The Dining Room Fabrics Arrived!

My dining room fabrics arrived yesterday! I was so excited to see that package on the front porch. I was anxiously awaiting the delivery all day long, obsessively checking my UPS app to see where the truck was and how far away it was from my house. It finally arrived at 5:50, and I was supposed to be somewhere at 6:00. But I couldn’t leave the house without seeing the fabrics first.

I’m not going to lie. My first impression was disappointment. Y’all know I order velvet any chance I get because velvet is the most cat-proof fabric out there. Of the four cats we’ve had (two of which we currently have), none of them have tried clawing on velvet. Spoonflower has two velvets, and this time I went with the one that says it can be used on commercial projects. I wanted the fabric ASAP, so I ordered the fabric without ordering a sample first. I knew I was taking a chance, but I decided to roll the dice anyway.

Well, this particular velvet appears much shinier than the other one, and if you’ve been around long enough, you know that shiny finishes aren’t my thing, with the exception of a gorgeous high sheen lacquered piece of furniture in a bold color. Other than that, I like low sheen on just about everything. I even paint the trim on our house with a satin finish. I just don’t like shiny finishes.

So when I hurriedly took the fabrics out of the package and saw the sheen on this velvet, I was disappointed. But I had to put it down and walk out the door. I spent the next couple of hours feeling disappointed and frustrated with the fabric, but then when I got home and took another look at it, I was actually okay with it. And then when I got up this morning and took another look, I was feeling more excited about it.

I took these pictures early this morning, so the dining room wasn’t yet filled with a lot of sunlight. And in the absence of a lot of sunlight, the colors appear more muted than they actually are. But here’s a look at the watercolor striped velvet fabric draped over a chair in just the limited natural sunlight. (The sun was just coming up, so it looks bright outside. But the sun wasn’t up enough yet to actually fill the room with light like it does during the day.)

Overall, I’m very pleased with it. I do wish I had gone with the other velvet that doesn’t quite have as much of a sheen to it, but I think this will work out. And on the striped fabric, the sheen doesn’t show quite as much as it does on the solid fabrics.

Here’s a look at it with the lights in the dining room turned on. Again, that washes out the colors. Everything just looks so much prettier during the day with the lights turned off and the natural light pouring through the windows. But the fabric arrived after it started getting dark last night, and I took these pictures this morning just as the sun was coming up, so I haven’t had a chance to see them in the room during the prettiest, sunniest part of the day yet.

I actually think it turned out great. Here’s the pattern that I created and uploaded to Spoonflower…

And here’s how that translated to an actual printed velvet fabric…

I’m really excited to get started on the chairs and see how these finished chairs will actually look in the room! I wish I had turned the fabric around in this next picture because I took the picture looking against the nap of the velvet, and that always makes the color of velvet appear a bit darker and bolder. I’ll be upholstering the chairs with the nap going down, so it will appear a little more muted than what you see here. The way it appears draped over the chair is more accurate.

So the striped fabric is a win, even with the sheen. Where you can really see the sheen is on the solid fabrics. Here’s a look at the striped fabric with the solid purple that I’ll use on the cording around the chairs.

I wouldn’t like that at all in such a dark color with so much sheen for a large item. But since it will just be for cording, I think it’ll work out just fine.

Here’s the fabric I got for the leading edge trim for the curtains. This is a cotton fabric, so there’s no sheen on this one. This one turned out perfect, and I think it’ll add just the right amount of punch to the curtains.

But then that takes us to the bench fabric. Honestly, I didn’t like this one at all when I took it out of the package. It’s the exact same color as the pink cotton fabric, but it’s printed on the shiny velvet.

So yesterday, I took it out of the package, draped it over the bench, got a good look at it, and walked out the door completely disappointed.

But this morning, I took another look at it, and I actually like it! I think the disappointment of the sheen had worn off. I had made peace with it. And the color is great!

And of course, once it’s actually upholstered, there will be a whole lot less of the fabric showing. It won’t drape down on the sides like it is right now, so the sheen won’t be so visible once the fabric is just on the top of the bench and the base of the bench actually shows.

So overall, I’m very pleased with my fabrics and I’m anxious to get the rest of these projects finished up. I took a big gamble purchasing these fabrics without ordering samples first and the gamble worked out. But now I know for the future that when I order velvet fabric from Spoonflower, I’ll order the one that isn’t labeled for commercial use because while it still has a sheen to it, it’s seems to be much less than this one.