Hi, I just purchased the Abstract Palm bedding set with the euro shams and decorative pillows. My bedroom has yellow walls. The furniture is white. What type of valances would you recommend? Any thoughts on artwork would be appreciated. Thank you!

Dear Nancy,

Thank you for purchasing our brand new Abstract Palm bedding. I first want to get a sense of the overall mood of your room. Is it “sunny vacation” or more of an “ethnic tropical?”  I can see both working very well, and though I could make slightly different suggestions for the two looks, I will offer up possibilities that will work for either.  I don’t know if you could or even would go in this direction, but I love the idea of shutters or blinds for this pattern.  They work in both white or dark wood, and both lend a sophistication and distinctive  personality to the room.   If you prefer fabric, I would opt for either a gauzy ivory linen, or even a kind of chunky textured burlap in ivory or a neutral that matches the color of the shams and decorative pillows.

As for the artwork I find that the best art is art that reflects your personal style, your interests, your travels, your life.  The options are so endless that I will just throw out a few that come to mind, but of course you will be the very best curator for your own room!  For a more global vibe, ethnic “artifacts” can be exciting – hand carved masks, bowls, textiles, even interesting garments or accessories hanging on the wall.  These don’t have to be fine or expensive to be dramatic.   For the “sunny vacation” look you can go with tropical prints, or a series of palm leaf botanicals, travel posters, or flea market flower paintings.  And never forget about the decorating possibilities of framed photographs.  Personally, I find it best to go with one of two styles of decorating with art – choosing a theme or subject or category and  creating a collection of like pieces, or going the opposite with a wonderful eclectic Collector’s gallery of varied, but very personal pieces.  Most of all…don’t take it too seriously and just have fun pulling it all together!

I hope this is helpful.  Let us know if you have other questions.  Enjoy your Abstract Palm bedding – and please, send us a photo of your finished room!

Meg
Design Director, Home
Echo Design Group, Inc.

                                                                                      

Could you help me with a wall color to complement the Delano bedding line? I also want to paint my bedroom furniture-can you suggest a complementary color? Thanks, Molly.

Hi Molly, We are very happy that you are decorating your bedroom around our Delano bedding!  It would be helpful to have a little more information about the style and which pieces of furniture (chair, dresser, nightstands, etc.) you are planning on painting, because that will greatly affect your color choices, but I will give you some general thoughts.  There are two different directions you can go – rich and sophisticated, or more playful.  The colors from the pattern that I personally would work with (in various combinations) are the green, charcoal, lavender, orange and ivory.  I think a good guideline, even if you are going playful, is to choose a combination of safer colors and accent colors.  For instance, matching the soft moss green or ivory for the walls, and then having fun with the lavender or orange for an accent piece of furniture.  Or trying just one accent wall in the lavender, and going with the charcoal or green, which ends up being almost a neutral in this case, for the furniture.  If you don’t mind a deep color on your walls, and you have plenty of light, the charcoal would make a very rich, sophisticated and gender neutral color for the walls, and then I might paint the furniture the green. 

I would also suggest, though you didn’t ask specifically, that you can decorate with colorful accent pieces such as pillows, lamps, vases, etc. in orange and lavender, while sticking to the ivory, green and charcoal for the walls and furniture.  Lastly, you may have noticed that I haven’t suggesting using the stone/beige color for the walls.  That is because this kind of neutral is very difficult to match in paint as it changes drastically depending on the light in the room, and the other colors it is near and can in fact look different from one wall to the next.  If it goes off cast, it may end up looking like a mistake. 

Have fun and I’m sure your room will look great!  Please send us a photo when it is complete.

Best,
Meg
Design Director, Home
http://www.echodesign.com

What shade of yellow would you paint the walls to complement the Jaipur bedding set? - Bonnie
To: AskADesigner
From: Bonnie, Sept. 12, 2010

Hi Bonnie,

I love a woman who’s not afraid of color…and the Jaipur collection has many to choose from! 

When painting a room around this bedding’s color palette, I tend to suggest using the light aqua.  It is a beautiful color that is both fun and colorful, yet calming, so it’s a great wall color to compliment this collection. 

If you feel strongly that you absolutely want to use yellow as the paint color for this room, I would use the yellow from the bedding as a guide (so the yellow doesn’t flare too gold), but not match directly, as this pop color is very bright.  I would use this yellow a few shades lighter and less bright, which will make your bed the focal point of the room rather than fighting for attention with the walls. 

