All About Looks

            Our Interior design fabrics and materials class recently visited a quaint local store located in the downtown district of Lubbock, Texas, called All About Looks. The store was owned and operated by the “gals” of family living in the area. The mother, and two daughters, all lacking certified design background, have managed to set up and successfully run a charming store crammed full of fun colorful fabrics but also specializing in custom design and upholstery.

            Our class gathered early that morning, some sipping on steaming coffee, as we stood and began to discuss the world of fabrics, fabrics that are beyond the printing or even weaving stage. We started by discussing current trends and common fabrics that are circulating through the design environment and into homes and businesses today. Natural fabrics, fabrics made from recycled materials or natural resources such as bamboo and hemp are being incorporated in new and innovative ways in the design community.

            In addition, while there we reviewed the types of fabrics, there purposes, natural versus synthetic, feel, texture, and a variety of other individual features that made up the fabrics that All About Looks had in stock. However it wasn’t the fabric that I felt made this “field trip” so exciting it was what they had done with the fabric, more in the terms of upholstery. The store front was overloaded with antique chairs, benches, and ottomans tha had be recreated into new and splendid eye-catching furniture. I remember specifically a very unique chair that had an almost “catholic rosary” essence and design. With deep purple fabric, pink highlights, gathered cloth around the chair legs, complete with bedazzled furniture pins glittering in the midst of all the color. It was one of a kind and definitely a collector’s item that could only be found in this particular shop.

            Another thing, or should I say person , that really stood out to me and made the store special was there personal upholstery master, Bobby. This man had spent the majority of his life working with fabric, cutting and sewing it to make new things or to make old thing new again. By looking around the workroom you could tell that with his years of expertise that he was beyond skilled. He could not only change the fabric of a piece but change the size of it, the thickness, and the “plumpness”. The owner of the store made a point saying he was one of the few left in his craft and the best at what he does. She then went on to say that furniture is now mass produced and therefore poor quality, that one’s best bet is to take an antique and use the gift of a person like Bobby to transform it into something that fits you and your current need.

Those words of advice are what really stuck with me after visiting All About Looks. Interior design is  not all about replacing the old and completely starting from scratch in a room, but rather incorporating the clients past with the new and upcoming future, and the fads, trends, and color schemes that come with it.