How to keep that holiday feeling...
Introducing bright summer colours into your home will ease the transition to autumn
YOU’VE arrived home to a stack of unopened bills, piles of dirty washing and a droopy pot plant. The only sand between your toes is from beach shoes you didn’t give a proper shake down.
But you needn’t leave behind all those glorious holiday memories and bright, zesty colours. There are simple ways to recreate that sunny Mediterranean feeling.
It’s all about colour, says Julie Paul, head of interior design at OKA. ‘Mediterranean houses are often decorated using a blue and white scheme, so that on a hot summer’s day they still feel cool,’ she says.
Experiment with different hues of blue paint to achieve that singular combination of heat and freshness, particularly in small airy rooms like a bathroom or a back bedroom.
Think about introducing some brilliant blue crockery to the kitchen. Divertimenti’s Solimene range, hand-painted by the same Italian family for 40 years, is lovely (from £13 for a mug, divertimenti. co.uk) and would look striking set against terracotta.
Or you could opt for OKA’s indigo Palayam rug as an alternative way to bring a cool, sunwashed feel into your house without calling in the decorators (£495, okadirect.com).
Fabric is another easy way to summon the lazy, hazy spirit of summer. Ditch the heavy cottons and velvets and choose something pretty and floaty. We can’t all spend long dreamy days in The Hamptons, but we can all have a wafty pair of curtains that might just lift our back to school mood.
‘Linen curtains move easily in summer breezes while linen bedsheets such as our embroidered Huguenot range are both breathable and sumptuously comfortable,’ says Paul.
For cheap French linen, so much fresher than cotton, look to online retailer Soak & Sleep where pillow cases in a range of colours, including white, start from £4 ( soakandsleep.com).
Try layering your linen — Toast do a stone-washed range in an array of dusky pinks, purples and tangerines that look good alone or mixed together (pillow cases from £30, toa.st).
A textured bedspread can also provide an exotic feel and Toast sells beautiful Chirali bedspreads handmade from layers of recycled sari fabric by a small Indian cooperative. They come in a range of vivid colours from moss green to pinky red and cost £ 195. Hand- painted floor tiles are proving a popular alternative to traditional limestone tiling and are an instant way of injecting some sun-baked joy d’esprit into the kitchen or bathroom.
THEY are also easy to source. Bert & May, a family- run salvage company, has a large range of authentic floor tiles reclaimed from Spanish and French villas and town houses; they also stock traditional terracotta tiles (from £65 per sq m, bertand may.com).
Handmade encaustic Mexican tiles are also popular and surprisingly cheap. Best Tile, an online store based in Ireland, have a huge range with a 20 cm x 20 cm tile costing around £2; you can also create your own pattern ( best-tile. co.uk).
Some people like to use an assortment of designs and colours for a patchwork effect on their floor, although if you like this idea, a chicer option is to stick to two or three colours and simply vary the design.
Don’t forget the walls, either. ‘Decorative blue and white wall tiles are instantly evocative of sun-drenched holidays and carefree travels, and they’re perfectly complemented by our cooler North European light,’ says Fired Earth’s Caroline Gow. Try Fired Earth’s new hand decorated Acapulco collection which draws on joyful patterns Mexicanwith hints of yellow and red (£3.25 per 10 cm by 10 cm tile, firedearth.com). Gow also recommends think- ing small: Moroccan tiles may look fabulous in a Moorish palace but will over- whelm a small bathroom. Stick to using intricately patterned tiles on splashbacks, or simply drop a couple of odd ones into a plain white design. If you like the feel of wood beneath your feet, then try Fired Earth’s East Coast style with its oiled oak wood Coastline flooring range (from £74.94 per sq m). Or rather than varnishing the floorboards, think about painting the boards in a bedroom white — an easy, instant way of evoking a vintage summer feel. Of course, you don’t need to embark on a full scale redecoration project. One- off pieces such as a rattan chair in the living room will have you reaching for a cocktail, while a Moroccan grass mat will add a dash of effortless chic — SCP has a lovely range of hand-made ones for £84.99 ( scp.co.uk). And look out for ethnic pieces in flea markets or interior design specialists, such as SCP’s gorgeous enamel metal jugs, hand-painted in Pakistan in vibrant pinks and blues (£45).
They are traditionally used as water jugs in Pakistani teahouses, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t fill them with Pimm’s instead once the sun comes out again next year.