Mulberry Home | Sporting Life Velvet

Sporting Life Velvet is part of the Long Weekend collection, and it prints a scatter of the trappings of a country weekend, a gun, a rod, a hip flask, a gundog at heel, onto a soft cotton velvet ground. The vignettes are drawn small and evenly spaced, so the pattern reads as a rich, all-over texture rather than a picture book, and the velvet gives every mark a depth a flat print could not manage. It is a cloth with a proper sense of humour about it.

The pile is 83 per cent cotton and 17 per cent polyester, 134 centimetres wide, with a 42 centimetre vertical repeat and a 44.6 centimetre horizontal one. It is recommended for curtains, loose and fixed upholstery and bedspreads. There is one colourway, Woodsmoke, a soft, smoky grey that keeps the whole design masculine and understated rather than illustrative, and easy to place alongside an existing scheme of browns and greens.

We would put it on a wing chair or a club sofa in a study or a gun room, or as curtains in a room with a fire and old leather furniture nearby. It also makes a handsome footstool, or a run of cushions on a plain linen sofa in a sitting room that wants a little wit. Sold by the half metre; order a sample to see it in your own light.

A making-up note: velvets have a nap as well as a repeat, so cut every piece with the pile running the same way and allow a full 42 centimetre repeat per drop or per chair. Ask your upholsterer to steam rather than press, and to keep the vignettes evenly placed across a seat or a cushion front. It must be dry cleaned professionally.

• Composition: 83% cotton, 17% polyester
• Width: 134 cm (53 in)
• Pattern repeat: 42 cm vertical, 44.6 cm horizontal
• Suitable for: Curtains, loose upholstery, fixed upholstery, bedspreads
• Care: Dry clean only; do not wash, bleach or iron
• Collection: Long Weekend, Mulberry Home
• Colourways: 1 (Woodsmoke)