Using the "Wrong Side" of Fabric

As we mentioned in our Jamaica Plain Gem House Tour this week, one of the recent changes we made to our kitchen was sewing a neutral colored sink skirt to break up the intense amount of saturated colors in our home. When we were designing the skirt, it dawned on us to create a tonal effect by using both sides of the fabric...

The top part of the skirt is theoretically the "wrong side" of the fabric and the bottom border is the intended side. We're happy with the result. It would have been an awfully boring sink skirt had it been all one color brown.

Have you used the "wrong side" of fabrics to good effect?

Comments (8)

I did this with the wrong side of a Maharam fabric in an old apartment to layer behind an Until Dawn curtain on the wall. I'll let the photo explain:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31622796@N00/3024054024/

I was given the end of a roll by my sales rep, and because it was free I didn't want to say no and seem ungrateful. But the "right side" of the fabric looked like a metallic silver space suit. Awful.

When I worked at a semi-custom furniture store years ago, we had certain jacquard/damask-type upholstery fabrics that were so finely woven that they lent themselves to being used in the reverse - ie: rather than a gold pattern on an olive background, the reverse was an olive pattern on gold. This enabled us to create interesting effects with sofas and almost-matching chairs, throw pillows, etc.

Since then, I always look at the reverse of those types of fabrics to see if that face is usable as well.

Batiks are great for this application. In fact, they have no 'right' side. Jacquards also lend themselves to using either side. And in Darryl Carter's new book, The New Traditional, he uses rugs with the 'wrong' side up (a very muted look in the book).

I recently sewed curtains for my large kitchen window using the reverse side of the fabric. The pattern was too bold on the "right" side and I like the muted colours on the reverse better.

Great idea; I like your sink skirt.

Hawaiian Aloha wear uses this technique to great effect. Most of the fabrics look garish and tacky on the "right" side, but are quite lovely on the other.

Fabric has no wrong side. You bought both sides. You can use both sides. You go kid!

I have a huge bolt of vintage hotel upholstery that is gold/red one one side and olive green/red on the other. The more I look at it the more I think the designers purposed it this way. I used to hate the red side until I got into the Moroccan decor (after I read about Jagger's '68Cheyne Walk house).