6 Ways to Bring Spring into Your Home

Tra la la la.  We made it through another winter!  While I'm not quite in the mood for a summery, hot weather decor, I definitely want all signs of winter banished from my delicate eyes.  Here's what I'm doing right now:

1.  Clean and edit.  I know, it's a bummer.  There's no getting around the fact that a good spring cleaning does wonders for your home.  Put stuff away, polish everything up. There, we got through that together and now can move on.

Here I am, in my lace apron (as if).

2. Walk through every room and remove the nubby red throw, the jewel toned accent pillows, the big bowl of pine cones, the puffy comforter, etc.  Send them off to the cleaner or store them away in a closet.  Replace them with a lighter throw (in weight and color) and accent pillows in some fresh, lively shades.  Fill the bowl with river rocks or sea shells and put a thinner coverlet on the bed.

F. Schumacher fabrics
A fresh color scheme to consider.

 F. Schumacher fabrics and a Room and Board pillow

Here's a quieter palette, but still light and lively.

3.  Replace some of the artwork on the walls and shelves.  This really makes a nice change for me.  Rotating your artwork, or family photos, means that you're really going to notice them, not just walk by them day after day.  The beautiful still life painting that's been sitting on our mantel gets changed out for 3 big, matted frames featuring photos I took at the nearby lake.  Super cheap and easy.

(from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, not mine)

Replace this...

With something like this.

4. Add some fresh sparkle--have you got an old mirror stowed away somewhere?  Find a new place for it.  How about someplace offbeat, like over a doorway, as if it were a transom?  How about at the end of a hallway? Just remember to look at what it's reflecting.  A mirror reflecting a window is fab, but it can reflect artwork hanging on the opposite wall or a pretty tablescape on a console or anything else that you like to look at.  Don't let it reflect the kitchen!  If you don't want to use a mirror, think about any metallic object.  Sparkly candlesticks or a shiny picture frame can do the trick.

Sparkle Plenty  (at Pottery Barn)

5.  Flowers!  I'm seeing lots of very inexpensive pots of flowers, even at the grocery store.  I think some of them are meant to plop right into your outdoor planters, but we still have a chance of frost.  I'm putting a pot of posies into a container on the kitchen island for a week or two, before sending them outside.  The same could be done with those yummy herbs they've got at the big home improvment stores.  A little group of them in a basket right now, next to the bathroom sink.  So nice.

My little flowers from the Teeter (grocery store).

6.  Fresh dish towels.  I said it before, I love beautiful dish towels.  Spring is a great occasion to buy a couple. 

French Connections in Pittsboro.  

1 or 2 will do! 

Ciao,

Anne

Checking out the Ballard Designs catalog

Oh dear, another snow day here in Alaska North Carolina.  The up side is that it gives me time to check out the latest catalogs littering my house.  Pottery Barn is always good for a look--plenty of great staging ideas and I like a couple of their ready-made drapery panels.

The catalog that I really enjoyed this morning was Ballard Designs.  I've pulled out some favorites to show you on this icy day:

This is the Eldridge chandlier.  It's 40" x 14".  Very handsome.  As lightbulb technology continues to change, you might get some crazy shapes to put in there (as long as they're dimmable), furthering the ability to make it your own.

Garden district mirrors.  There are so many places these could go!  They're sold in pairs and, of course, could be hung horizontally or vertically.  They add interest to a wall, reflect light and views and add sparkle to a space.

These are indoor/outdoor rugs that would give a great graphic punch to any area.  Today I'm loving the orange (near a green, blue or brown wall--wow!), but all the colors are excellent, and they wash off with a hose!

The Celine rug is an easy way to get an animal print into a room without much commitment.  It's subtle (I'd choose the darker color), reasonably priced and soft.  I'd get a big one to place in front of the living room sofa, then put the big cofee table on top, so it's just peeking out.

Here's a picture from the catalog that's just for a laugh--

Book bundles.  They take old paperback books, rip the covers off and tie them together with twine--then sell them to us!  Thank you, Ballard Designs, for a good laugh.  Oh!  You think they're serious?  Oh dear.

Mr. and Mrs. pillows.  These would make me smile every day.  They're made of trendy burlap and the letters are just stenciled on.  Yes, you can do that yourself in any number of ways.  All catalogs are filled with ideas for things that you can do yourself.  I saw some throw pillows on the HGTV site for their Dream Home (I'll do a post of that fabulous place that I'm going to win another day) that had words like "hike" and "bike."  Fun!

Ballard Designs is an excellent source for inexpensive, ready-made curtains.  Here are their burlap drapes.  They're unlined (which works with burlap) and come in great lengths.  I would leave off the fringed valance, not my cup of tea. These are cheap, but look great.

Confession time; these are my all-time favorite ready-made drapes.  Small check, ribbon trim, attached valance, lined.  They come in nice long lengths and they're VERY reasonably priced.  They even come with drapery pins!  There are several colors, but I want the black. The above picture shows the brown and it's looking pretty darn gracious in that room.  I'm originally from New England. so the small check is in my genetic code.  I don't think of it as a "country" style, but as a classic, warm, you-are-home style that would mix well.  I have just the window for these drapes, but the room is currently being used for trains (as in Thomas and GeoTrax), so I'm waiting. 

Lastly, I liked this piece of art.  Hey, we can do this!  While I think the artist did a great job on this, it's also a wonderful example of  an idea that many of us could use as a jumping off point for a project of our very own.  How about making dog profiles, tree shapes or houses and framing them?  The list of possibilities is long.  See how the artist used black and white newspaper as well as yellowed paper, and also added some solid accents?  Remember those little details. 

Has the ice melted yet?  If not, I'm going to be forced to make some cookies.  I know I'm going to regret it!

Ciao,

Anne