What characteristics does ticking fabric have?
Ticking fabric was originally used to cover pillows or upholstery as it has a close weave making it ideal to keep feathers encased within it.
It is available in a variety of colours for example red, blue, green and grey being amongst the most popular. It is a traditional style fabric with a narrow stripe, usually made from 100% cotton but sometimes will be a cotton/polyester mix.
Use ticking fabric for upholstery
Due to its hardwearing nature ticking fabric is an ideal choice for an upholstery fabric. It can be used for fixed covers on your sofa or chairs or as loose covers. You could also use it to cover footstools or headboards.
Most tickings have a high martindale rub test which means they are suitable for frequently used items so great for living rooms and kitchens.
Ticking fabric is equally at home in traditional or contemporary settings but is most suited to country or vintage schemes.
Creating a country style or French style kitchen?
If you are trying to create a country style or French style kitchen then use ticking to make relaxed style curtains instead of doors on your kitchen units, you could also use it to cover your appliances. Simply hem the fabric and make a slot heading wide enough to feed some curtain wire through and then hang.
You could also make some seat pads for your kitchen chairs, to finish off why not paint your chairs to coordinate with the fabric - a distressed finish looks good. This can be achieved by lightly sanding areas of the chair which would normally get the most use for example some of the edges.
Other uses for ticking
As well as upholstery fabric ticking is a very versatile fabric so is also suitable for curtains, cushions and blinds. It generally has a soft feel to it so will hang beautifully when made into curtains or roman blinds. A pencil pleat heading tape is a good choice as it is less structured than a triple pinch pleat heading which will add to the relaxed style of the fabric.
How to coordinate ticking with other fabrics
Checked fabric in similar colourways are the ideal choice to coordinate with ticking striped fabric although you could also team with florals or plain fabric. I would advise just using ticking fabric in a room scheme as it looks better with other fabrics where it will create a relaxed and rustic scheme.
Add accessories such as wicker baskets, enamel jugs and vintage china to complete the rustic style scheme.