My last suggestion is to use this hot yellow as just one accent wall, while using a pretty cream color on the rest in order neutralize the room.

I hope these suggestions have helped you pick the best way to paint your room with the Jaipur collection.  We hope you love your new bedding and we would really like to see pictures of your room after you’re done redecorating, Bonnie!

-Rebecca, Associate Home Designer, Echo Home

Echo's Jaipur bedding also made a cameo in a new ABC show debuting Sept. 22nd called "Better With You".

Check out Echo's Ovation bedding making a cameo in the season finale of "Hot In Cleveland"!

Show & Tell: "I absolutely LOVE my new echo design bedding. Not only is it so cute, but it is sooo plush and comfortable. I love going to bed because of it!" -Whitney

Thanks for sharing your picture with us, Whitney!

My daughter & her roommate have chosen your fan floral bedding for their dorm room. They love it, but need a coordinating window treatment. Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks! : )

From: Trish  [mailto:******@*****.net]
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 11:17 AM
To: AskADesigner

Hi Trish,

We’re so excited that your daughter and her roommate love the Fan Floral collection and chose it for their dorm room!  We like the idea of using a clean ivory drape that matches the color of the bedding and using a lime green trim or ribbon that matches the stems from the floral pattern as a tie back to add just a hint of color.  You could even find a lime fabric or trim and sew it on to the panel for that touch of color to become a more permanent fixture on the window treatment. 

Another suggestion (if you’re feeling a bit crafty) to have your windows match directly back to your bedding is to use the fabric from a second Fan Floral duvet to make your own coordinating window treatments.  You can either use the floral pattern or even the reverse of the duvet, which is a grey and white geometric pattern that could look REALLY cute! 

I hope these suggestions helped you.  Please send us pictures of the dorm room after it’s complete – we’d love to see how it turns out!  Have a great school year!

-Rebecca, Associate Home designer, Echo

Reply from Trish:

Thanks for the ideas! We will send pictures when we get them moved in & set up.  : )

If GPA means 'giggles per allowance' or 'geniuses promote accomplishment' we might venture to say Yes!   Whether you already graduated or if you're planning to move into your first dorm room in August, we all know how important a dorm room is.    It's your office, your library, party space and your oasis - all wrapped in one. Most likely your dorm room will be small and have concrete walls so due to the limited space, choose furniture and accessories that both represent your personality as well as serve an important function. Why have the dull, gray standard issue wastebasket when you can have bright yellow? Why sit on the cold hard floor when you can have a plush colorful rug?  This is your your place of refuge.  It's where your friends visit you, where you rest your head after a long day of higher learning. So choose colors that inspire you as well as calm you; use symmetry and geometrics to provide a feeling of order and control; organize and hide clutter to let you to focus on your projects and term papers.   We asked a few current college students for their input on what they think are the elements of a great dorm room.

From Haley:  To me, the most important thing about college living is making your dorm room feel as much like home as you possibly can. Personal accents can turn your boring and confided cinder block room into a fun and comfortable living space. Since the square footage of each room is usually less than ideal(ha!) its all about working with what you have and adding small details that don’t take up much room. Personally, I like to fill my room with pictures of my friends and family in really cute picture frames. Its also really important to me to always have a yummy smelling room fragrance masking the dorm room odor of stale pizza and spilled beer. Having a comfortable bed is the MOST IMPORTANT part of creating an awesome room. A college dorm room bed serves many purposes- not only do you sleep in it, but it is also the place where you end up doing a lot of your homework, hanging out with friends and just plain relaxing. Its crucial to have bedding that’s cute, but also practical (machine washable, durable fabric). In conclusion, great bed= great dorm room!! 
Haley's pick:  Echo’s Jaipur bedding looks ideal for a dorm room bed because its lively and energetic. I love it’s bright paisleys and ethnic feel.

