Thursday 18 June 2009

Curtains & Soft Furnishings.... Info on my favourite books

As soon as I wake up every morning, I do not think of what to make for breakfast.......but start thinking on what to update my blog with. As I was having my cup of coffee and looking at my wall of books.......I spotted 2 very interesting and easy to use books. As a designer, I feel that when books are more pictorial, it is very easy to visualise the outcome of your design. It is also very easy to communicate our design ideas to our vendors and convince the customer of the design outcome. Two such books are my top of the mind recall in the area of Curtains & Soft Furnishings....

The first book is "Making Soft Furnishings" created and produced for Parragon by The Bridgewater Book Company Limited. The editor is Sarah Yelling. (Photographs: re-taken from this book)
This book focuses on different types of fabrics, choosing them to suit your style, different trimmings, patterns, basic techniques, window treatments, making curtains, shower curtains, recycled curtains, shutters and blinds, lambrequins, tie-backs, seating fabrics, footstools and the list simply goes on. The editor discusses storage solutions, bed covers, table covers and runners and simply adding finishing touches using soft furnishings to the whole decor. I loved this book because everything is elaborately illustrated and explained whereever needed. It also features some diagrams and step by step procedures. A few pictures below are from this book for your view.

Choosing Bed FabricsMaking a child wall tidy accessoryTented WardrobesShelving HideawaysCutlery rollSeat Cover with SkirtAnother book that I would like to share with you is Heather Luke's CURTAINS. A little about the author....Heather Luke is an Interior Designer of International repute and has worked with clients in the UK, Europe and The USA. She also runs the Calluna School of Soft Furnishings in Taunton, Somerset. She has authored many such book on textiles and interior design. (All photographs re-taken from the book) In this book, she discusses the various styles of windows, the curtain designs and different ways to handle issues relating to curtains. It is all well explained and illustrated in the form of sketches. I have personally designed some curtains for my projects from this book. Below are some pictures from the book. As these are re-photographed from the book, the quality of the pictures suffers slightly.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this!! I'm going to keep an eye for these books. For sure.. when you see it.. its easier to visualise the outcome and that helps a lot in making the decision!!

Is there much in the 2nd book on blinds?? Do let me know!

Vasudha Narasimhan said...

hi patricia

both these books have info on the various kinds of blinds and its accessories

sumi said...

Wow the first picture makes u feel so nice and dreamy :)

Unknown said...

Hi vasudha, all of ur designs r awesome..i liked most..in future i will take ur help to decorate my house...hope i will get ur help & suggestion..all the best!!