by Olga Sochneva
Interior Stylist for Children | Revellab

During my recent trip to Portugal with the help of my dear friend I was lucky to discover Nomalism - a family owned textile studio based in Lisbon. You might have seen an explosion of their colourful fabrics and patterns on my Instagram feed and stories last month, and if you did - I hope it left you inspired. It's been a while since I've seen such a variety of pattern and colour under one roof. Their patterns range from traditional florals, classy stripes and other popular children staples to the currently trendy bright tropicals, bold geometrics and tender pastels. The quality of the fabrics is very good, so purchasing my gorgeous toucan patterned piece was an easy decision. It is their recent fabrics collection for children that inspired me to write this post.




Fabrics are an indispensable part of every décor and if chosen well they can make an impact and truly transform any interior. After all most of the items in a child's room - be it curtains or rugs, bed linen or cushions, even lamp shades, toy baskets, and of course the toys themselves, are made of various types of fabrics. What I love most about kid's rooms is that there are almost no boundaries with decor and we can let our imagination go wild and play with a variety of fabrics to create the desired look. There are a couple of things to keep in mind to achieve a colourful but coherent as opposed to unattractive and messy look, which I'd like to cover in this post.

While choosing the fabrics for children’s rooms several aspects need to be taken into consideration: fabric durability, its resistance to dirt, fabrics composition (I like to go for ecological, natural, breathable materials whenever possible). With practicality in mind for cushions, beanbags and bedspreads use only washable fabrics. And then of course there comes the most fun part - choosing textures, patterns and colour combinations.




Tip 1: Choosing colours
Each room deserves a different combination of fabrics to keep the look unique. When selecting fabrics for a room a good approach is to select a multi-coloured pattern that appeals to you and make it your 'feature fabric'. It is enough if it's used even on a small item in the room - a cushion or a lampshade, but its colours would provide a palette that can be referenced in the rest of the room. For example if you are using green as one of the colours in the room, this fabric would have a bit of green in it, and if it has beige - you can use it as your neutral base colour. You can reference the rest of your feature fabrics colours in the rest of the fabrics and items in the room - it keeps you within a colour scheme but gives flexibility.

Tip 2: Working with patterns
Pattern mixing can be tricky but following a couple of these recommendations it's easy to achieve a colourful and mismatched look that still works. In kids rooms you can mix florals, geometrics, polka dots, stripes, gingham and pretty much any other pattern to create an interesting combination. The key is to mix patterns of different sizes - small patterns with medium with large ones to clash them and create interest. If you prefer a less busy look, use patterns in small things - cushions, ottomans, lampshades, etc. Another tip is to play with a variety of patterns while keeping your colours similar.

Tip 3: Fabric composition
I love using various fabrics in my designs but I often come to the conclusion that cottons and linens are the most practical to use - no matter the climate. They are natural and breathable fabrics that make you warm in winter and keep you cool in the summer. They work great for curtains, bed linen and covers, upholstery and lampshades. You can go wild with cushions though and use pretty much any sort of fabrics to introduce more texture to the room.

Tip 4: Choosing Textures
Textures will add interest to your child's room, or any other space in your house. They create both visual and tactile appeal and can also enforce a particular design style. Be bold and experiment with throws, carpets and cushions and the result can be really stunning. You don't have to seek too far for examples - even a simple muslin blanket is such a great example of a beautiful textured textile piece. Easy!

Hope you'll enjoy applying my tips when planning your kids room decor. Let me know in comments if you found them helpful and if you have any further questions.

The fabrics that have been used in the images for this post is from Nomalism latest kids collection. They are perfect for decorating children’s rooms because they are made with 100% high quality cotton and come in double width, so you can use them for bedding, curtains and upholstery.




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Decoração de quartos de criança.

Durante a minha recente visita a Portugal, tive a oportunidade de descobrir a Nomalism – uma loja familiar de tecidos, situada no bairro de Campo de Ourique em Lisboa.
Na NOMALISM encontra tecidos desde as tradicionais flores, riscas clássicas, tecidos mimosos de criança, ou até mesmo tecidos mais tendência, como os tropicais e os geométricos em cores pastel.
A qualidade dos tecidos é francamente boa, pelo que escolher o meu tecido dos tucanos foi uma decisão fácil!

Quando falamos em quartos de criança, é inevitável não pensar em tecidos, porque até mesmo muitos dos brinquedos, são feitos de diferentes tipos de tecido.
Assim como, é importante ter em conta a durabilidade, a resistência a fácil manutenção e a composição dos tecidos.
A parte mais interessante deste processo é mesmo, escolher as cores e texturas dos tecidos, sendo que aqui as opções são variadas.
 
Conselho 1: Escolher as cores

Conselho 2: Escolher os padrões
No caso de preferir um ambiente menos confuso, os padrões devem ser usados nos acessórios mais pequenos como abat-jours, almofadas ou outros apontamentos decorativos.  
Conselho 3: Escolher o tipo de tecido

Conselho 4: Escolher as texturas