Love is in the air and at home as we decorate for February. You know me, I’m a hopeless romantic and so with February here I’m all about celebrating this month of love and it has me thinking about roses. Honestly the rose is not my favorite of flowers with respect to scent, I actually prefer lilacs but who can beat the visual beauty of a rose, true aesthetic perfection. So let’s chat about designing with roses.
Everyday, any day is a good day to bring home fresh flowers. Fresh flowers are like a new manicure, they just make space, as do perfect nails, make us look and feel perfectly groomed-perfection. Just because we are all on tighter budgets these days doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy the aroma, the luxury or the visual pleasure from fresh flowers, especially when it comes to roses. With a rose one can be just as effective cut and floating in a beautiful vase or rose bowl as a dozen can be. One rose a week for twelve weeks costs the same as a dozen roses that will only last a week (if we are lucky). I’m going for a single white rose on my nightstand everyday, this is my treat to me. Fresh roses are the obvious way to design with roses but let’s go for the not so obvious.
The rose motif is a classic, remember the cabbage patch rose patterned chintz fabrics that were the design rave in the eighties, oh ya, I remember, that fabric was everywhere literally- definitely too much of a good thing. But let’s trim it back way back and have fun with the pattern. Consider recovering your office chair or a single bedroom chair in a big bright bold rose inspired floral fabric. Yummy right, now if the chair has a frame have the frame painted a glossy black or even a fusia. Now that’s a chair to love. Imagine it in an otherwise neutral bedroom or amongst all the black and sleek fixings of your office décor.
Remember that if any of these brilliant design ideas grab you and say ‘take me home tonight baby’ you can only leave with one. Gluttony is never in good taste and more than one ‘rosy idea’ in any single space is most likely too much. You know that Sam and I love to paint on walls- there is a graffiti artist in there just dying to get out so we often paint our walls and ceiling at home. Sam once had a bedroom where we hand painted giant rose shaped outlines on her ceiling, try painting roses on the ceiling of a powder room and even bring a few down into one corner of the room, right onto the striped wallpaper or how about hand painting modern roses on a otherwise boring, semi typical bureau or night stand? You can even paint roses onto fabric- try toss pillows, sheer or solid colored drapery panels.
In the kitchen bring home a set of rose patterned side plates to layer onto your everyday white ware or find a great piece of rose fabric and make a table cloth or napkins. On the buffet set two potted miniature rose bushes.
Now this week take the time to stop and smell the roses or at least the scent of fabulous living and get inspired by a rose.
DESIGNER SECRETS
Gung Hay Fat Choy or Happy Chinese New Year this is the year of the rabbit. Who can argue with five thousand years of tradition so I love to work a little feng shui magic into my designs. To enhance your love life place a rose in water in the southeast corner of your home, now watch love bloom.
