Tuesday, February 22, 2011

observing obi for trim

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Traditionally a obi is a sash worn with a kimono or with the uniforms used by practitioners of Japanese martial arts but I recently thought, "why not use them for a home decor project". As I was pursuing an obi on Ebay I realized that for the money and the impact that these would be a great option to trim home decor items such as drapes, tablecloths and some upholstery pieces. The men's obi also known as a kaku-obi is usually about 12 feet long by 3 inches wide and combined with the fact that I just won an obi on Ebay for .o1 (plus shipping) I am thinking that there will be some project I can use it for.

Really great trim can usually cost a pretty penny. In fact I think for a standard wide-band greek key trim it will run a minimum of about $10 a yard...which adds up fast.

Anyway I will let you know how it goes with my new kaku-obi. All of the above images are from Ebay. I just plugged in kaku obi and obi into the search engine in case you are interested.

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The above drapes are from Grant Gibson's place as seen in the the The New York Times.

4 comments:

Shannon @ What's Up Whimsy said...

What a cool idea! I was just perusing Ebay's inventory and there are so many options!

Unknown said...

I love this idea. I was just googling obi patterns the other day for a japanese restaurant we are doing. I think that could be the inspration for my next bedding set.

LindsB said...

What a great idea! I need to add Obi to my ebay search list now :)

My Interior Life said...

That's brilliant. I'm off to look up obis now!