VELVET



Velvet Offers What 
No Other Textile Can...

*Rich, Saturated Color With Reflection and Light 
Everyone's Knee-Jerk Reaction to Velvet is 
"Ewwww, It's So Old-Fashioned And Formal Looking."

THIS ISN'T WHAT VELVET IS ABOUT ANYMORE...
(Stodgy Park Avenue Arrivistes)


It's about this!



THE BEST DESIGNERS ARE USING VELVET!

(Source: Juan Montoya)
OMG this room makes me weak...I love it..
Look at the sofa's soft glow and how it compliments the painting.
Absolute Perfection!

(Source: Steven Volpe)
One of my favorite rooms of all time! 
Handsome, subtle and well-edited. The cotton velvets used on the chairs and sofa is brilliant, eliminating more textiles and textures - keeping it super simple.

(Source: Thomas Jayne)
The handsome caramel-colored cotton velvet keeps this room simple and implies a rich* quality - subliminally.


(Source: Pauline de Rothschild, France)
This is da bomb! 
Look at that gorgeous silk velvet glow like a rich-bitches sapphire!


(Source: Steven Volpe)
This hipster space achieves a very up-to-the-minute look by using well-selected, eclectic pieces.  The cotton velvet on the sofa adds necessary warmth without being glitzy.


(Source: Ralph Lauren)
This monochromatic space looks soooo clean and sleek; it would look frigid if it weren't for the cotton velvet.

(Source: Todd Romano)
This small apartment uses one color to keep it looking larger. The cotton velvet gives a rich glow whilst remaining innocuous.

(Source: Jamie Bush)
These chairs in the silk velvet look like gorgeous glowing ruby's! They bring color, fun, passion and quality to a cement-walled room.


(Source: Timothy Haynes/Kevin Roberts)
LOVE the gray and white, "tres courant!" The sofa has enough texture that a patterned fabric would be too busy; the cotton velvet brings reflection and light into the sofa without making it busy.


(Source: Alex Hitza)
This room puts the 'S' in sexy! 
In an 'updated traditional' living room Louis XV antique chairs are covered in silk leopard velvet - blending perfectly with the black leather Bauhaus chairs and brass mid-century lamps.

(Source: Alex Papachristidis)
Papachristidis brought this traditional vignette up-to-date with the deep, saturated purple, making it look super rich* without being gauche.

(Source: Mario Grauso)
Grauso, the former president of Vera Wang has a transitional look in his New York apartment. The green cotton velvet reflects the light beautifully and doesn't look 'precious.' 


(Source: Joe Nahem)
I ain't so sure 'bout dat chrome sofa in front of the window....
but those two turquoise chairs get me all randy...

(Source: Benjamin Dhong)
Blending beautifully with the gray walls and carpet this gray linen velvet appears to look like a piece of sterling silver - glowing, but not ostentatious.


VELVET'S INTENSITY
Achieve extraordinary depth of color with velvet!


(Source: Kips Bay Showhouse)
This tiger patterned silk velvet in bright apple green has an intensity and richness that just can't be achieved in any other textile.


(Source: Miles Redd)
Now, that is one sexy-ass sofa!


(Source: Pinterest)
An uninteresting living room is brought alive by the pop of orange cotton velvet. The 'glow' and 'depth' is what makes it work, another textile would fall flat.


(Source: Thomas Burak)
Look at the light reflection on that silk velvet, DEEEE-LICIOUS!


(Source: Architectural Digest)
I couldn't love anything more!  Two recycled 1990's tufted chairs covered in that rad purple go from hum-drum to ba-da-boom!


(Source: Jamie Drake)
The Master of vivid colors! 
Drake used a scrumptious espresso-colored cotton velvet on the large French arm-chair and an orchid silk velvet on the sofa pillows - bringing a depthful sparkle to the sofa.


(Source: Amsterdam Home)
Rock the Casbah baby! Doesn't that magenta cotton velvet get you percolatin'?  
Pee-in-your-pants chic!


VELVET'S SUBTLETY 
To blend in and yet have a certain subtle poshness - use velvet.


(Source: Joseph Paul Davis)
My own home in Washington - a melange of George III & Regency period antiques. I didn't want to overshadow the antiques with color or texture so I chose a pale taupe cotton velvet which matched the wall color exactly, it's luxurious and "quiet."


(Source: Elle Decor)
This clean-lined Paris apartment - sans  frou-frou - feels luxurious thanks to the light-play on the rich, gray cotton velvet sofa. Any other solid-color matte-finish textile would be flat.


(Source: David Oldroyd)
GTFO, this is so, so lean and mean!
The gunmetal gray cotton velvet on the sofa and the upholstered wall behind - absolute perfection!
(hate the books all covered in white, looks like a freshman decorator trying too hard).


(Source: Ruthie Somers)
Not my style - but, that blush cotton velvet on that Michael Taylor Schiaparelli sofa makes my shorts tight...


