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A French-Inspired Garden and Home by Judith Stringham

Breakfast Chair Fabric Choices

Monday, March 10, 2014

Redecorating is an exciting way of life for some, 
but for me, redecorating is a lengthy, indecisive process. 

You see, I love what I have now, 
and I am not easily bored. 
Rather, 
chairs, sofas, curtains, bedspreads, and pillows 
become cherished old comforts of home 
that make my eyes happy when I look at them. 


Everything is collected over time, 
with each new addition blending with existing colors and patterns. 

The large striped pillow came with my sofa, 
the small square pillow with ruffles matched the original fabric 
on the breakfast chairs and cushioned the seat of an island stool. 
All have the same color tones as the small quilted cotton throw. 

Just the right shade of periwinkle blue combined 
with pinks, mauves, lavenders, and greens... 
When the breakfast chairs had to be recovered 
seven or eight years ago, I was able to find a 
floral that blended with the existing patterns and colors. 


The ruffled valance hiding the blinds matched the original 
fabric on the breakfast chairs. 
I loved this fabric design more than the current one shown, 
which I also love. 

Alas, these colors are no longer in vogue. 
vogue |vog| fr., the prevailing fashion or style at a particular time
Even my dilemmas are in French.

So, why change you ask?


The cats also loved the breakfast chairs ... a little too much. 


After several months searching local fabric stores and 
Internet sources, I have decided on the following fabrics 
found from an Internet site with good prices. 
Not highly discounted, unbelievable low prices, 
but still reasonable prices. 

This is the biggest redecorating project I have ever undertaken. 
Usually I only do one or two things at a time, 
but everything needs redoing now. 


The one requirement for me...  
blue...  

I placed an order for all of the above fabrics except for 
the blue and white one lying on top. 
I need to find another source for it since 
my primary source requires a minimum order 
for several yards more than I need. 

The breakfast chairs will be reupholstered in the large floral print, 
keeping with my love of blue, love of florals, and recent fascination 
of white, lots of white. 

One thing always leads to another in decorating. 

My house is very open with the living, dining, kitchen, and breakfast 
areas connecting through large doorways. 
Changes in the breakfast chairs 
and fabrics faded from the sun in the adjoining rooms mean 
reupholstering the sofa and chairs in the living room. 
Oh, yes, there was a little too much cat love for the sofa, also. 



The powder blue and white check is for the living room sofa 
which will have two large throw pillows in the same large floral fabric 
that will be on the breakfast chairs. 



The sky blue and white check is for a small armless slipper chair and matching ottoman 
that sits between the breakfast sunspace and the living room. 
I've had this chair and matching ottoman since the mid-seventies
when my husband attended college at the University of Texas in Austin.  
This will be the fifth fabric pattern for this 
little chair and ottoman set that remains my favorite place to sit. 
Another large throw pillow in the floral print will be on the chair. 
The two-toned small blue stripe fabric is for cording on the large pillows. 

Keeping up? 


The monochromatic blue and white floral fabric, yet to be ordered, is for 
smaller throw pillows in the living room. 

And, to add yet another pattern, I have blue and white toile fabric (no photo) 
that will be used to recover a large living room chair. 
I bought it a few years ago at a local discount fabric store 
to redo the bedroom curtains and pillow shams 
and have enough left to recover the living chair. 

No, I will not be the one to reupholster all this furniture. 
I have a professional upholsterer who charges reasonable prices 
and who has done projects for me in the past. 

The fabric should arrive by the third week of March, and 
the upholsterer picks up everything the day after the expected arrival date. 

There are still more redecorating projects in addition to these. 
More spaces to redo upstairs. 

Now that I've finally made these decisions, 
I am excited and can't wait to see how everything turns out.