Posted on: August 15, 2007

More than a Feeling

Ask any designer: adding texture can transform a room. but just what is it? and how do you use it?

By Sally Farhat
CTW Features

While you're sitting in your living room, look around. You've chosen colors for walls, floors and fabrics. You've decided on lighting and added art. But notice something you might not have: texture.

It's the warmth of a fuzzy rug, the silk throw over the leather couch, the dull surface of a painted wall against the gloss of wood trim.

"Comfort is what sumptuous textural fabrics add to our busy daily lives," says Hal Swanson, of Swanson-Ollis Interiors, Los Angeles. "Layering these woven dreams into rugs, upholstery, wall coverings and drapery call out, 'Come, relax, and don't be afraid to put your feet up!' I love hearing stories from clients whose friends have visited their homes over the years and are convinced they have added something new each time they visit, only to find out it's been there for years."

That's what texture does - it makes a room look new and fresh. In fact, designer Matt Lorenz, winner of Bravo's "Top Design" show, says he relies on texture, not pattern, when designing.

"Texture adds another layer to the room," Lorenz says. "Texture is not just about touching and feeling and making something soft or coarse. It's also about visual variety."

It does more than just change how a room looks: It also changes the feel - how cozy is it? Is it nice to spend time in? Rooms with only hard, smooth textures like bare wood floors, glass tables and shiny metal lamps feel unfriendly.

The key to using texture, say designers, is in unexpected contrast.

Julie Rosenblum, spokeswoman for Nourison Rug Corp., says that lots of customers use rugs to do this.

One person might use a soft, fuzzy rug to downplay the formality and warm up marble in a master bedroom, for example. "There's also a trend in naturally textured rugs," Rosenblum says. "Think about seagrass, hand-spun wool or animal skin."

Louis Cohen, founder of LBC Design in Aventura, Fla., says that natural materials are popular in just about anything.

"People see tons of stone or wood in restaurants and hotels and want that look at home," he says. "It brings in the natural quality of the exterior world and takes us back to the earth and adds warmth. It makes something people can relate to and you're able to pick up volume in the room the way color would otherwise do."

He uses upholstery textures in bedrooms and grass cloth or silk on curtains or a wood frame around a stone wall.

"Great fur pillows done in moderation are very chic and cool," says Lorenz. "Leather is popular now. You can take a leather sofa and put some awesome velvet throw pillows on that."

Lorenz loves using fresh moss - rather than flowers - to add texture. "I take fresh moss from the florist, put water on it, and lay it across the dining room table," he says. "It stays green constantly."

Cohen likes to play contrasting materials against each other: Instead of a rough object against another rough surface, put a beautiful glass bowl on a rough wooden table. "Things that look polished look best against dull surfaces; rough items look best against smooth ones," he says.

Kelly Edwards, co-host of HGTV's "Design on a Dime," says textures are often overlooked on walls, one of her favorite spots to decorate.

"Right now what's really big is textured wallpaper," Edwards says. "You can buy wallpaper that looks like linen, leather or crocodile skin. If you can't afford it, you can create the look of wallpaper by painting walls a base color and using a fine toothed comb over it to make it look like linen."

Some designers use stucco, or paint walls with a suede finish with sand mixed in for a stucco effect.

If you have children and want to use silk on the walls but are afraid of it getting dirty, don't forget there are ones that look like silk.

Cohen likes using small decorative accessories as ways to contribute to texture. "Putting a metal lamp on a wood nightstand, or a wooden lamp on a glass nightstand, are wonderful opportunities for a sense of sculpture and dimension as well as richness," he says. "It's about balance. People's biggest failure is that they fall in love with an object, want to include it, but don't consider how it applies to the rest of the room."

Upholstering headboards is another idea.

"It makes the bed look more substantial, and the bed instantly looks 10 times more cushy," Edwards says. "You can take cotton or silk, upholster the headboard, and always change it out and use a different color later."

Chairs are another place to add texture. If a chair has a wooden frame, use a textile like a tightly woven silk and paint the frame with a crackle finish.

"Fabrics that people associate with handbags are more available now," Lorenz says. "You can have a bed set from a discount store and put a cashmere throw on it and it [jumps] up 10 notches."

No matter how you add texture, you're sure to spice things up.

"The artful mixing of multiple textures and colors in the fabrics, furnishings, finishes, art and accessories," Swanson says, "provides a much more interesting environment for any room in your home."

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