In my opinion, fabrics are often the most important decorative element in a room.  After you’ve established the floorplan/layout and architectural elements, it is important to have an ‘inspiration’ piece to get the room’s design started.  I love to start with artwork, but sometimes original artwork can be cost prohibitive.  In lieu of a fabulous oil painting, I often turn to interesting fabrics.

I just received the newest designer collection from Duralee Fabric which is a collaboration between Duralee and designer Eileen Kathryn Boyd.   In my design I often use a lot of neutrals, with a few pops of color.  However, I often find bright colored fabrics tend to be on the childish side, or if not that, then very modern.  It is rare to find a sophisticated and colorful fabric collection, but this new range from Duralee has managed to do just that.

I first became aware of Eileen Kathryn Boyd after reading about her in Lonny Magazine last winter.  You can check out the article here, just select the December issue:

 http://lonnymag.com/buy

Image from Lonny Magazine

I was intrigued with how she used bright, fun colors but the rooms still came across as sophisticated and artistic.  Her breakfast room captivated my attention- I love a coastal look and it screams Palm Beach.

Image from Lonny Magazine

I looked at her website to learn a little more about the designer.  Eileen Kathryn Boyd is based in Long Island and has an artistic but varied background, including designing interiors for jets.  Her main focus is, obviously, on color and establishing a “color story” for each client or project.

You can peruse Ms. Boyd’s background and pictures from her portfolio, such as the one below, on her website:

http://www.ekbinteriors.com/index.asp

Because of her innovative use of color, Ms. Boyd has been tapped by manufacturing companies, such as Mottega Lamps and Duralee Fabrics to create colorful, exclusive lines for them.

If you aren’t familiar with these companies, Mottega is a lamp manufacturer which allows you to customize your lamp- the style and the color, plus the base, shade and finial to suit your look.   The Mottega website can be reached here: http://www.mottega.com/configurator . This is a screen grab of their website which shows how you configure your lamp:

Our Duralee fabric books for Eileen Kathryn Boyd’s collection just arrived and they do a great job of capturing her sophisticated yet colorful style.  I am already imagining rooms decorated with her fun blue and lime palette.  I don’t think I’ve ever used purple for a client, but I can’t help but want to after looking through these books!

Some of my favorites are shown here:

Although you can’t tell from the internet, the fabrics look and feel very rich.  There are a lot of textures (velvet, linen) and embroidery to give the fabric depth and dimension.  These are the not the inexpensive, polished cottons you usually see used for graphic prints and punchy colors.  The price point is very reasonable for the quality, running from around $60 a yard up to $120 a yard.

With these books you can really let your imagination run when it comes to decorating your space.  You can check out the collection on the Duralee website:

http://www.duralee.com/fabrics/collection.php?Collection_id=311, and explore all the colors and prints, or if you live in the Austin area, feel free to pop into the store to look at the fabric books in person.  These fabrics may just inspire you to get started on that decorating project you’ve been putting off for some time now!