Freshening up when the glow is gone...

Now it begins!  The taking down of Christmas and the reality of what lies underneath the glow.  Most of us end up thinking of updating, changing and rearranging.  I have often forgotten what goes back where something of Christmas has lived now for six week.   I've picked out and revised one of my most visited posts from the past that might be helpful.  

How about a slipcover for that aging sofa or chair?  Slipcovers can be difficult and most workshops charge about as much to make one as to reupholster a piece.  My comfy sofa is slipcovered year round.  I have a little twelve pound tornado whose favorite location, when out of her crate, is the sofa and that includes freshly in from a walk outside.  

This is a nice one:

It comes from Ballard Designs.  This was on a website called Décor Pad.  Very neat for a slipcover. 

My mama used slipcovers and she made them.  She was an expert seamstress and upholsterer.  Things at our house were always changing.  My daddy would say he looked before he sat to make sure the chair was still there.  This is the same woman who painted our living room chartreuse in the fifties.  I wasn't there when her garden club, the ladies of pink and blue interiors attended but I'd bet not one ventured a negative "ahem".  BTW, the complementary draperies to that scheme were bark cloth. 

I read something today about warming up the home for winter with more weighty fabrics.  That's what started this whole conversation.  Of course the first suggestion was to add a down comforter to the bed.  I can't add one without overdoing it.  My down blanket stays on year round.  If I'm dressing the room for show, I fold it at the bottom of the bed.  The bedspread is an antique linen sheet with a heavy lace border.  A lofty comforter certainly gives an aura of warmth.  The article also suggested using weightier sheets.  I never noticed that higher thread count sheets are heavier.  Did you?  I have some darker sheets that make the bed feel cozier.  A good friend will have nothing but flannel in winter and fancies LL Bean. 

Another suggestion was to use more colorful towels to add warmth.  I've been totally white forever.  I might consider that change.  Only one problem.  What color? 

Which of these is warmer? 

The red, right?  I'm not sure I could go warmer.  Maybe heftier.  I am a white towel purist but I'm considering a trip to Home Goods.  Love that place!  The suggestions in the article were aubergine and burnt orange.  Having looked at that photo quite seriously, I think I know why I have white towels.  I can't choose a color!!

~Sami