de Le Cuona | Artist Canvas – Red Earth

Artist Canvas is a plain, closely woven linen with the honest, slightly dry hand of a primed canvas, and Red Earth is its warm clay colour. The surface is quiet and matte, with the small irregularities of the yarn that tell you the cloth is natural rather than engineered. There is no pattern to compete with, so the interest comes from the texture and the way the colour shifts a little as light crosses the weave. In a room it behaves like a well-chosen paint colour that you can sit on or hang at a window.

It is 100% linen, 145 cm wide, and sold by the half metre. It is rated to 25,000 Martindale rubs, which is generous for a linen and puts it comfortably in the range of serious domestic upholstery. As a plain there is no pattern repeat to calculate. We have not been given a place of manufacture, so we would ask the studio to confirm that for you if it matters to your project.

We would use Red Earth for a pair of full-length curtains in a living room with pale plaster walls, where the warmth of the colour does a lot of work without announcing itself. It is also right for a deep-seated sofa or a pair of armchairs, particularly in a room that already has timber and stone. For a pairing, we like it against off-white wool, a darker brown leather and a rough limewash wall, keeping everything else low in tone so the clay colour carries the scheme.

Linen relaxes with use, and it will soften and may shift slightly in length once hung, so we would ask your workroom to allow for that and to hang curtains for a few days before final hemming. Being plain, it can be railroaded on larger pieces, which avoids seams across a sofa back. Always order your full quantity together so the dye lot stays consistent, and have the upholsterer check the cutting plan before the first cut is made.