“How am I supposed to put fabrics together with my decor? I can’t coordinate an outfit, let alone a whole room!” We get asked that question a lot by our customers (well, the first sentence at least). So, in response, we decided to show you.

The following is an example of how you can decorate your home that may inspire you. Whether you start with a color combination or a cherished souvenir, this should help you build up your design from start to finish.

And remember, the first and most important rule is to start with the most colorful fabric first. Why is that? The most colorful fabric is a color well so to speak. From it, you can draw accent colors that you can use to purchase accessories, accent fabrics, trims, wall paint, and pretty much everything else in your room.

Let’s see how this concept works.

The above fabric is quite colorful. It’s got a soft khaki background and large-scale floral prints in red and green. From this colorful fabric, we can decide on a few colors we’d like to repeat in the room. For our example, we’d like to choose red and green.

Now that we’ve chosen the most colorful fabric, we need accent fabrics. For this example, we’ve chosen a plaid in red, green, and yellow. Plaids usually give a country look, so more than likely, this room is taking on the direction of a cozy kitchen, dining room, or living room.

Here’s another gorgeous accent fabric. This fabric is a subdued green print. This is the fabric that will calm down the busy prints and add balance to the room.

Now that we have those three fabrics, it’s time to decide where to use each print.

The floral fabric has randomly scattered large-scale prints. It also has a soft hand. Fabrics like that look beautiful when gathered, so let’s use this fabric for draperies.

The plaid, if you remember, is great for a country look. Let’s pair it up with some rustic chairs in the dining room and a rocking chair by the fireplace. We’ll use this fabric to upholster the chair cushions. To tie the room all together, let’s sew a couple of pillows with this fabric and throw them onto the sofa.

Now, the solid green fabric can be used anywhere in any amount. To add a contrasting accent to the draperies, let’s use it underneath the draperies and sew a few Roman shades from it. It’s a strong fabric and it has a clean print, so it’s perfect for Roman shades.

To finish it all off, we’ll use a heavy tassel fringe in red, green, and yellow along the sides of the draperies. This adds weight to the draperies and ties in the three main colors with the rest of the room. We’ve also chosen a brush trim in a strong red color. We’ll use this around some of the pillows to add a bold design element to the room to make it stand out.

Now that we have all that done, let’s choose a wall color. If the room is small, a light khaki or yellow will work great to make the space appear larger and less crowded. For larger rooms, a darker color like a red or green, at least on one wall, would look beautiful.

Now, if you notice, we started with the most colorful fabric. This fabric alone was enough because it allowed us to pick up a few colors to use throughout the entire room. Not all colors have to match perfectly, but they have to go together to give you a coherent overall look. Never look at fabrics from up close when trying to match colors. Look at them from a distance and see what overall impression the fabrics that you chose give you.

For more examples of how you can coordinate fabrics, visit DesignBlends and view our color families.