Decorating a house is a big thing. It is big business too – interior design companies and shops make millions of pounds every year selling the latest themes and the newest must-have fabrics. The thing is, however, that not all of us have the money to go changing our decoration as soon as the mood takes us – there are bills to think about, and the furniture, and all manner of complicating problems. Whilst it would certainly be lovely to be able to change a room to suit our mood, it simply isn’t all that easy in the real everyday world.
An easy solution is to create yourself a little zone – a tabletop or a window sill. This zone can be the place where you vent all your stylistic inclinations, and can host a stylish vignette based on that month’s favourite theme. This way you can make it work with those flowers you bought back from your walk, or with a picture you just got developed.
Creating a vignette like this comes easily to some people, and harder to others. Some people just can’t ignore the fact that the rest of the room remains as it always has been, whereas other will find that just having one flexible create space is more than enough. It is definitely worth trying, however, as the cost is far cheaper than a complete redesign. It is a halfway house, a compromise, and a way to experiment with a theme before you go the whole hog.
Start by defining the theme you want your vignette to adopt. You may have a tiny chintzy vase that you bought at a car boot sale, or a beautifully gothic black picture frame. You may even have a tablecloth or piece of wallpaper that you really want to work with (top tip: get samples of your favourite papers and use these in the vignette! Free is always good!).
This theme then needs to be spread outwards into a collection of items that coordinate or contrast in the way that you desire. You could build a collection of simple square black frames standing around the gothic one. You could personalise some doilies to go with the chintzy vase, maybe embroidering a cheeky phrase or image. Whatever you do, be brave, and let the feeling of the arrangement be the deciding factor. Don’t be afraid to have fun and indulge your whimsy.
When everything is laid out, and all the objects have combined to be the perfect destination for a still life or an interior design magazine feature, then you can stand back and survey your creation. It may not fit in at all with the rest of the room, but it is exactly the sort of design that you like at this exact moment in time, and in the blink of an eye it can be torn down and replaced. It is fluid and flexible – and above all, it is you.
Image via Sherry's Rose Cottage's Flickr