How to refresh your interiors without spending a fortune
The post-Christmas period always seems bleak, especially within our homes, where the removal of the Christmas tree leaves an aching void, and without the twinkle of fairy lights everything seems – well - dull. The temptation is to perform a total interior overhaul – or would be, were January not typically an arid month for our bank balances too. Arguably, the lack of funds prevents us doing things we might later regret. Last year around this time Emma Burns, Managing Director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, posted on Instagram suggesting repapering the bathroom at her country house with Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler’s “delicious” Seaweed. As the walls are currently covered in the discontinued Colefax & Fowler pattern “Rameau Fleurie”, the answer was a resounding ‘no!’ – from everyone. The point is that we all crave something new and different; the answer is to find cheap and easy – and preferably environmentally kind - ways to make everything look that bit more interesting.
The first thing, suggests Brandon Schubert, is to take everything off every surface. “Shelves and tables tend to have their own inertia, and it’s very easy for nothing to change in years and years,” he points out. “Then you can start over with a blank slate and place things where you think they work best.” It enables you work out what brings you pleasure and decide what you’d like to have in your immediate eyeline. You might also find the odd postcard or invitation that would benefit from being preserved; the antiques dealer Benedict Foley has some attractive frames that turn such items into objets.
The second benefit of that exercise is identifying where there really are unsightly gaps, remembering the great Nicky Haslam’s directive that “things should flow, nothing should be left too obviously alone. The eye has to roam.” You can draw up a list of furniture it would be fun to scout out at antiques markets and junk shops, or – if it’s walls that seem bare – look for antique textiles or art to plug the holes; if you search Instagram under the artist support pledge hashtag you’ll find a slew of works for £200 and under. Victoria Gray of Olivine Design suggests “major art galleries like Tate Modern and the V&A are a great source for posters and prints, or you can frame decorative papers from Choosing Keeping who have a fantastic selection from designers including Antoinette Poisson.”
Next, rearrange your china cupboard, and bring out anything languishing at the back. Nina Campbell has been amassing tableware all her life and is evangelistic in the joy of “having one day green, another pink and orange, another blue and white.” If you don’t feel you’ve got enough, it’s something that is often inexpensive to collect. As well, Brandon Schubert suggests colourful tablecloths. The artist and designer Alice Peto has designed a very pretty checked and ruffled number for The Mews Fabrics & Furnishings, Summerhill & Bishop has got some beauties while Brandon recommends plain linens from La Redoute, suggesting “get a few, and change them out from one week to the next.”
Paint – as we all know – can make a huge difference; consider the effects that stripes might give to a hall (masking tape is your friend), or the interest a Charleston-esque decorative finish might bring your fireplace. Alice Peto has turned her downstairs loo into a palm-filled paradise, painting every surface in Farrow & Ball Emerald Green (including the loo seat, “three coats and then lacquer,” she says) before adding freehand foliage to the walls. “If it didn’t work, I knew I could just paint over it,” she says. Furniture and lampshades are equally willing receptacles; for inspiration (or to commission if you don’t want to do it yourself) look out paint specialists Gaby Gatacre and Emma Ridley, Tess Newall and Melissa White. If it’s a purer palette you are after, Nicky Haslam maintains that “if you spray anything white it will look like porcelain” – and has used the method to grand effect in his London flat.
Change can also be brought in via cushions, rugs – even lino if you want to do a whole room – and fabrics; Rita Konig often enthuses about the rejuvenating power of a quilt when placed over the back of a sofa, and antique textile dealer Katharine Pole drapes the treasures she’s found over a bannister, or piles them on a chair – and rotates them from time to time. Victoria Gray suggests key tassels, “that will brighten up and style up any doors or bureau keys,” recommending Jessica Light. She also points out that “opening coffee table books to a favourite page adds new colour to a setting in the room.”
Finally, there’s no reason the foliage, tree and twinkly light theme shouldn’t be kept going, especially considering the shorter days of this season. Alice Leigh has replaced her Christmas tree with a large floor-standing potted plant, “Patch Plants are my go-to as they’re really user friendly.” She’s also a fan of “using faux flowers to fill a sad corner.” She goes to Fake It Flowers where you can take your own vases, while our 2021 Interior Designer of the Year Sophie Ashby favours Hoax. If you’d rather real, there’s either foraging in the surrounding countryside, or you could set up a flower subscription service, and know that you’ll benefit from their natural beauty all year round. And then, candles, whether plain or pretty; “light them every evening, not just on special occasions,” says Alice.
And as for Emma Burns’s bathroom, and the wallpaper conundrum? Explaining that it’s been something that she’s thinking about for some time, which is why she put it to the vote, she replies, “most of the advice was to stick to the status quo, but I’m going to follow Gavin Houghton’s suggestion to keep the walls and to use the Seaweed paper on the ceiling and have the best of both worlds.” Which is yet another very good idea.
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