We say we love it, but could never sell it; we tip toe around it, because we really don’t understand its power. We fuel the neutral self fulfilling prophecy by showing 50 shades of cream. What is it? It’s daring color in blinds and shades. For a lot of reasons design pros selling hard window coverings haven’t embraced color blocking, P.O C.(Pop of Color) or bold, intense hues like other segments of the home furnishings industry. So I am soo excited to finally see the vibrant hued pleated shades in this month’s House Beautiful. Hopefully, this arbitrator of American taste might move us off the dime. Also spotted – the pleated shades had XL pleats. OMG- color, a Pleated shade AND XL pleats! Is this a harbinger of what might be coming in window coverings?

The Shade Store Via House Beautiful

With Tangerine Tango the Color of the Year-why not try it at the window?

So if we start embracing color; could we , ( O heart be still) start to see bold dynamic pattern at the window? God, I hope so; I could use a little drama….

All shade images from The Shade Store

I am officially obessessed ( and have been for years) with vintage art posters and Maitre de l’ Affiche.   

Drawn to poster art by their vibrant dramatic scale and colors, I  also love them for the peek inside the world of Paris at the turn of the century. I own several  Cappiellos and have introduced art posters  to clients, used them as inspiration and decorated around them, but I hadn’t thought about them on a window until now. ( Don’t ask me why! )  Creatively Different Blinds suggests just that – why NOT chose vintage poster art imagery and print them on blinds, shades or fabric to give your clients an authentic edge using the bold designs of these famous prints. BTW, Texton and is another company working in the digital printing arena; working with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation . Adaptive Textiles and Spoonflower will print fabrics for you.

In the 1890s the buildings of every big city were covered by large colorful advertising posters. The poster movement played a major part in codifying, glorifying and perpetuating the ebullient period of La Belle Epoque.  Jules Cheret, the father of poster art, whose unique combination of artistic, technical and entrepreneurial talents paved the way for a true industry. The poster had not only caught the fancy of the public, but its best examples were already being regarded as works of art to be exhibited, reviewed in journals, collected and reprinted in a manageable form. During the poster heyday, Cheret also published “Les Maitres de l’Affiche” (Masters of the Poster) reduced lithographic versions, in authentic colors, of the best posters of Europe and America. There were 256 color lithographs in the collection, reproduced from the original works of ninety-seven artists in a smaller 11 x 15 inch format. The varied selection of prints were sold in a package of four and delivered monthly to subscribers. The collection was issued as separate numbered sheets and in the margin at the right was a blind embossed stamp of authenticity. Working in a dressing room or bedroom? Look at some of the great fashion illustrations and magazine covers for roller shades.

Game rooms, library, home theater, sophisticated man cave? Imagine liquor or wine ads, auto racing or sports and entertainment  themes as motorized window coverings on those windows.

 Focused on beautiful imagery and delicious typography, it’s a genre that works in so many different interior settings to inspire fabrics, textiles and accessories and mood through color and form. Plus, digitally printed on blinds or shades is a inexpensive way to start collecting.

If  you’re looking for patterns rather than figures, ads or depictions of events, introduce some art deco influences based around dress fabric prints from  F. Ducharne  or Arthur Sanderson and Sons.

So now I am thinking about where I can use the poster that has been haunting me lately…..

Let me introduce Eun il lee, master Korean textile designer and partner in Artvivant Textiles. Lee is a hidden gem in the textile world; creating inspirational and unique textiles for Coulisse and  Nobilis along with his own firm. Both collections contain stunning textiles with a focus on window coverings as their end use. 

 We recently caught up with Lee and his partner Terry Bayless to discuss his collections and the process. The textiles are produced in the Philippines to take advantage of the natural fibers Asia has to offer; it’s  a varied range of materials – beads, leather, silk, branches, raffia.  Eun il lee’s textiles strike a balance between ancient and modern fibers combined with century old Korean looming techniques. The list is long and  I am always inspired by it. 

Nil’s style philosophy comes from the ying and yang.  This can be the connection between God and man, God and nature, or man and nature. Yin Yang is also present at more personal level- relationships between man and his or her history, home, parents and friends. Nil weaves these relationships into his fabrics.

Nil explains,  “I have a certain feeling with each material. My perception of silk, for example, is the womanly. The combination of hard fibers like abacas and pineapple and soft materials such as silk is exactly the philosophy of Yin and Yang. When you put them together they fight and harmonize to create a new personality.”

 Nil sees his loom as the tool for his creations- the fabrics are his painter’s canvas or the music’s notes. He says it best: “The fabrics are my poems, my songs, my paintings.” The handloom used to create his emotional textiles, was devised about 2,000 years ago and was brought to England by the Romans. The process consists of interlacing one set of threads of yarn (the warp) with another (the weft). The warp threads are stretched lengthwise in the weaving loom. The weft cross-threads, are woven into the warp to make the cloths.

Innovative materials are often incorporated into the designs, via traditional back-strap weaving. Artvivant focuses on blending natural fibers in such a way to produce a quality level similar to modern man made fabrics, for example the piña silk or pineapple thread which is the base material for many of the designs, is traditionally used for rope making.

The incorporation of bamboo, sticks and buri reeds provide horizontal strength and stability, which eliminate the need for cross bars in roman blinds, and make for elegant panel glides, room dividers, or roman blinds.

I am a BIG fan of digital printing and have followed its evolution across several product categories in the last several years. One category that is underserved is window coverings. Here are some great examples of design opportunites in that category:

Three years ago Creatively Different launched its highly-creative, e-commerce concept for custom Roller Blinds. Their range of fabulous images that can be printed on window coverings is approaching 6,000 pictures, patterns and special-effect options for truly unique printed blinds to create the ‘wow’ factor.  They also offer  inter-related products – panel tracks, wallpaper, murals and art canvasses as well as help with a variety of special effects, including wallpaper/tiling effects, and image stylization and coloration. Personally I like the idea of putting art on the window, so I might pass on the murals, and wall effects.

The company has recently launched a range of versatile Panel Track blinds. Seen here is a room divider, printed with ‘Chrysocolla’, one of Richard Weston’s amazing ‘Earth’ images- orginial blown up scans of the interior of rocks and minerals.

They’ve added to their art collection with the recent recruitment of several artists offering some super limited-edition artwork,  great cityscapes of London, Paris and New York; wonderful contemporary art; and some sizzingly seductive and vibrant artwork.

One of my favorites is Cafe de Paris….This dresses up any window with or without a view.

We spotted the prototype several years ago as part of the textile collection at the Victoria and Albert museum. It’s resurfacing again- maybe just in time

Digital Dawn is an interesting reactive window blind that is responsive to external stimuli. Designed by Rachel Wingfield. Rachel belongs to an emerging generation of designers redefining conventions of how, why and with what things are made.  Digital Dawn digitally emulates photosynthesis using printed electroluminescent technology; as seen in the image below, a light-based botanical environment seems to grow on the window lamp as a room gets darker.

Wingfield intended Digital Dawn to emulate the process of photosynthesis using electroluminescent printing technology. Light-dependent sensors monitor the changing light levels within a space, triggering the growth of the organic foliage on the blind. A natural environment will appear to grow on the window surface, exploring how changing light levels within a space can have profound and physiological impact on our sense of well-being. It’s essentially a solar powered textile storing sun’s energy during the day and using it at night to illuminate the blind.

Wonder if the energy could be used to operate the blind?