Fabrics that your home deserves
Fabrics come in different quality, colour and price. You can pick the right mix of colour and quality based not just on your budget, but who you are designing a room for and what sort of mood you want to convey
Unless your landlord is very benevolent, there is actually not much you can do to change the interior of your house, if you live in a rented place. You cannot move the walls or permanently alter any structure. In some instances, you cannot even paint the walls with a colour of your choice. When that is your situation, fabrics are all you are left with to help you customise your interior.
"Furniture plays an important role in changing the dynamics of your interior but upgrading furniture is expensive. Rearranging them is also very laborious," says Saleha Khatun, a Dhaka-based homemaker.
"So I love to play with fabrics to bring changes to my interior. Home textiles are undoubtedly a smart way to add colours and utility to your home," opined the home décor enthusiast.
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Interior textiles or fabrics give your house a feeling of home. A room without the touch of any fabric is pretty traumatising, even just to visualise.
The presence of fabrics adds aesthetics to your interior and radiates an aura of softness and sophistication. Fabrics in upholstery, bedsheet, cushion, curtains and drapery are what make your room come alive.
Fabrics come in different quality, colour and price. You can pick the right mix of colour and quality based not just on your budget, but who you are designing a room for and what sort of mood you want to convey.
"Colour shades can change the quality (it can impact whether the room looks large or small) and mood of a space," says architect Saima Sonali.
Apart from the plethora of online shops, there are a handful of places in Dhaka, which sell good quality fabrics for bed sheets, cushion covers, upholstery and curtains. Here are some of the top picks for you.
Local shops at Elephant Road
Places like Islamapur, New Market, Gulshan 1 and 2 DCC Market, Banani Super Market, Shopping centres at Mirpur 1 etc have a great deal of home textile shops but the popularity Elephant Road has earned over the years is unbeatable.
Walking down the busy footpaths of Elephant Road will make you realise this place is actually a home textile heaven.
High end shops like Weavers, Dynasty Furnishing and Home Textiles stand alongside many more retail stores that offer a wide range of fabric collections. The retail shops mostly source the fabrics from Islampur, who in turn most often import them from China.
From curtains to carpets, bedsheets to tablecloths, upholstery to drapery, you will find every fabric here that your interior needs, within a wide price range.
These shops mostly have bolts of fabrics (one bolt represents a strip of cloth 100 yards (91.44 meters) long) for curtains, cushions and upholstery and they sell them on a per yard basis. However, you can buy readymade items too.
Viscose is a semi-synthetic rayon fabric made of wood pulp and has a similar smoothness to silk. A yard of viscose is sold from Tk1,200 to Tk2,400 at Skipper Furnishing.
Ramij Mir, a salesperson at Skipper Furnishing, shared with us, "Viscose fabric is suitable for every type of sofa; be it a divan, Victorian, lounge sofa, or just a simple stool. It is an elegant, lightweight material that gives a soft feel."
Besides viscose, velvet and chanel are also good choices, as these fabrics can give your interior a luxurious look within your budget.
Satin is also a common item at most of the shops at Elephant Road. This soft and flowy fabric is primarily used for bed covers and curtains.
"In recent times, the popularity of monochrome satin curtains has peaked. These curtains are comparatively cheap, easy to wash and come in an extensive range of colours," said one of the sales executives at Abhijato Bedding.
Depending on the quality, a yard of satin can cost you from Tk300 to Tk1,000. However, the best quality satins are quite delicate and they wrinkle quickly. They can also get stained easily and require high maintenance.
If you want sunlight to enter your rooms easily, net and georgette curtains are your best friends. The fabric is usually lightweight, permeable and easy to wash. The price of these fabrics starts from Tk1,200 and goes up to Tk2,000.
These shops at Elephant Road have similar collections so visiting two or three of them will give you a clear idea about the price and quality.
The best thing about these shops is that they offer tailoring facilities as well. So if you have an unusually-sized window or if your bed is of a different size than the conventional ones, or simply if you are a little picky and want everything customised, you know where to go.
Fashion houses
Cotton is a comparatively less expensive, easy-to-obtain fabric that can be used for bed linens, upholstery, curtains, etc.
Fashion houses like Aarong, Deshidosh, Joyita, Prabartana are quite famous for their shedloads of cotton-based home textile ranges.
You can find products like cushion covers, bed sheets, curtains and table mats with runners from these brands.
Variations like screen print, rickshaw print, tie dye etc look vibrant on these products.
The home decor section of local boutique shop Anjan's is a smart choice if you are religiously looking for cotton products.
A hand-embroidered Kantha (quilt) or bedsheet from Anjan's is actually a good gift for a housewarming party and a must-have thing for your collection as well. They even have kantha for babies.
Price of Anjan's kantha series starts from Tk2,600 and goes up to Tk4,000. A regular block printed cushion cover from here can cost you Tk250 to Tk300. The bed sheet price starts from Tk2,500. Appliqued bed sheets cost a little higher.
"We always launch new products, keeping seasons and festivals in mind. For example, you can see most of our products are in black and white because of International Mother Language Day. A few days ago, we had everything in vibrant colours for Pohela Falgun," said Saif Ahmed, the branch in charge of Anjan's outlet in Orchard Point.
Anjan's products are colourful and durable. A bright, screen printed bed sheet or cushion covers from Anjan's will definitely fill your room with positive energy.
Textile brands
If you want to decorate your room thematically or simply want to have everything matched and synced, textile shops like Classical HomeTex Ind Ltd, Livingtex, Home Textile are your one-stop solution.
These brands have their own manufacturing units and sell a large range of readymade textiles.
Classical HomeTex Ind Ltd is one of the oldest and largest home textile companies in our country. The brand sells almost everything your home interior might need, but its signature items have to be the bedsheets and curtains. The brand has seven branches at all the prime locations of the capital.
The premium quality comforters or quilt covers matched with the bedsheets by Classical HomeTex Ind Ltd are actually a smart choice for bed linens if you prefer an organised chic look.
The price of these comforters starts from Tk2,200 and ranges up to Tk5,000. A regular quilt cover from here will cost you Tk1,600. Bedsheet prices vary largely with size and fabric type.
However, this brand's textile products are ready-made, so there is no room for customisation.
Curtain
Choice of Fabrics: Viscose (Tk1500 to Tk2500 per yard), Cotton (Tk400 to Tk1500) , Satin (Tk350 to Tk1000) , Silk (Tk800 to Tk2000), Net and Georgette (Tk 1200 to Tk2000)
Best places to buy:
Weavers Furnishing Ltd.
Dynasty Furnishing Centre Ltd.
Aarong
LivingTex
Classical HomeTex
Upholstery
Choice of fabrics: Viscose (Tk1800 to Tk2500 per yard), Velvet (Tk1200 to Tk2200), Ateja (local produced) (Tk1500 to Tk2000), Chanel (Tk1500 to Tk2000), Jute Cotton (Tk800 to Tk1200)
Best places to buy:
Weavers Furnishing Ltd.
Dynasty Furnishing Centre Ltd.
Skipper
Home Decor
Hometex Bangladesh
Bed Linen
Choice of fabrics: Cotton (Tk800 to Tk3000 per yard), Silk (Tk1200 to Tk4000), Flannel (Tk1500 to Tk2500), Linen (Tk700 to Tk1500), Velvet (Tk2000 to Tk5000)
Best places to buy:
Aarong
Deshidosh
Prabartana
LivingTex
Classical HomeTex
