INTERIORS : Dog Prints Lead Into Latest Fabrics and Wall Coverings
Dogs are returning as a decorator’s best friend.
Among recent upscale introductions for the home are “Checkers,” a cotton and linen fabric featuring dogs and checks by Cowtan & Tout of New York; “House Pets,” a woven cotton with primitive drawings of dogs by Donghia Textiles of New York, and “Puppy Love” wallpaper by Motif Designs of New Rochelle, N.Y.
The fabrics are sold through designers. The wall covering is available at retail stores nationwide.
The three new prints, known in the trade as novelties, are just a sampling of what’s available in whimsical designs featuring animals.
Cowtan & Tout is known for its English florals. But Patricia Freund, design director, says the company has lots of animal prints.
“People love flowers, but they also love pets,” she says, “and many seem to be looking for motifs that are a little different.”
Donghia is known for upholstery fabrics and upholstered furniture. The cotton jacquard “House Pets” fabric, featuring a naive drawing of dogs with an occasional fish thrown in, is heavy enough for upholstery, but it’s far more whimsical than most Donghia designs. But decorators love it.
“ ‘House Pets’ is walking out of our showrooms on its four little legs,” says Sherri Donghia, vice president of design and marketing.
Maybe it’s partly because designers were invited to sketch items in the new fabric for use by their pet or a client’s. Some 25 responded. A miniature campaign tent by New York designer Robert Couturier for his Shih Tzus, Lily and Chuck, was declared most creative.
The tent and several other designs were made up and are touring Donghia showrooms around the country. Couturier says his tent, based on a full-size campaign tent built in the 19th Century at the Chateau Groussay outside Paris, will ultimately rest at the foot of his bed.
“Most designers have dogs and pamper them a lot,” Donghia says.
In Lyn Peterson’s experience, getting a dog is a rite of passage into middle age.
“Four of us in the office, all in our 40s, have gotten dogs this year,” says Peterson, president of Motif Designs. She thinks this focus on dogs as pets is fueling home furnishings products with canine images.
No matter how charming the fabric design, a little goes a long way. A touch of whimsy on a cushion cover, table topper or a slipcover for a small piece is not amiss in even the most formal room, but avoid yards of the stuff.
When planning for wall covering, don’t get too cute. Even in a child’s room, bedsheets with paw prints and a Snoopy telephone would be too much with doggy print wallpaper. Instead, Peterson suggests denim or gingham or tartan, awning stripes or solid colors.
The logical place for a substantial display of fabric or wallpaper featuring dogs or any novelty item is an informal room or one occupied for short spells. Think in terms of bathroom, den, foyer, kitchen and kids’ rooms.
Designs for Cowtan & Tout’s print fabrics and Motif Designs’ wall covering are based on 19th-Century engravings.
“There have always been conversational animal prints, but in the old days they were used more for apparel than for home furnishings,” says Susan Meller, co-author of the book “Textile Design” and co-owner of the Design Library, a textile archive in New York.
“In the 18th Century, printed fabric with tiny animals was used for men’s dress shirts,” Meller says. “The prints included every breed of dog and cat, and often the animals were doing something, for example, cats having a tea party.”
Pets as textile motifs for home furnishings fabrics typically did not arrive until around the turn of the century.
“As people became further removed from the farm, more animals started turning up on fabrics and wallpaper,” Meller says. “Animal prints tend to go in cycles. Five or six years ago, there was a trend for white geese, and then there was the black and white spotted cow.”
