Blog - Cotton & Flax

pattern

New Coasters – Cosmic White

Modern Patterned home goods from Cotton & Flax

I’m excited to debut two new coaster sets in a beautiful new colorway: cosmic white. I’ve been wanting to experiment with tonal printing for a while, and spring felt like the perfect time to freshen up the coaster collection with a bright new addition. I chose the name cosmic white for these new coasters, riffing on this amazing scientific color that piqued my imagination last week.

Patterned tabletop goods from Cotton & Flax

I worked with my friend Jessica Comingore to photograph these new additions, and her photos are simply lovely. You’ll find them peppered throughout the site.

Modern triangle coaster with a fresh cocktail

These new coasters are made from the same designer-quality wool felt, and will add a subtle, modern touch to your coffee table. Find these new coasters in the Cotton & Flax shop now!

 

Creative Hobbies + New DIY Projects

Block printing DIY project for The Crafter's Box

It’s been a creative whirlwind in the studio lately! After four years of designing and producing textiles for Cotton & Flax, I’ve been branching out in 2016 by taking on projects that are stretching my creative muscles. While I’m still creating lots of new work for Cotton & Flax, this year I wanted to spend time learning some new skills. I love taking up a new creative hobby — it brings fresh ideas to all my creative work!

One way I’ve been trying out new techniques is through a new creative subscription box called The Crafter’s Box. I was introduced to this company last year, and I’ve tried three of their craft projects: Rya Weaving with Maryanne Moodie, marbled clay pots taught by Emily Reinhardt, and this giant arm knitted blanket taught by Elise Blaha.

Beautiful, super thick wool yarn from The Crafters Box

The quality of the materials in every Crafter’s Box has been amazing. Supplies and materials are sent along with instructions for each project, and they source materials from some of the best manufacturers around. The wool roving and yarn was particularly gorgeous, and I’ve been saving up the leftovers from my projects to use for something special.

DIY Table Runner - The Crafter's Box

I’m excited to share that I am partnering with The Crafter’s Box this month to teach block printing! When you sign up for a subscription to The Crafter’s Box, you’ll receive all the materials and supplies you’ll need to create a gorgeous block-printed linen table runner. You’ll gain access to an exclusive video tutorial showing you how to carve a linoleum block, and print a repeat pattern of your own design.

Sign up to receive this block printing kit today, it will only be available to purchase for a week or so! This box is an incredible value, so if you’ve been dying to take one of my classes in LA, now’s your chance to have me beamed into your home studio.

Homes filled with Pattern

Cotton & Flax Neutrals

It’s so inspiring to see how you integrate Cotton & Flax pieces into your homes, and I’ve been delighted to spot Cotton & Flax pieces pop up in my feed on Instagram and on my favorite design blogs. The photo above is from a home tour of a beautiful Venice Canal Cottage on Apartment Therapy, I love the way that Whitney and Adam integrate so much subtle pattern into their living room, it feels lush and textured without being overwhelming.

Kate Miss Home

My friend Kate shared this sweet photo of her new pup on her blog recently. Kate isn’t afraid to mix bold patterns, her style is so fresh. Kate owns the small gold plus pillow, in case you’re looking to update your sofa with a pop of yellow.

Pattern inspiration, elsewhere:

● Ace Hotel’s new pattern-filled location in Panama, the American Trade Hotel. Especially loving the black and white tile on the patio, so striking!

● Design*Sponge posted guides to popular patterns back in January.

● Justina Blakeney’s gorgeous patio overhaul – she embraces color and pattern like no one else.

A little pattern never hurts.

patterned decor

I’ve been thinking about the many ways you can add pattern to your decor, and while textiles are my favorite, I compiled another collection that uses pattern in different ways. In paticular, I love the way that the Eames chair creates repetitive shapes in the design of the chair, without using any fabric at all.

  1. Factory Light No. 7 from Schoolhouse Electric
  2. November Frost print from Amber Alexander
  3. Diamond Pillow from Cotton & Flax
  4. Mrs. Godfrey Chair from Jonathan Adler
  5. Eames DKR Chair from 1st Dibs
  6. Brasilia Stripes bowl from Jonathan Adler
  7. Ilmari Tapiovaara Coffee Table from Finnish Design Shop
  8. Jute Rug from West Elm

Free Patterned iPhone Wallpaper – Black Confetti

As a thank you to everyone who has been keeping up with this new(ish) blog of mine, I wanted to offer a little thank you gift for your support. Thus, I will be sharing a free, downloadable iPhone wallpaper every month, featuring a new pattern that I designed for Cotton & Flax. This month, it’s my new confetti pattern!

Click here to download the Cotton & Flax iPhone wallpaper for November.

This wallpaper should work for most smartphones, not just the iPhone (although it may get cropped depending on the screen size!) I may even create wallpapers for your computer desktop or iPad, too! Check out the other patterned iPhone wallpapers from various Cotton & Flax collections and install your favorite on your phone!

To Download:

  1. Click the link and it will take you directly to the image.
  2.  If you are on your phone, you can simply save the image to your phone, and set it as your wallpaper in the settings area of your phone.
  3. If you’re on a computer, save the image to your computer, then email the photo to yourself. Open the email on your phone, save the photo to your phone, and set the photo as the wallpaper!

Letting things go

It’s been an exciting few weeks around here, getting everything for the fall/winter collection finalized. But there have been moments of frustration, too, as I struggled to curate my sketchbook full of new patterns down to just a few new design to add to the mix.

I’ve talked a little bit before about how paralyzing it can be to have too many choices. Well, it was the same story all over again as I tried to curate my collection down to the patterns I loved most. After spending the summer developing so many new patterns, it was really tough to narrow it down to my top four. Mostly I just felt disappointed that some of my favorite patterns would not be used, at least not for this collection. It occurred to me that I could share a few of them here, so they wouldn’t go to waste!

I don’t think of these patterns so much as rejects, but as patterns I may return to later. Now that I’ve seen all the new work in it’s final stages, I’m not quite so bummed out about these unused patterns. It’s inevitable that I won’t be able to execute some projects, so I need to practice letting things go. To all you creative readers out there: do you ever feel disappointed about creative projects that don’t come to fruition?