Fabric

There has been a major breakthrough -- largely unheralded as yet -- in the upholstered furniture marketplace: sofas and chairs covered in two -- or more -- fabrics.Furniture has, at long last, been freed from the limitations of the single-fabric rule. This also means that, in terms of sheer variety, there is suddenly a much broader selection of furniture available. The potential for finding something that suits you is far greater than it was just a year ago.The pieces are just turning up on the new-product pages.

A multicolored grouping of four clapboard rowhouses in Fells Point stands out like Gerbera daisies against the Formstone and brick fronts of its neighbors on either side. Architect Myrna Poirier calls one of these gems home and will soon invite visitors beyond her threshold as part of the Historic Harbor House Tour of Fells Point on Mother's Day. In keeping with the facade of her home, the interior is a color-infused, uplifting space. "Color is so important," she said. "A lot of people don't realize what color does for your spirits," pointing to an open interior 50 feet deep, with soft pastel paint on the walls in each room, richly embellished textiles from all over the world hanging on them and the morning sun bursting through ceiling skylights.

Ouch! Darn it! Missed one!One of life's verities is that whenever a man opens a new shirt, he finds a thousand straight pins -- or at least eight or 10.They are simply a fact of sartorial life, taken for granted except when a forgotten pin delivers a pointed reminder of its presence.Then it's "Why are all those*! pins in new shirts and how do they get there?"The pins are there because, industry sources say, no better way has been found to keep new shirts folded crisply and neatly, and they get there by the grace of people like Michelle Anderson, Agnes Green and Tina Bhatt, who emplace them -- by hand -- eight to 10 per shirt, depending on fabric and style.

Hate speech is a form of vandalism. It defaces the environment, and like a broken window, if left untended, signals to other hoodlums that the coast is clear to do more damage. But unlike the proverbial broken window, which urban police departments and criminologists urge us to repair to maintain the aura of social order, nobody seems to be in much of a hurry to nip hate speech in the bud. That's because since the ill-fated attempt by several universities to regulate hate speech in the 1980s and 1990s, any discussion of reining in racist taunts inevitably degrades into charges of political correctness and ends abruptly with the invocation of the First Amendment.

I found the talkback comments regarding The Sun's Sunday editorial on the need for Marylanders to respond to the national census distressing ("Getting it right," April 4). To think a simple census questionaire can bring out that kind of mean spiritedness! To find something negative is one thing, but the mean spirited tone of the comments is itself a sad commentary of the state of community in our area if not in the country. I wonder if people understand what they are angry about and the negative effect such anger has on them and on the fabric of America.

Rita St. Clair and her staff turned to an ancient classic when the Baltimore interior designer was asked to decorate a room upon her induction into the Washington Design Center Hall of Fame. The group wanted a fabric to accent a number of pieces in the room and make them pop. They chose ikat. With its Central Asian origins and exotic feel, ikat — a weaving and dyeing technique that uses a range of materials — was perfect for creating a room inspired by a worldly family.

The outfit is familiar: pre-washed denim, rugby stripes, Oxford shirting, cable knit and flannel. But this particular ensemble is being worn by a plump, slightly rumpled sofa, not your accountant on his day off.Apparel fabric used as upholstery is the single hottest trend at this fall's International Home Furnishings Market, where it's sometimes hard to tell where the sitter ends and the settee begins.Alex Bernhardt, whose company introduced a unique home furnishings-clothing boutique concept last spring, told a press gathering on the first day of market that "People like to sit on what they wear."

Q: I'm looking for a new headboard for my average-size bedroom, which has traditional mahogany furniture, a dark wood floor and off-white walls. Can you suggest an interesting design, not necessarily in wood, that would help make the room look a bit larger and more sophisticated?A: Let me encourage you not to add more wood to a setting that already has quite enough. As an alternative, you might also try creating a headboard out of fabric. The photo depicts just that sort of solution.This treatment may look rather elaborate, but it's really quite simple and not as heavy as an actual canopy.

When Mark and Carol Goodman bought a traditional house in Baltimore City, they moved in without any furniture for the living room. The Goodmans, who moved here from a high-rise apartment in New York City, did have some contemporary pieces, but they had been shuffled into the den.After looking at an empty living room for about a year, Mrs. Goodman hired interior designer Donna Foertsch of D.L.F. Designs and together they decided to look first for fabric. "When I am starting from scratch in a room, I really like to find the boldest, most multi-patterned fabric first," says Ms. Foertsch.

