Sumptuous and bright fabrics for antique and vintage French furniture upholstery Pt1

May 13, 2009

At Frenchfinds.co.uk We get asked a lot about reupholstery for our original antique and vintage French furniture especially our French Capitone and Corbeille beds. Having come direct from France, some of these French beds need some a loving change of fabric to revitalise them. Once done they look stunning and can become either a centre-piece to a bedroom or a fantastic accompanying piece to the rest of the room.

Most of the antique or vintage French beds we find are quite often in a damask or jacquard fabric which looks beautiful in its original condition but can sometimes be hard to find.

Having seen some of the blow away results of a reupholstered bed finished in a contemporary Designer’s Guild fabric (for a client’s teenage daughter), we were tempted to find out what other bold fabrics are available for upholstering French furniture.  This is part 1 of a 2 part post (mainly due to the number of thumbnails).

Frenchfinds upholstered fabric antique capitone french bed in Designer's Guild fabric

The bed above was covered in Designers’ Guild Maya Lime, from the Anastasia collection – link here

The list was collected from a number of websites and although for some this might seem limited it was the condensation of thousands of designs. The two criteria were:

1. bright, bold, vivacious, sumptuous or something that would make a piece of antique / vintage French furniture come to life again. Personally, you can not beat a bit of plush deep purple velvet!
2. the fabric needed to be upholstery weight (anything less and you can have real trouble with achieving the look you want to get)

Anna French –

Velvet Jacquard fabric -

Birds in the bush blue toile -

How much more French can you get? French furniture upholstery with French birds as a French style Toile by Anna French

Zoffany

Nureyev -

Bohemia Stripe

Zoffany's bright colours work well with small areas

Morris & co

Thistle

The large black and white designs can work in a similar fashion to the big traditional toile patterns of French furniture

Harlequin -

Ziva -

Classic French Capitone style bed covered in a rich gold weave from Harlequin

Gold and metalic colours help to accentuate the florish of the curves and carvings in antique French furniture designs.

Chair

Antique French Rococo style chair covered in bright stripy Ziva fabric from Harlequin

Kalaya -

Bright pink Kalaya upholstery fabric from Harlequin

For a great punch of colour this bubblegum pink can not be beaten. Contemporary colours placed with antique French beds or chairs works exceptionally well.

Damasks

French chair upholstered in a chocolate damask

For a sumptuous rich colour deep chocolate brown especially on a rich fabric like a damask works well.

Tamika purple

Upholstery on a French Chaise with purple Tamika fabric by Harlequin

Purple has to be one of the most sumptuous and passionate colours and works well as a strong block colour.

Sanderson

Galicia

French antique Corbeille bed upholstered in Galicia fabric by Sanderson

The elegant subtle silk pattern on the Galicia fabric is very similar to the original beautiful coverings on the beds that Frenchfinds bring back from France.

Velvets

Bright green velvet fabric Brianza from Sanderson

Bright, brash and lush green – a calming but energising colour.

Osbourne & Little (and all its many offshoots)

Lorca – Porfiro

French chair covered with Porfiro fabric by Osbourne & Little

Lorca Damas 05 -

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O&L – Du Barry -  An intriguing trellis of ogees. Madame du Barry born Marie-Jeanne Bécu (1743–93), the final mistress of Louis XV of France, was executed during the Reign of Terror.

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O&L Du Barry Stripe-

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O&L Kediri Silk – simple bright silk block colours

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O&L – STANZA – Byron -

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O&L – STANZA – Dryden Damask

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O&L – Palacio – Classic style fresh French summer like fabric

You can see part 2 of examples by clicking here

Written by Frenchfinds Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with antique beds, bright fabrics, capitone bed, contemporary fabrics, Corbeille bed, fabrics, french antique furniture, french beds, french chairs, french furniture, french style, ideas for upholstery, inspiring fabric samples, interior design ideas, reupholstery, upholstery, upholstery fabrics, vintage french furniture, vintage furniture, www.frenchfinds.co.uk