I’m having a new wedge-shaped sectional built for my Mahalo Lounge. I need to choose the upholstery fabric. It needs to play nice with my 60 yards of barkcloth pinch pleats — and I’m planning a leopard print rug underneath. What color to choose? I started my hunt by looking for a burnt orange — or coral orange — or a red orange — or even a rust — that would pick up on the blossoms in the drapery pattern. I online-shopped and ordered ’til my eyes about bugged out. Above: All 49 oranges, laid out by manufacturer. Let’s take a look at the seven finalists >>
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Midcentury modern upholstery fabrics in orange from Knoll:
Above: Knoll Rivington designd by Dorothy Cosonas in Paprika.
Before I started my upholstery hunt, I had no idea it was so easy to order upholstery samples from major manufacturers. Knoll is a big name — they have gorgeous fabrics — at a surprising number of price points, both high and low — and they make it super easy to order samples.
The Knoll Rivington in Paprika is a strong contender. The color really seems to change in the light.
Above: See how the fabric looks on these vintage Thonet chairs reupholstered by Modern Chair Restoration— oh my! Thanks for the permission to show your photo, MCR!
The weave is really nice — and bespeaks tropical.
As I said, Knoll was fantastic about sending samples — nice big pieces, and they came within a day or two. Following are photo of all the orange(ish) Knoll fabrics I ordered to give a try. I was super impressed:
Midcentury modern upholstery fabrics from Maharam:
Above: I was also super impressed with the easy access to upholstery samples from Maharam — and the fabrics were gorgous, too! Contenders:
Above: Maharam Teatro in Heat — it’s a yummy velvet..,
And above: Maharam’s Outback by Kvadrat 466061 in Color 641. But: It’s not really a contender, because it’s way too lipstick red in real life. But oh my goodness, I adore this fabric, so I had to show it! It’s sort of more loosely woven than a boucle, with a wee bit of gray threads in it that give it just that little extra something in dimension. Comes in a bunch of rich colors. I so wish I had a place to put this — hmmm, maybe I need to make a coat out of it!
Above: All my Maraharm orange upholstery samples.
Midcentury modern upholstery fabrics from Designtex:
Above: Designtex is a company that I learned about from ModernFabrics.com, which often has remnants, including in substantial yardage. For this project, I found three samples on the Designtex website that are finalists. Designtex was also very easy to order from.
Above: Designtex Adler — my sample is Tomato – a great looking- and feeling fabric — a wonderful boucle-type weave and lots of great mid mod color colors.
Above: Designtex Hint in Carrot — a soft chenille with 100,000 Wyzenbeeks, so seems like it would last forever. Lots more color-colors in this line, too.
Above: Designtex Bark Cloth — in Red Orange — designed by West Elm. 100,000 Wyzenbeeks, some more great colors.
Above: All the orange upholstery fabrics that I ordered from Designtex.
Midcentury modern upholstery fabrics from Kovi:
I also learned about Kovi from ModernFabrics.com, which carries remnants.
Above: Kovi K5605, a nice woven with coral, orange and persimmon-colored threads made my list of finalists.
Above: Other Kovi orange upholstery samples that I ordered.
Thanks also to Modern Fabrics, Camira, and HBF Textiles — I also ordered orange upholstery samples from them, and many were super nice, but they did not make my finals.
But: Maybe I should go green?!
Ack. After thinking I MUST go orange… and ordering all these samples, I then got the idea that a large orange sectional might present too much of a contrast — rather than act as a secondary complement — to the many many linear feet of green-dominant pinch pleats in the two rooms. So then, I began ordering greens. Story to come.
Meanwhile:
What do you think of these oranges, for a 101″ x 101″ sectional?
If I choose orange upholstery — which one?
Initial thoughts on orange v. green?
- Follow all my stories on the design of my Mahalo Lounge here.
Doris Waddell says
I personally like the bright pop of color from the Kovi choice. It just sings tropics! And I think it would really make your sofa a statement piece. Even on a dark, cloudy day, that color would brighten up the room.
Kylllikki says
I like the Knoll Rivington the best, it’s a cheerful color to have in your “lounge” and the fabric has the coolest weave & variation of color for interest. ( I got an A+ in “Color Theory” class in College 38 years ago 😉 )
Mary Fryar says
No green. I really like the color of the Maharam Teatro but no velvet here. The texture and color of the Designtex Bark Cloth seem most appropriate considering the time period, orange in the drapery, and plans for a leopard print rug. Really nice combo.
Catherine Hammersley says
THE VELVET
swooning here
Marie Gamalski says
Good heavens Pam….. are u sorry u opened this thread?!?! LOTS of opinions!! I found your site years ago, and although you wouldn’t know, I found my perfect mid-century sofa through your site so I have every confidence you’ll make the perfect choice….. if you don’t go crazy first!! Hahahaha good luck love!????????
pam kueber says
🙂
Kristy says
I think you definitely should go orange to provide the contrast. And orange is so Mid Century! I like the DesignTex Adler best for complementary color to the orange in the leaves in the pillows, however, I like Maharam Teatro best in general both for color and for the fact that it is a YUMMY VELVET and what’s more vintage than velvet???? Thanks for letting me share my opinion!
Jennie says
Design Text Bark Cloth looks like a browner more neutral orange if you are getting cold feet, and it really brings out the browns in the drapery fabric. Orange will be earthy to ground all that jungley fabric.
Joe Felice says
Personally, I’d go with one of the shades of olive green in the fabric. And a solid color. If you stick with orange, I think you’d want to avoid a solid color. A tweed or variegated weave. It’s hard for us to tell on our computer screens, but it looks like the orange in the fabric is actually a very-muted coral, so I’d try to match that. Remember that orange is one of those colors that “jumps out” at you. Unless that’s the look you’re going for. Today, many prefer pops of very-bright colors, but I doubt that’s the look you’re trying to achieve.
Trying to select the perfect shade of the perfect color is hard to do. But you have ‘way-too-many choices there! I know you did that for our benefit, but for most people it’s best to limit choices to just a few, and just keep narrowing down as you view them in different lights. Having too-many choices is distracting to most, and they just end up frustrated and overloaded. When you hit upon the sweet color, you know it.
In my living room, I went with 2 shades–dark on the lower wainscot and very light on the upper wall. The initial color i selected turned out to be too light, so I didn’t initially get that sweet color, although, in my mind, I know what that is. So I did more research, and ended up with a darker shade, almost a copper. Now re-paint. My bad. Trying to match rugs to the lighter shade was impossible, even from FLOR. I found an inexpensive rug in shades of rust on Overstock. It will match the new color much better.
Oranges can vary in shade from rust (nearly red) to tangerine. In the palette that I was researching (and sounds like you, too), I’ve seen shades named rust, persimmon, cinnamon, bittersweet, copper, and terra cotta. No more simply burnt orange, which is what I started out wanting.
Ann says
i vote for Maharam Teatro in Heat because, other than the color variations that come with a velvet nap, a solid color in the sea of all that pattern from the curtains and texture from pillows and other accents, a pure color would be comforting, settling.
Hunter Hampton says
I would go green on the sectional and orange on accent chairs. What ever you decide will look great. Sometimes I agonize over decisions for months, even years… then when I finally take the plunge I wonder what took me so long.