Color Me Custom!

I’m spilling my secrets to tailored tablescapes and bespoke beauty across my design projects

My Quest for Customization

All started with a Tablescape…

I love to offer my clients “Tailored Tables,” in which I design a completely customized tablescape to help make their fiesta fancy! While the range of retail table linens available doesn’t provide much possibility to create a individualized motif, fortunately, I discovered that Spoonflower boasts a huge variety of patterns all of which can easily be customized to achieve bespoke beauty.

I begin my tablescape design process by ordering a slew of swatches, which are free if you’re in the trade program and they arrive quickly. It’s then a matter of simple pattern play as I solve for both the tablecloth linen and my napkin pattern— and if I’m going all out glam, a table runner and placemats too! Ordering the samples makes for an entirely risk-free design process, which is perfect for me as I’m a very tactile designer and often times patterns on a computer screen can look entirely different in hand. In stark contrast, ordering ready-made linens from retail often leads to the hassle of a return process if they don’t style right against the plates and decor, or riskier yet, not returnable if it was made to size.

Within my set of samples, I seek to find a combination that plays off one another nicely, is a bit unexpected, and while I like my linen patterns to be bold, I also want to leave room in the design for the plates and the table decor to still ‘pop’ and make their own style statement.

While it might seem crazy to walk into the “World’s Largest Design library for Wallpaper and Textiles” and still feel a need to customize, for those like me who have a habit of fixating on a combination of patterns only to be frustrated that the colors in the two patterns don’t play properly together, fear not. Spoonflower allows you to reach out directly to the Pattern Design Artists, who I’ve found to be incredibly talented, professional, and wildly accomodating in their willingness to customize the color or scale of their designs. This has led to many one-of-a-kind patterns that have been the standout textiles in my projects, and also to many new friendships!

These three patterns below are the work of my friend, the incredibly talented Danika Herrick, in which she customized her original “Sloane” pattern in blues and greens into three different holiday-themed colorways to help me create a tablecloth and curtain backdrop to decorate a festive Christmas event. Each turned out stunning and it was such a fun process to work with her and get to know her as we curated these custom designs!

After I’ve selected the patterns from my samples (or finished customizing them!), it’s a very simple direct ordering process. Spoonflower offers a variety of tablecloth shapes (round, rectangular, square) across multiple different size options, as well as two different sized napkins, three sizes available in tablerunners and of course, placemats. Often times with large-scale design projects, I require oversized or irregular shaped tablecloths, in which case, I simply order the fabric by the yard from Spoonflower and then bring it to my amazing Upholstery workshop, Kostas Upholstery, where they meticulously fabricate it to my specifications.

My secret is out— that’s how I tailor a table! But there’s more, as I also offer a fair warning…

If you give a Designer a Custom Cookie—

Chances are, she’s then going to ask to customize everything…

Once I started designing custom linens with the Pattern Design Artists at Spoonflower, I could only envision beautiful bespoke textiles across all my projects.

Danika Herrick customized the color for me in her playful and coastal Fairfield design— coincidentally (or perhaps, serendipitously) I used this pattern for curtains at a Fairfield, CT project. Danika also customized the colors in her funky and fabulous Marble pattern to help me tie together the navy, olive, and blush colors I was utilizing across a NJ Master bedroom design project. She masterfully melded the three hues into a single cohesive statement fabric. I’ll have photos from that room reveal to share soon!

The tremendously talented Whitney English helped me to not only customize both the scale and colors of her beautiful Chiltern Stripe design, but she then went above and beyond by pulling out the darker purple color we used within the pattern to create a solid purple pattern to provide me an exact color match with my contrast welt. Kostsas Upholstery again fabricated the magic and the result, a one-of-a-kind headboard for a very lucky little girl.

Here are a few more of my favorites across a variety of projects. A Whitney English Block Print cushion on an entryway bench is one of my all time favorite pattern combinations and this bright and beautiful Danika Herrick Ophelia was the perfect print to place across a cheery playroom. Believe it or not, I refrained from customizing these two patterns— they were already perfect!

My quest for customization may now be complete, but the bespoke beauty is just beginning thanks to Spoonflower and all their talented Artists!

Photography: Maggie Bentley Designs

Written by: Maggie Bentley