de Le Cuona | Primitive Linen – Juniper

Primitive Linen is a plain-weave linen with an honest, slightly irregular surface, and it is the kind of cloth we reach for when a room needs texture without pattern. The hand is dry and natural, with the small slubs and variations that make linen look like linen rather than a smooth imitation. Juniper is a muted, grey-leaning green, closer to a dusty herb than to anything bright. It reads as a calm neutral in daylight and deepens a little in the evening, which makes it very easy to live with.

The cloth is 100% linen, 140 cm wide, and is sold per 0.5m. It carries a Martindale rating of 20000 rubs, which is a heavy domestic figure and means it is robust enough for regular upholstery as well as curtains. There is no pattern repeat to match, which keeps the cutting simple and the quantities predictable. We have not been given a country of manufacture for this cloth, so we have left that out rather than guess.

We tend to use Primitive Linen for full-length curtains in a living room or bedroom, where its weight lets it hang in soft, relaxed folds. It is equally good on a sofa or a pair of armchairs, particularly in a room that already has pattern elsewhere and needs somewhere for the eye to rest. For a pairing, we would put Juniper with warm stone and oatmeal, with a deeper green velvet cushion, or against natural oak and plaster walls.

Linen can relax and move a little after it is made up, so we would ask the workroom to allow for this when measuring curtains and to hang them for a few days before the final hem. A lining, and an interlining for a heavier fall, will improve the drape and protect the colour from the sun. For upholstery, ask your upholsterer to railroad or cut with the grain consistently so every panel reads the same. Order a little over what you need, because each additional 0.5m is far easier to add up front than to find later.