de Le Cuona | Pure 5 – Vintage Watercolour

Pure 5 in Vintage Watercolour is a linen with a softly washed look, as though colour has been laid down in thin layers and allowed to bleed at the edges. Nothing about it is hard or graphic. The pattern repeats across the cloth in a gentle, irregular rhythm, so from across a room it reads as a tonal, slightly mottled surface and only up close as a considered design. The linen has the dry, natural hand we associate with de Le Cuona, and it falls in loose, easy folds.

The cloth is 100% organic linen, 270 cm wide, which is generous enough to be used at full height without joining in most rooms. It carries a vertical repeat of 35 cm and a horizontal repeat of 35 cm. It is sold by the half metre, with the reference PURV03. We have not been given a Martindale figure, which is not unusual for a curtain linen, as it is intended for hanging rather than hard seating. Our note is to order a sample, hang it by the window, and watch it through the day.

We would use Pure 5 for full-length curtains in a sitting room or bedroom, hung from a plain pole or a slim track so the pattern does the talking. It would also make a good Roman blind in a kitchen or dining room, where the repeat can be centred on the window. For pairing, we like it with plain linen in stone or chalk, painted walls in a warm white, and a single stronger colour drawn from the pattern in cushions or a throw.

With a 35 cm repeat, order a little extra so the workroom can match the pattern across each curtain and between panels. Because the cloth is 270 cm wide, ask whether it can be used railroaded, with the width running as the drop, to avoid seams. Linen relaxes after hanging, so ask for it to be lined and interlined, and allow a little extra length so you can adjust the hem. Check your measurements twice, and order the whole quantity together.