I HAD A CUSTOMER call me the other day wanting to thank me for a very small thing. It’s something I do almost every day as an interior designer. I helped her select a few paint colors for her home. She brought in her fabrics and described to me the style of her house. I had never been to her house, but after speaking with her for several minutes I began to imagine what it was like and how her family lived. We were able to narrow down the paint selections pretty quickly. A soft fern green color for her guest bedroom. A warm fall golden color for her hallway and foyer. She went home and I ordered the paints from our favorite paint source, Devine Paints, and they were shipped directly to her front door.

I got a call from her about a week later. Continue Reading »

IKAT FABRICS (pronounced ee-kat) are the oldest known patterned textiles in the world.  They appear in cultures as diverse as Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Guatemala, Turkey, and India.  Because textiles rarely survive more than a few thousand years, it is unknown how far back Ikat patterns date.  Those most familiar to Westerners are the elaborate textile designs of Japan, the handicrafts of South America and the beautiful Ikat robes and hangings of Central Asia.    Click here to see Ikat Blankets in Indonesia.

While they have existed for thousands of years, Ikat fabrics garnered fame in the nineteenth century, when the finest examples of Ikats from Central Asia were used as a form of currency on the fabled Silk Road (a trade route across Asia that linked Europe to all of the peoples and cultures from Turkey to China.) Continue Reading »