Sewing machines hum around David Cardona as he reaches for one of his creations-in-progress, a gown of shiny metallic-looking fabric he has nicknamed "oil slick." He holds up another. "I call it my ice cream cone dress," says the Los Angeles designer about the garment that flares like upside-down ice cream cones in seven places around the gown's hem. "This is one of those dresses that uses up a lot of fabric. But I think it's cool. It's different -- and that's what I'm trying to be, different."

Have you ever had a skirt, top or other fabulous garment that you just adored and for some reason (maybe it became shrunken or stained) you could no longer wear? Remember how hard it was to give away? Or perhaps you couldn't bear to give it away and it just took up space in your closet. Before you consider casting off something special: Rethink, repurpose and refashion. I am not suggesting keeping every cast-off, but certainly there are special pieces that just say “you.” Imagine giving life to them in the form of home furnishings!

Pushing waterlogged belongings out the front door of her duplex, Suzy Cunningham trod over a buckle in the floorboards. "Our porch went all to hell," she lamented as she cleaned up last month after Tropical Storm Lee. "Their ain't a floor in Port Deposit that's even. " Nor was it the first time the waters of the Susquehanna River had rushed through this Cecil County town that locals call "Port. " Most of the houses built in the lowlands between the river and North Main Street show the scars of decades of flooding.

Upon entering the G. Krug & Son blacksmith shop, I was handed a pair of safety goggles and immediately knew I was in for a treat. All around me were the goings-on of a bygone era. Peter Krug, owner of the Baltimore workshop that has been in business since the early 19th century, crafts steel scrollwork by hand, the old-fashioned way: hammer and anvil shaping red-hot metal heated in a 2,500-degree forge. You don't know hot until you've stood in front of that forge on a summer day in a building that has no air conditioning.

Virginia Jefferson spent the past 65 years putting her customers in the dark. As the proprietor of an old Baltimore awning company, it was her role to spread the shade on the hottest of summer afternoons. About to turn 89, she is retiring and selling a business founded by her father in 1917. This week, she will leave an office that has never seen a computer and the desk where she has worked since 1946. She'll surrender her electric typewriter, carbon paper and ledger books filled with the names of the 500 people who have relied on her to screen their homes under one of her tentlike, custom-tailored enclosures supported by pipes and lashed with ropes.

In the tradition of the old-fashioned trunk show, home furnishings vendors often stage events to present new fabrics, wallpapers, finishes and more to interior designers hungry for new ideas. The materials typically come in swatches or sample books or even catalogs. But at McLain Wiesand's recent trunk show, the new products were on a runway. For the second year in a row, the Baltimore custom furniture maker put on the event, drawing a crew of home furnishings sales reps to set up displays to pitch their new products.

Thousands of years of textile manufacturing have resulted in limitless options for personalizing your home with custom upholstery, window treatments, pillows, and bedding. What's important about selecting fabrics is determining which ones work in different situations. To find out what materials are best for sofas and chairs vs. windows and dining areas, I talked with a few interior designers in the region to get some expert advice. I've organized that advice into three categories: upholstery, window treatments and trends.

Q: I have collected shawls, scarves and bits and pieces of fabric throughout the years and in my travels to various parts of the world. As you might gather, I'm fascinated by textiles. But I still need your advice as to how some of them might best be displayed as decorative objects in my home.A: I, too, suffer from textile mania. And like you, I'm forever looking for new ways to display wonderful examples of the weaver's or embroiderer's art.You probably already know that priceless antique textiles should probably be kept in a dark and temperature-controlled environment.

Q: Instead of the usual wallpaper, I had planned to cover a wall in my dining room with a fabric that I like. A friend told me that the installation method would be more complicated than for wallpaper. Do you think it's still sensible for me to pursue the fabric option?A: While I'm not an expert on installation techniques, I do think your friend has exaggerated the difficulty of applying a fabric wall covering.Latex or paper-backed fabrics can easily be affixed to a wall by a professional paperhanger.

Karen Foltz finds comfort in symmetry. Add order and neatness and you have her version of the ideal home design. But when Foltz and her husband were looking to move and could not find a house that offered the comfort she longed for, the solution was obvious — they would custom-build. "I'm very particular," said Foltz, 48. "I went through book after book until I found the one. " And when that happened, she removed the page from its binder, where it was filed under the chapter "Homes With Proven Character.

Rita St. Clair and her staff turned to an ancient classic when the Baltimore interior designer was asked to decorate a room upon her induction into the Washington Design Center Hall of Fame. The group wanted a fabric to accent a number of pieces in the room and make them pop. They chose ikat. With its Central Asian origins and exotic feel, ikat — a weaving and dyeing technique that uses a range of materials — was perfect for creating a room inspired by a worldly family.