Parna was established in 2007 by Kath Griffiths, inspired by the quality and variety of vintage textiles in Eastern and Central Europe.

Parna has a distinctive range of beautifully worked and hand embroidered pieces, from areas of Central and Eastern Europe with long traditions of folk craft and textile heritage; originally as part of dowries, these pieces were incredibly time consuming to make and offer fantastic quality.

The Parna from Vintage range was developed in order to make the most of beautiful vintage linen, hemp and embroidery and to pay homage to the women who spend hours hand crafting them.

The Vintage pieces incorporate traditional techniques, refashioned and reworked to bring time-honoured quality to contemporary living.

The range includes stunning wall hangings and refashioned from vintage, cushion and pillow covers.

Most of Parna’s vintage linen and hemp, was home grown without the use of pesticides, then spun and woven - all in all, a very time consuming process.

The nature of the hand spinning and weaving process means that there may be some unevenness in weave, which adds to the charm of these pieces.

Parna’s Vintage and Antique ranges are available online at:

Web: http://www.parna.co.uk

With rising prices and an uncertain economic outlook, why spend a fortune on your home interior?

Just launched, Exotic cushions is an exciting new website selling upmarket and exclusive cushions for your home; a range of bespoke cushions using truly gorgeous textiles, handmade in the UK by Joanna Ludbrook.

You can change your life (or at least the look of it), with interior accessories; cushions can create a refined, sophisticated look for the home with luxurious fabrics and rich colours.

Featured here is; Hot pink Chinese Lantern: A hot pink cushion with a central panel of Chinese silk that somehow reminds one of a lantern, it has an amazing sheen to it with gold highlights.

The layers going out, are pink silk satin, embroidered with gold and blue stylised flowers, hot pink Thai silk and raspberry coloured crushed velvet.

There are bands of narrow pale pink velvet ribbon, dividing the stripes and it is backed with the hot pink Thai silk.

A zip on the bottom, gives access to the enclosed feather insert for cleaning. (Dry cleaning recommended)

Size: 23 inches x 15 inches (58cm x 38cm).

Priced at £41.00.

Web: http://www.exotic-cushions.com

Tel: (01953) 714 813

The rich artistic tradition of the Islamic world, is the design inspiration behind the launch collection of Moresque, a new on-line retailer specialising in contemporary home decorating accessories, tabletop, bed linen and soft furnishings.

Tas Rahman, founder of Moresque, has combined traditional Moorish designs from Turkey, Egypt, Morocco and beyond, with a modern-day approach to decorating the home; the collection offers unique, hand-crafted decorative products, with broad appeal and can be purchased on-line.

The eye catching Ever-Lasting Candles featured here, are hand-made in Morocco, from wax with inset arabesque motifs, in copper or thuya wood, and are inspired by traditional Islamic art and architecture.

The translucent wax doesn’t melt, whilst the replaceable tea light creates a subtle, flickering glow.

Variations: Cube or Tower from 12 to 29 cms in height and six colours- red, mauve, black, orange, blue, ivory and four motifs.
Retail prices range from £15.00 to £45.00.

The celebrated Egyptian designer Karim Rashid, designed the stylish Bud Vase, inspired by Arabic calligraphy.

The three stem vase is made from porcelain, in a choice of white, metallic silver and satin gold and measures 33 x 23 x 4.5 cms. Priced at £110.00.

The three Kilim cushion cover designs, feature hand-made, authentic Persian and Turkoman kilims, inset into richly coloured silk/cotton borders.

The covers measure 45 x 45 cms, have zip fastening opening and plain reverse and come in three designs/colour-ways:
Turkoman (maroon), Persian Awal (rust brown) and Persian Sani (mauve).

View the complete Moresque Collection at:

Web: http:// www.moresque.co.uk
Tel: (020) 8274 2403

Introduce influences of spring into your home and garden using pastels of pink and green against a crisp white background.

One of the quickest and most effective ways to do this is by using textiles to refresh an area around your home.

The new Våren textile collection will bring a light and airy feel to the dullest of rooms and has been inspired by the wood anemone, one of natures early indicators that spring is on its way.

Featured here are just a few of the stimulating spring products on offer:

• Våren cushion 65×65cm in white and green £14.99.
  Varen round cushion in green pink or white £7.99.
  Våren knitted throw 130×170cm in green £13.99 (also available in
  white and pink).
• Varen Rug in green or white £39.00.
• Agen rattan chairs in white £19.99; stackable in order to save space when not in use.
  Complete with Agen chair pad with anemone design in white £9.99 for increased seating comfort.
• Agen round coffee table white £35.00; handwoven with extra utility surface e.g. for magazines; plastic feet; protect the furniture if in contact with a moist surface.
• Agen Triple Hanging basket set white, handwoven £13.99.

Web: http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB

Tel: (0845) 355 1141

Do you have ideas and dreams of creating a unique look in your home, but require a helping hand to put it into action?

John Lewis has lots of solutions, with its array of useful and bespoke services for the home, to enable customers to turn their creative ideas into reality.

A choice of everything from fabric to flooring, and anything in between, to ensure that their home will look and feel exactly how they imagine.

As part of the Standard Furnishing Advice Service, a free one-to-one consultation is available in John Lewis’s stores with one of their experienced Furnishing Advisors, to help turn a favourite fabric, magazine image or simply an idea into a whole new scheme for a room.

Express Furnishing is also now available online and this service is ideal for customers who can’t wait to get cracking with their new look.

