design your own fabric

This happens to me all the time, and maybe to you too. I get a picture in my head of the perfect round mirror I want to hang on the bathroom wall, or I envision in my mind's eye the woodblock print that would beautifully complement the decor in the living room.

It happens with fabric too. And so I go hunting around town, prowling all the different fabric stores, looking for this pattern I've already seen in my head but can never actually manage to find out in the real world, even when I expand my search to include a seemingly limitless realm of online options.

But now, with fabric at least, I have another option: I can actually design my own. Spoonflower is an online service that allows you to upload your design (you can create one in your favorite graphic or photo editing software program) and then get it printed on your choice of several different fabrics (e.g., quilting weight cotton, bamboo-cotton rayon, upholstery weight cotton twill). For $5 you can order a swatch of your design, and there's no minimum amount for your actual order, which will range in price from $16.20 to $28.80 per yard depending on what type of fabric you choose.

So if, like me, you happened to fall in love with the fabric on this Chaircouture bed that was recently featured over at The Bedlam of Beefy, but then noticed over on the Chaircouture website that their fabrics are designed specifically for use on their pieces and are not available elsewhere, you need not despair. You can take your own dandelion photo, doctor it up in Photoshop, and turn it into fabulous fabric for your bedroom curtains.

You can also order fabric that others have designed, if they grant permission to Spoonflower to share the design. (The designer will get a 10% commission on the sale.) Go to the shop on Spoonflower to browse the available designs or to search by color or category.