HOME HINTS

At some point, every home needs decoration or updating to keep it looking fresh and stylish. The beauty of modern looks is that they encompass an enormous range of styles, materials and approaches. If you are short of time, have a limited budget, and more imagination than skill, simple but original adaptations of everyday materials could be the most practical and versatile option, rather than trying to follow an established theme, such as folk. What links modern style is the feeling of experimentation and freedom of approach window treatments, paint effects, soft furnishings and lighting ideas all deal with familiar materials but treat them in new, highly personal ways. Transparent glass beads sparkle like jewels when used as curtain, tartan wool rugs become lovely heavy curtains and versatile, cheap polypropylene mats can be used to create a dramatic chequerboard effect.

Trawl through junk shops and market stalls, experiment with different paints and dyes, objects from nature and adapt everyday materials the list is endless, as are the possible uses they can be put to. Furthermore, it is very easy to start all over again without spending a lot of money or effort. If a home does not function well, there are three choices. Two of these are thoroughly defeatist and may also be impractical learn to live with it, or move to a more suitable house. The third is much more positive; alter it so that it gives the extra living space and the additional features needed. The average home is basically a box, within which internal partitions create individual rooms, door allow movement and windows let in light and air. Various services are included within the structure heating, plumbing, wiring and so on. All these features can be altered, within reason, to make them work better.

Folk interiors and furniture have an enduring appeal. The soft harmonies of the wall colors and stencil patterns are complemented by sturdy, practical pieces of furniture – massive armchairs with simple turned front legs and solid backs, long benches, open cupboards and painted chests. Often decorated with brilliant colors, folk furniture displays the folk artist’s inherent love for pattern and color as much as other smaller objects in the home. Color is often applied to all surface of a room as well as the decorated furniture, patchwork throws and painted tin ware. The busy decorative folk style originally sprang from a combination of the improved circumstances and the desire to show the family’s social status along with a natural love of color and decoration. As the burden of poverty eased for most of Europe’s peasants after the sixteenth century, rural craftsmen began making furniture out of local woods which were carved or painted in imitation of the furniture of the wealthy classes. In addition, great pride was attached to owning furniture, pottery and the tin or silver plate.

When decoration a home in this style, it is important not to be too precious imperfect plasterwork and sloping floors only add to the charm. If your home is perfectly sound and symmetrical, color washing will soften hard edges, particularly if you choose the color scheme to harmonize with one featured folk art piece such as patchwork quilt or a painted chest. Traditional colors trace back to the original materials used. A beige plaster made from crushed oyster shells mixed with sand was over painted with a whitewash made from quicklime, or strained stale buttermilk mixed with sifted river sand and vegetable pigment. When new paints were developed new techniques were invented, such as graining common woods such as pine to look like more expensive mahogany or marbling, stippling, ragging and glazing, which involved applying two coats of paint, the first a flat color which was left to dry before being glazed with a different color top coat. Many of these old painting techniques have been revived and are now extremely popular.