An off-white, tightly woven canvas that comes in various and useful widths and weights, which can be bleached, dyed, painted on and generally made into any type of interior furnishings. Wholesalers of sailing or art suppliers keep it in stock: it’s inexpensive and often the answer to an interior design problem.
Cotton duck and any of the canvas fabrics look well in urban and country situations alike, on boats, in the garden and as tents. The low metreage cost means that you can have a great deal of fun with it, covering walls and ceilings.
Choose the lightest weight for drapes and tented ceilings, mid weight for loose covers and the heaviest weight for screens and fixed upholstery.
Most of the top furnishing fabric houses will have a selection of beautifully coloured, soft cotton duck in their range. The quality of finish and dye will be far superior to the more basic stocks of course, and so will the price. The higher quality is often worth the extra cost to get beautiful colours.
Test any canvas for shrinkage before you cut into; cotton duck will almost certainly need to be pre-shrunk.