The express service will make any soft furnishings from curtains and bed covers, to cushions and blinds to specification in 7 days; with over 200 fabrics to choose from including Designer’s Guild, Osborne and Little and Cath Kidston to fulfil the dream.

Customers can opt for the Premier Service, which is a home visit including measurements, a style board and the attendance of an advisor, to oversee the delivery and fitting, at a cost of just £200, which is refundable against any purchases made.

Web: http://www.johnlewis.com

Tel: (08456) 049 049

The TSA is the Trade Association for the laundry and dry cleaning industry in the UK, covering 2,500 high street dry cleaners.

It is the consumers’ one stop shop for finding a good quality dry cleaner and should they have an issue with an item serviced by a member, the TSA is there to advise and inform them on possible action.

With the trend for hunting in vintage and junk shops so popular at the moment, finding a wonderful but slightly grubby antique throw, or rug can be very exciting, however people are often put off making that final purchase, when they consider the difficulty of restoring the item to its former glory.

This is where the TSA can provide the solution, by offering advice and recommending, which of their members can provide the best service for that particular piece.

The cleaning and repair services TSA members can offer include:

Soft furnishings Asbestos de-contamination Beaded Gowns
Bridal Gowns Carpets/Rugs Church Robes
Curtains Dyeing Express Service
Hat Horse Blankets Pillows/Duvets Repairs/Alteration Re Waxing Silk Suede/Leather

Web: http://www.tsa-uk.org
Tel: (020) 8863 7755

This year IKEA is encouraging Britain to become brave not beige and have come up with a multi-coloured range of fresh textile ideas and designs to bring new life into your home.

Many British homes have become safe and similar using neutral beige tones for decoration, due to lack of knowledge of how to use colour and fear of getting it wrong.

IKEA aim to inspire you to be brave and reject your beige rooms, in favour of a vibrant, contemporary home packed with style and panache.

Make your home blossom with hundreds of new designs in textiles at IKEA, where everything is coordinated to help you create the style in your home exactly as you want it.

Our picture reveals just some of the enormous IKEA range of stunning metre fabrics to inspire your own creativity in design, or vivacious ready-made products to dress up your home this spring.

Textiles are the ultimate expression for the home –anything is possible!

Visit the innovative and informative online demos on the IKEA web site, to see how you can furnish every room in your home with textiles to dazzling effect:

Web:  http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_GB

Tel:   (0845) 355 1141

Property expert, journalist and TV presenter Alison Cork is passionate about bargains and became fed up with paying over the odds for homeware, so she searched the UK to find the very best for less and saved thousands of pounds in the process.

In order to share her secrets of where to find top quality goods at substantially reduced prices with you, she has launched a bargain buying website www.homesandbargains.co.uk.

Want to know where the best carpets and rugs are available at half price?

Or, the very best fabric usually shown at the ultra chic Chelsea Harbour - available at up to 80% off?

Now you can when you know where to look!

The website even tells you where to find M&S and Laura Ashley current season furniture at 70% off and where the best hotels sell off their surplus furniture.

Also how to bypass the shops and go straight to the craftsman or manufacturer.

How to get the news about sales before they hit the high street.

Where to find the finest craftsmen and young designers at half the price you would pay in the shops.

The free weekly bargains newsletter tells you where the best bargains are on sale, so that you can plan your shopping trips and save a fortune at the same time.

The website provides a useful archive of all the phone numbers and contacts you will need, plus a discount diary of upcoming events and many informative articles. There are also free weekly giveaways worth thousands of pounds.

Everyone loves a bargain, so visit The Homes and Bargains website to find yours:

Web:  http://www.homesandbargains.co.uk

Northcroft Fabrics has introduced nineteen new vibrant colours to its Rochelle range for the spring and summer, including five vibrant, contemporary hues: cerise, aqua, lime, pea green and silt.

Rochelle is a fine, 100% cotton pile velvet, which wears well and is particularly suited to upholstery, curtains and soft furnishings.

The manufacture of velvet fabrics dates back to the Egyptians 2000BC. Typically, velvets are heavy with a dense, soft pile – ideal for rich, plain colours and synonymous throughout history with royalty, wealth and opulence.
 
There are now 46 colours in the Rochelle range and this fabric is particularly suited to transform a room with accents of colour for cushions or upholstery and for block colour in curtains.

Rochelle is 140cms wide, has a 100% cotton pile and is a plain, cut velvet.  It retails at around £40.00 per metre.
   
Northcroft Fabrics is a specialised fabric house offering a wide selection of high quality velvets, silks, damask and printed fabrics.

Web:  http://www.northcroftfabrics.co.uk
Tel:    (01628) 488700

The Warwick range is the latest new curtain/upholstery fabric from
Northcroft Fabrics, which was inspired by classical 17th century French style.

The striking Warwick fabric is a damask weave with a twill construction, giving it an interesting and unusual texture; the design is set against the beige background in seven colours.

Made from 50% cotton, 43% viscose and 7% nylon, the fabric is suitable for hardwearing upholstery as well as soft furnishings and gently draping curtains.

Warwick is 140cm wide with a 61cm pattern repeat and is available in the following colours:
Beige 12, Brown 22, Red 46, Blue 64, Turquoise 70, Green 72 and Gold 84.

Warwick retails at around £60.00 per metre.

Web:  http://www.northcroftfabrics.co.uk
Tel:   (01628) 488700