Material world: How to choose fabric for your home interiors

Pierre Frey takes inspiration from historic fabric house Braquenie using records of their designs from Château de Versailles, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris or the Musée de la Toile de Jouy for more traditional style designs.
Buying fabric for curtains can be a bit intimidating. Maybe it’s because the ones we really hanker for inhabit the realms of posh luxury with price tags to match, but the thought of being stuck with a pattern for years to come to get value from our spend can have us taking the easy way out and sticking with something plain and simple.
I have to admit when it comes to planning a window treatment, I don’t know my box balloons from my lambrequin, but there’s something soothing about visiting a fabric shop, especially the luxury showrooms where chat is muted, maybe absorbed by all the vast rolls of cloth leaning floor to ceiling, which leave you with no doubt about whether you’re touching real silk or a synthetic imposter.