Rooms for summer (I)
Where Ann has picked up the fabrics colors in her flowers. Summer living spelled out by the white tiles, cool greens and massed plants in a relaxed room stripped of non-essentials. In our long summer, rooms should be clear and bright, pared and paled. If new slipcovers are out of the question, try such tricks as changing cushions, replacing curtains by white slim lines, leaving polished floors bare of heavy rugs and massing baskets of garden flowers everywhere, an occupying a temporary pied-a-wall while her permanent home is being built, gave her sitting-room a summery look by replacing a rich dark Persian rug with a pastel. The rug’s design coordinates with the shell pattern of the Designers Guild cotton curtains and cushions.
“I always soften a room for summer, “says designer Ann Jane. Its “applied decoration only” in her bedroom, as she’ll soon moves to a new house. Nevertheless, Ann has achieved a satisfying balance between cool elegance and total prettiness by mixing delicate old lace, fine white fabrics and dark polished wood. Adding an unexpected kick of color: the tapestry covers for cushions made by Ann herself another inspired touch of instant decoration: the lace-edged supper cloth hung over an old lampshade. Below: Bedroom where a teenager girl has done her own thing. She made her dressing table from an old washstand, stripped to match stacked campaign chests. For fun, she created a spectacular nest of cushions by blowing up the empty silver linings of wine casks.
