Swatches, Or, How to/Not to Buy Fabric Online

I've been searching for fabric for various rooms of the house for the last six months like it's my job (online of course, because I don't ever want to leave the house unless I absolutely have to, not to mention the fabric selection at local stores is pitiful).  Unfortunately, since I have an actual job, the rather time-consuming process of looking for the right fabric can take up valuable time that I'd rather spend sleeping or finding more post-apocalyptic TV shows to watch on Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime.  But I digress.

In my quest for fabrics, I recently made the mistake of ordering some without ordering a swatch first.

Big mistake. Huge. Like Pretty-Woman-they-won't-let-her-shop-even-though-she-has-a-fistful-of-cash kind of huge.

The image on the website was a soft coral-y pink.  Perfect for reupholstering my beige round chairs, I said.  It's on sale, I said.  I'd better just go for it, I said.  Out loud.  To myself.  I really need to stop doing that.

Click to read on...

And then it arrived.  As you can see from the image in the middle (above), it is a far cry from the pretty soft pink on the left.  Yeah.  Not gonna work.  Not to mention that I ordered way too much.  I'm waiting to find out if I can return the three yards I bought, which, by the way, arrived on the roll, which was encased in a box taller than me.  How the heck am I supposed to ship that back?

Having learned my lesson, I scoured a number of fabric sites and ordered lots and lots of swatches, mostly in black, white, and gold, because so help me God, I never want to order anything pink ever again.

I think I have a winner.  It's called "seeing spots" by Waverly, shown above.  The fabric itself has a sheen - it's almost a satin - but it's got a good heft to it, so I know it will hold up well for chairs that aren't often sat upon, since I pretty much only sit on my new couch anymore. The "noir" colorway is black and creamy white, but looks great with the dark brown of the chairs, which is awesome because I have zero intention of painting the darn things because I have so many other things to paint, and who knows when I'll have time to get around to them?  It also comes in "wasabi" (bright green and white), "capri" (bright blue and white), "jazzberry" (fuchsia and white), and "lipstick" (orange-red and white).

The image on the left is the ginormous swatch they sent me, draped over one of the round chairs.  

I realized, too, why I like the pattern so much.  It reminds me of Jenny Komenda's living room bench, and I'm not gonna lie, I wanna be like Jenny when I grow up, except that 1. I'm pretty sure she's younger than I am, and 2. I'm already a grown up, which is why the blog is called what it is.  Duh.

Little Green Notebook

Anyway, don't be like me.  Order a swatch.