de Le Cuona | Shepherd's Cloth – Wheat

Shepherd's Cloth is a plain, close-woven linen with the slightly irregular surface that comes from a natural yarn rather than a perfectly even one. In Wheat the colour sits between oatmeal and straw, warm without tipping towards yellow, and it changes gently as the light moves across the room. The hand is dry and substantial rather than soft and slippery. It has body, so it holds a pleat or a seam line well, and the texture does the quiet work that a pattern might do elsewhere.

The composition is 90% linen and 10% polyamide, and the polyamide is there to give the cloth strength without changing how it looks or feels. It is 138 cm wide and a plain cloth, so there is no pattern repeat to plan around. The Martindale is 40,000 rubs, which is well beyond what is needed for a sofa or a pair of dining chairs that are used every day. It is sold by the half metre, so it is easy to order a sample length or a small quantity for cushions.

We tend to use Wheat where a room needs warmth but cannot take more colour: full-length curtains in a living room with pale walls, or a pair of generous armchairs in a library where the timber and books are already doing plenty. It also makes a very good upholstered headboard. We would pair it with a deeper oak or walnut, a flat white or stone paint, and a heavier wool or mohair for contrast in texture. It sits comfortably against darker linens in a scheme built entirely from natural tones.

Linen of this weight relaxes a little with use, and we would allow for that when specifying. For curtains, we would line and interline them so they hang well and the sun does not fade the cloth unevenly. Because the cloth is plain, it can be railroaded on wide windows without any pattern concerns, though we would still ask the workroom to cut every length in the same direction, as the weave can show a slight sheen difference. Have your upholsterer pre-shrink or steam the cloth lightly before cutting.