From Jenni: To me the things that make my dorm room great are the pictures of my friends and family and lots of color. Dorm rooms are usually very plain when you first move in and to me, bright and bold colors are the best way to make it feel less sanitary and more like a home. I would love to have the Echo That '70s Floral sheets and duvet cover for my room because green is my favorite color and that bright green really pops against the black. It would also be great because it’s dark enough that it won’t look dirty (as I do everything on my bed- eat, watch tv, study, sleep) and it would be so fun and easy to accessorize the rest of the room around those colors. Bedding is such an easy way to have fun with color and patterns in a, most likely, small dorm room. After that I think it is super important to decorate your walls. I usually have a whole section of photos and then posters of my favorite movies, sports teams and famous paintings. Boring walls are too depressing especially when winter hits and outside the window is gray and boring too.

I love your Ovation duvet and want to pair it with kelly green. Do you have a fun wallpaper suggestion from your line to pair with the green and chocolate brown combination? Thx! Kristen
From: Kristen
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 1:54 PM
To: AskADesigner

Dear Kristen,

We are thrilled that you love our Ovation Duvet!  Do you already have the duvet?  I ask because the green accent color is much more of a bamboo yellow-green, and so I don’t think a true Kelly Green will work well with it.  We do happen to have a paper that I think is absolutely perfect with Ovation from the standpoint of both color and style, and that is our Grasscloth wallpaper– pattern #566-44519 in Willow.  Ovation is a very bold, exciting pattern and so I don’t think you need to put a lot of pattern on your walls.  This grasscloth is solid, but is textured and has enough strength, personality and richness to stand up to the bedding.  I also like that it is an authentic grasscloth, and therefore it has a little bit of an ethnic flavor which will complement the Ovation duvet.  If you decide to go with this combination, we would love to see a photo of your room!

Thank you again for your support of Echo.

Best,
Meg
Designer Director, Home
www.echodesign.com

Hi there Rachel,

Yes, the entire Jaipur collection is made of 100% cotton sateen and it is completely machine washable. The actual label says "Use front load commercial washer or dryer. Machine wash warm, normal. Wash with like colors. Only non-chlorine bleach when needed.  Tumble dry low. Remove promptly."  We know not everyone has a commercial size, front-loading washer in their home (or even access to one) but what that really means is that you need a machine large enough for the duvet to fit and spin freely.  We also recommend washing it alone for that reason and also to avoid any zippers or buttons from other clothes catching on the fabric. Using a smaller machine may result in an uneven cleaning and actually may encourage more wrinkling. Front loading machines are also more gentle on fabrics as opposed to the rougher agitation from the traditional top-loading machines.  Lastly, due to the bright colors of the Jaipur design, we recommend a gentle wash cycle with a cold temperature setting and a mild detergent. The colors are color-fast, but cold will keep everything sharp and crisp for longer.   In order to reduce wrinkles, remove the duvet immediately and shake it out prior to placing it in the dryer. Use a low temperature setting and remove it while it's still slightly damp.  Then you can hang it dry to lessen additional wrinkling.

I thought you might also be interested in a little bit of background on cotton sateen and how best to care for it to make it last.

Cotton sateen is generally made from combed thread, but uses a finer thread than cotton percale. Sateen starts with this long-fiber, combed cotton which is then mercerized to bring out a sheen. Mercerization (invented by John Mercer in 1844) causes the fiber to swell and that's acheieved by soaking the fiber in a caustic soda of sodium hydroxide (i.e., lye) and then neutralizing it in an acid bath. The result makes the cotton fiber stronger and more easily dyed. It also adds a luster to the fibers.  Sateen should be very soft to the touch, with a high thread count and should drape well.  Thread count refers to the number of horizontal and vertical threads used to create one square inch of fabric.  Sateen fabric uses the satin stitch in construction, which means four over and one under or basically, the threads are mostly on one side of the fabric, giving it that smooth look. A traditional stitch is one over, one under. Therefore cotton sateen is softer than cotton percale as sateen has a higher thread count and uses finer threads.

Sateen has been a popular fabric since the early 1900s. Being made of cotton, it is much cheaper than silk satin, and is also more durable, as well as being machine washable. In the early 20th century, sateen was often used for women's undergarments because of its durability and smooth feel.

Thanks for writing in Rachel!
Let me know if you have any other questions!
Sincerely,
Jennifer
Echo Design Web Concierge

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From: Rachel [mailto:*****@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Rachel
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 4:35 PM
To: AskADesigner
Subject:  Weblog - Ask a Designer
Name: Rachel
Email: *****@gmail.com

Is the Jaipur duvet machine washable?