KIS. Keep It Simple.

This season we find ourselves attracted to all white and silver schemes for holiday decorating.  I was once a devotee of Country Living in its earliest incarnations.  I shied away when the walls and ceilings became too cluttered.  For many years I attended monthly lessons from Victoria where lots of thing were clustered in vignettes but with a perhaps more genteel hand.  I eventually took a Masters from Southern Accents leading to special studies in Veranda.

What's the point?  Not much except I like cleaner interiors now.   Each year I seem to want less and less in the way of Christmas clutter.  Is that age and the unwillingness to do the work?  I'm not sure.

  Wouldn't anyone enjoy receiving this simply wrapped gift?  

Beautifully simple decor.  I'm going to do this tomorrow.  I have the pine cones all gathered and more than my share of bell jars.  Snow on top or a white ribbon?  

Although I have a plaid dust ruffle I think I can accomplish this look in my bedroom.  I like the several shades of white against pine.   

Simple.  

I must admit that there is red in other rooms.  After all, it isn't Christmas without the man in red....or how about a a little red on the bed.  

Isn't it rich?  

Or...back to white.

With touches of Christmas to wish you goodnight!!

In full disclosure, I have done lessons in AD, Elle, Atlanta Homes and quite a few others.  Those mentioned fitted more into the plot line of this story.

Happy Holidays!!

 

 

PS. I've corrected the mistake from above.  I had written Victoria's Secret instead of Victoria. 

I've never had any lessons from Victoria's Secret!

PRUNELLE...

This is a repeat of a post from the old blog with a few edits to make it timely.  Not outdated, I think, since I've seen a lot of purple in design blogs in recent weeks so I brought this back.. 

 

I read a number of home decorating magazines itermittently. It's my business. There was a time when I stacked them up month by month. Would you believe I once had ALL the Victorias ever published? I miss Southern Accents terribly.  I buy Veranda sometimes and wish Elle Decor were more available to me.  Others I pick up sporadically or sometimes a friend passes one on.  I like shopping for magazines from a rack and just will not trust the mailman to deliver one unscathed.

In this brave new internet world we have some wonderful decorating and design blogs - there are so many but I've found some I can trust to offer inspiration regularly.  We'll link to them when we can. Two years ago there was a piece on The Peak of Chic about colors and how their names are more interesting in French than in English. The color being discussed was called prunelle by some famous designer. Purple. Brownish purple. The color doesn't sound any more appetizing than it's namesake but it is a fantastic design color for upholstery or accents. I would love to do a room with dove grey walls and shades of grey, prunelle and yellow in upholstery and accents.  Perhaps red.  I think a rich bullfight red and prunelle would be luscious next to each other.  It is a well known decorator maxim that every room should have a dot of red or black.   Notice I didn't say "pop".  I don't want anything to "pop" in my rooms.  I'm bored with the use of the word in fashion and decorating. 

Would I do the walls of a room in prunelle? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe.  Is it a new color or a new name?  In the same evening I browsed some clothing catalogs and found that JJill knew about prunella since there were at least six items in the online outlet close to that color. Come to think of it, I have an old and worn Life Is Good t-shirt that is faded prunella. I knew I liked that color.  Don't go looking at JJill now.  Remember I first wrote this post in 2009. 

The photo above is of Italian prunes and the one shiny one is the best exemplification of the color I could find. Isn't it rich??

~ Sami