Instinctive Interiors at Home: Outdoor Fabric used for Indoors

I’ve been mentioning this quite often lately to clients; the benefit of using outdoor fabric as your indoor fabric. Not all that long ago outdoor fabrics were stiff, weird colors with odd patterns, but now outdoor fabric has come a very long way in terms of patterns, colors but mostly in softness, texture and weave. Most people are unaware that there exists a whole new world of outdoor fabrics, such as,velvets and silk, yes, velvets and silks, all from 100% solution dyed acrylic. Imagine the possibilities of a fabric that looks like silk but doesn’t fade…indoor draperies, outdoor draperies, bedding, dining chairs, shower curtains, place mats, truly if you can imagine it, it can be done. Do you realize that this means a white upholstered sofa is no longer off limits if you have young children, teens, pets or a messy husband. Seriously you can have a white sofa and serve red wine with no worries!

Below is a very small sampling just to pique your awareness of what is available. Hard to believe, I know, but in most cases you really can’t tell the difference in feel between a cotton indoor velvet and the acrylic outdoor velvet; likewise with chenilles and twills. Ok, I admit it’s hard to duplicate a beautiful silk, however, you’d be very surprised at how similar it looks. Check ‘em out.

Soleil Velvet in Charcoal 100% Sunbrella Acrylic