(Source: Jean-Louis Deniot, Loire Valley)
One doesn't usually expect velvet in a casual weekend home, but this is the exact place you want sumptuous textiles where you curl up with your iPad and a big glass of Pouilly-Fume'.

VELVET CURTAINS
No other fabric can make the light dance around your windows and provide a richness* quite like velvet!


(Source: Marie Claire Maison)
A curtain dividing the dressing room from the bedroom stuns us with intensity and quality in purple cotton velvet.


(Source: Pinterest)
This textured rayon/cotton velvet is a killer in this small den; giving a little light play while remaining masculine.


(Source: House Beautiful)
I love using a lot of one fabric in a room. Here, in this bright white room the upholstery and curtains are in that super-chic brown cotton velvet which makes it crisp and adds contrast.


VELVET UPHOLSTERED WALLS
You want unparalleled depth-of-color on your walls? 
Then consider velvet.


(Source: Tory Burch, Vogue)
I don't know of another wall treatment which offers this kind of intensity and depth of color for walls.


(Source: Meg Braff)
Don't you just wanna rub your hands and face all over those linen velvet walls?  Looks at that amazing depth of color and the way the light plays with the slubs  in the fabric.


(Source: Pinterest)
Crushed cotton velvet in royal blue with no details, just the velvets reflective quality is doing all the heavy lifting...
Home run! 


(Source: Toby Fairly)
Nothing makes velvet look more depthful than when its tufted; you see all the folds fill with light taking on a super luscious appearance.


VELVET IN THE BOUDOIR




Still think velvet in the bedroom looks like it should be in bubby's bedroom or a palace?
Wrong, again...


(Source: Pinterest)
The bedroom is where you want the most voluptuous textiles available; notice the light sensually bouncing off the tufting just screaming at you - lets get it on!


(Source: Hampton's Showhouse)
This bed needs a solid color because it floats in a very 'decorative' room - a pattern would look too busy. The green cotton velvet gives it a friendly, come-hither feel.


(Source: Alex Papachristidis)
How absolutely sybaritic is this royal blue upholstered bedstead?
THAT'S where the action happens!


(Source: Karen Kaali-Nagy)
A feminine, traditional bedroom has two ice-blue cotton velvet tufted chairs... they subliminally set the tone for the whole room.


(Source: Pinterest)
These two antique headboards got a kick in the ass with that black velvet. The predictable powder blue or French gray would've been monotonous.


A BIT OF VELVET CAN MAKE A ROOM POP WITH IT'S SHIMMER AND ELEGANCE


(Source: Courtney Cox's Malibu Home)
Bathrooms are so often one-dimensional - textiles are usually flat or 'cute.'  This deep-sea-blue silk velvet makes this plain bath feel totally self-indulgent.


A fairly monochromatic ensemble gets zhuzhed up with two silk velvet pillows - which adds a spot of glimmer to the boring gray settee.


Thank God these people chose super elegant silk velvet for their Swedish chairs instead of the ubiquitous linen or cotton check.


(Source: William Heffner)
Clearly, this would be another boring-ass dining room if the chairs were upholstered in some tone-on-tone woven crap...


(Source: Elle Decor)
A sofa in a country home done in all gray monochromes dons an amethyst cotton velvet pillow - which offers a pop of color and a tactile variant from the nubby wool upholstery.


(Source: Elle Decor)
I'm not usually a fan of matching art and furniture, but this is the exception because the beautiful silk velvet accentuates the contemporary art.


(Source: Houzz)
It's your personal space..so why not have the plushest of textiles in there? Have fun with the color, you're the only one who sees it...


(Source: ShoStack)
Even in a small guest room a touch of velvet adds so much quality to the space.


TYPES OF VELVET


The most common of all velvets, it comes in zillions of colors and is fairly well-priced. Don't get a velvet with a plushy long 'nap' otherwise you'll see the imprint of a persons behind when they get up.


This looks as if it is slightly worn as it has striations and variations in the nap. Be very careful not to order a linen velvet with a sheen, unless that's what you want. The chic'est ones are low-luster and real linen.


The velvet is run through a machine that literally crushes a pattern into the nap of the velvet. These can be super chic.


The most costly of solid pattern velvets, but once you feel it and see the depth and intensity you'll know why it's expensive.


These are wildly expensive which is why you usually only see pillows or small chairs done in it. But, it is amazing and can add tremendous panache to a room.


Yes, believe it or not, outdoor velvet! It sounds like it would be hot to sit on, but quite the opposite, the nap allows the fabric to breathe easier. Most outdoor textiles are scratchy and not skin friendly, this is amazing stuff.

You Can Do It, I'm Here To Help!

* When I use the word RICH or RICHNESS, I don't mean ostentation, I mean: Having a high value or quality, a pureness or significant quality.