DIY "Faux Fortuny" Fabric

6 Materials
$60
3 Hours
Medium
I've always loved the luxurious Fortuny fabric from Italy, but their fabric is so expensive. So with stencils, I painted my own "faux Fortuny" pillows! You can do it too! This is an affordable and easy way to add patterns and color to a room. And if you have a dark brown sofa like I do (I have two dark brown sofas in our living room, ugh!), you know they can look like big brown boring blobs. Adding color and pattern with pillows is a great inexpensive way to lighten up those dark brown sofas!
Here's the final result. I used silk fabrics, with silk taffeta and silk velvet. I ordered my silk online from Hyena Productions in LA (http://www.hyenaproductions.com/). Their online color guide is pretty accurate, though you can also order sample pieces of fabrics. The samples cost $, but you can apply the sample cost toward a purchase. This helps you be sure you get the right color. I recommend their silk taffeta for a Fortuny look. It's a good thick silk. Silk dupioni is a little too slubby and casual for the luxurious Fortuny look. I used stencils from Royal Design Studio (http://www.royaldesignstudio.com) and their shimmering Stencil Creme paints. Both the stencil patterns and the special shimmery paint made a Fortuny look. I think these look pretty close to Fortuny -- I have some real Fortuny samples framed and hanging on a wall -- but at a tiny fraction of the cost!
Here you can see the stencils I used. You can easily see the classic Fortuny style shapes here. Any European classic damask style stencils could give you the Fortuny look.
Here are the colors of the three pillows I painted for our living room. My living room is fully of spicy saffrony colors so I leaned toward neutrals and oranges.
Important tip: I recommend when painting on fabric, add some textile medium into your paint. You can find textile medium in the acrylic paint aisles at craft stores like JoAnn, Michaels and Hobby Lobby. Or you can order it online from JoAnn, Michaels or Amazon if you don't have a craft store nearby. Textile medium helps keep the paint soft after it dries, so it doesn't get hard and crunchy on the fabric. ************************************************************ Visit the links below for more info: Entire Tutorial: http://paintandpattern.com/stenciled-fortuny-style-pillows-tutorial/ Tips on My Blog: http://nomadicdecorator.com/2016/05/14/diy-affordable-fortuny-fabric/
To stencil, dip your brush into the paint, then wipe off most paint onto a paper towel. You want to stencil with a nearly-dry brush, so that paint doesn't ooze under the stencil. Then swirl your brush over the stencil pattern. It's best to use a brush made for stenciling - they have bristles in a thick round shape. Also if you have cats or dogs, keep an eye if you walk away so they don't get in the paint and make little paw print stencils. :) This is my little buddy Chaai. He gets involved in ALL of my DIY projects.
Here is a Before/After view of my living room and the dark brown sofas. You can see the dark brown velvet pillows added to the brown blobby look. Adding lighter color patterned pillows really lightened up the dark brown sofas. Also: It might sound really impractical to use silk for pillows in a well-used room. But if someone wants to fall asleep on the couch and drool (ummmmmm yeah it happens sometimes), they can fall asleep on another pillow not damaged by drool. :) And I have two cats but both are trained to not go on these leather couches because they scratch easily. All other furniture and pillows in the house are fair game and well used by the cats!
Suggested materials:
  • Velvet Fabric   (Hyena Productions)
  • Stencils   (Royal Design Studio)
  • Stencil Creme paints   (Royal Design Studio)
See all materials
Deb @ NomadicDecorator.com
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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