staple gun pretty well, but my struggles with it's cousin the f-ugly chair has left me a little leery about tackling it- especially if a professional will do it for a good price). I never thought that would be the easy part... I found the upholsterer weeks ago, but the fabric to cover it with has proved elusive.


Not willing to pay the totally INSANE prices of upholstery fabric from an upholsterer- a mere $299/ yard for the one that I liked (insert sound of me fainting here!) - I scoured the city looking for a budget friendly fabric (ie under $50/yard). However, it was sooo hard, as a "fabric person" and someone who I think can see what things will look like "done", I really struggled to essentially guess at what would be the best choice. I had an idea of what I was looking for.... aqua coloured fabric with a brown/beige stripe in it... but it was not to be found. So I broadened my search.... adding swatch candidates almost daily (poor H, my Parents, and even my girlfriends were real troopers in putting up with my design drama).



For those of you in the GVRD, they from: Arlene's (great selection and prices- each store has differnt fabrics in stock so it may be worth checking all 3 out if you are looking for something in particular), the others are from Chintz and co (the shop itself is crazy expensive, but they have a good selection of modern fabrics at reasonable prices), Fabricana (a bit far away, but worth checking out for all kinds of fabrics), and of course... Fabricland , and they all are in the $15-$35 range
Is it too plain?, is it too brown?, too Blue? too traditional? too modern? It was giving me an anxiety attack. Aggggh! We/I finally bit the bullet and narrowed it down to these two fabrics


I love how the blue one picks out the detail on the back of the settee, and I think the "champagne" one has great flowing lines reminiscent of the fabrics used in the 20's (hello Deco I love you!)
But, I couldn't pick between them with the itty bitty swatches... So, H patiently came with me to their shop in the city and, dragging the settee/previously f-ugly bench with us (Yes, we took the bench into the store, you should have seen the looks on the faces of the staff as we dragged it through the door!!), and weighed the pros and cons of each candidate... I only had my camera phone with me, and the cable to transfer from my phone to the computer is still in our stuff stored across town, so you'll just have to take my word for it!

In the end, we decided to follow the design theory of the ever fabulous Sarah Richardson (a Canuck named Sarah? She must have good taste ;) ) and went with neutral for the basics. So..


And I'm happy to report that the bench is now safely with the upholsterer, and this white/cream/beige fabric "Nouveau Pearl" is waiting to dress it up... and the blue fabric, it will make a great throw pillow or two to jazz it up!