Fabrics can really make a positive impact on your home. Not only is fabric easy to use, it can be cheap, easily accessible, and most importantly, easy-to-change if you don’t like it any more, or if you change your decor.  Beautiful interiors all make full use of fabrics. Whether you shop online or purchase from a fabric shop, it’s the soft home furnishings that make all the difference to your pad. This article will show you exactly how to use fabrics for a beautiful home.

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use fabric for beautiful home

Why use fabrics for beautiful interiors

Soft home furnishing (fabrics) is the most versatile, quick and easy way of changing your surroundings. You can also use paint to beautify your home, but fabric is my number one choice. Nowadays, you don’t have to be rich to enjoy a beautiful interior. Fabrics are cheap and ideal for your needs because you can purchase them and design items that suityou and your individual home. It doesn’t take a professional designer to whip up a few soft home furnishings. With a little bit of talent and some extra time, you too can make your home beautiful with fabric.

Ways to make your home beautiful using fabric

Wall art that doubles as storage unit

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Use fabric to make wall art or storage unit

Use fabric to make a wall feature

How about a good wall storage DIY project with fabrics? It doesn’t cost anything because you can make it from an old table runner or just fabric you have lying around. This project is simple and will only take a couple of hours. It’s great for any kids bedrooms, as you can choose colours and themes to suit.

Fabrics make splendid soft-furnishings for living rooms

Use fabrics on picture frames and clocks

This wall curtain is extremely easy to make – it’s just one straight stitch all the way around. This simple, but well-chosen and well-placed piece of fabric (behind the fern) adds richness and beauty to the room. Go to how to make a wall curtain to see how to make it yourself.

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Use fabrics that match your decor in clocks
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Use fabric that match your interior in pictures

The above clock and picture are placed in the dining room, where two of the decorative colours are black and red. The clock is on the mantle piece and the picture is on the storage unit on the far left of the room. We used a lot of red fabric in this room, so the plaid red and black complements the look and beautifies the room completely.

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Use fabrics inside picture frames

I cut the pictures out of the frame and replaced them with fabric. I simply put the frame back together for a beautiful picture with exactly the colours I want.The above pictures have been hung in the hall. The colour there is light green, so the plaid (greens and blues) fabric is perfect for this space. This fabric has also extended use in the living room, which is just off the hall area. It’s the same fabric used to make the wall curtains above. The flow works well for the overall effect.

Make your home beautiful by using fabrics in high-traffic areas

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A hall window and window sill – no use of fabric
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Same hall and window sill – colour fabric, home-made window seat

I used colours that complemented the ones used in the stairway to make a simple window seat cushion and a throw. A small piece of foam and an old throw is all you need. This throw was bought for 50p (less than £1.00) from Ikea’s discarded baskets. The colours are beautiful and are a perfect match for our landing/stairs.  Half an hour later we had a window seat, where the kids sit and listen to music or just chat with each other.

Use fabrics on furniture

You will never get all your furniture to match, no matter how hard you try. If you’ve got a particularly old piece, why not use fabric to cunningly disguise it. You don’t have to sew anything for this project. Simply buy a cheap scarf (the one below is Asian print) and use on any piece of furniture.

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Old rocking chair
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Same old rocking chair, covered in a scarf
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Cover an old headboard with fabric to complement your bedroom

Old, unmatched headboards need not be a problem any more. This project can be done at no cost whatsoever if you already have a headboard and some fabric lying around.

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Cover an old chair with fabric to match your couch

You can go to transform an old chair to see how you too can use fabric to add to your furniture collection. Any old chair can be covered to suit the other chairs/couches you already have in your home. The hardest part is finding fabric to match your existing pieces. Sometimes furniture shops (or even fabric shops) can source this for you if you have a swab of the fabric you need.

Use fabric for a beautiful bedroom

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make your own bedspread

Make a cheap bedspread by buying exactly the fabric you want. Make sure you measure your bed first though. All you need to do is hem the fabric and you’ve got a bespoke bedspread to make your bedroom beautiful.

Use fabrics to hide clutter

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Storage space without curtain

This curtain cost me nothing. It was an old throw given to me by my mother-in-law. We don’t use it any more, so it’s been converted into a curtain to hide all the mess and clutter behind it. I did no stitching at all. There are clips attached to the curtain pole. The throw is clipped in and can be removed and replaced by another piece of fabric when I get tired of the look (or change the colour of the room).

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Storage space with curtain

This is the beauty of using fabric. It’s so versatile, yet super easy to change. It doesn’t cost much to make your house look as good as the ‘beautiful interiors’ pages of house magazines. See the other entries of our diy projects for more ideas on how to make your home beautiful. 

  • How do you use fabric to make your home beautiful? 
  • Do you think you’ll try any of the tips above?