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PRISCILLA
Decorating seasonally, choosing colors, making your furniture fit

By PRISCILLA KOHUTEK

This is the time of year we feel like settling in. We want to cozy up the house and get things put together with minor improvements but nothing big right now — the holidays are just around the corner. This month’s column deals with several decorating concerns that can be solved “cosmetically.” You can fix up the place and still have plenty of time left for shopping and merrymaking.

Q. How can I transition my home from summer into fall and winter? It’s always warm in South Texas, but I’d like for my house to reflect the calendar rather than the temperature.

A. Sometimes our d8Ecor is the only way we can tell what time of year it is. Since Mother Nature doesn’t provide us with chilly weather and fall colors, we have to provide our own ambience.

The first step is to strip away all signs of summer. That includes any faux summer floral arrangements, lightweight hot-weather bedding and floral-scented potpourri and candles.

If you undressed your windows for a lighter summer look, now’s the time to add some layering. Side panels flanking sheers or even bare windows are enough. Balloon valances over shutters or Venetian blinds (I trust they are wooden) are a terrific look that adds fabric and pattern as well as weight.

The same idea applies to the floors: If you went for cooler-feeling bare floors for the summer, unroll the rugs and cover them up again. It’s almost like putting on a jacket.

Since we are nearing the holiday season — and 2007 is staring us in the face — use arrangements of harvest vegetables to take you through Thanksgiving. Mix in some chrysanthemums, if that’s your thing. For tablescapes, include some faux leaves scattered around the tabletop.

Fill the house with aromas reminiscent of fall. Pumpkin spices, gingerbread and apple cider with cinnamon and cloves in the form of potpourri and scented candles will get the juices flowing.

Unfortunately, I have yet to come up with a way to incorporate fall and Christmas decorations. Winter has a completely different feeling, so carefully pack up the fall decorations and save them for another year. Switch out the fall harvest displays for baskets of pinecones and Della Robbia-style fruit arrangements for tabletops and front doors.

The smell of winter is pine, brandied fruit and cranberries with orange. The colors of winter were traditionally snow white, evergreen and poinsettia red. Then icy blue and silver caught on. And after that, it was “anything goes.” The whole range of reds from pink to burgundy, gold and even black became popular. These days, it’s fashionable to coordinate Christmas/winter decorations with one’s home d8Ecor. Simple touches like throw pillows with winter themes added to the sofa and a comforter across the foot of the bed are quick and easy.

Or you can go a couple of steps further:
Give your furniture a seasonally appropriate slipcover treatment.

Switch out artwork. Replace the summer landscape with a snowy scene hung over a crackling fire for just the right touch to cozy up a chilly winter evening.

Put away the photos of the beach, and display fall and winter holiday photographs instead.
These are great ways to shift gears instantly and take your home from one season to the next. In the right setting, we can at least dream about crackling fires and chilly evenings.

Q. I’d love to paint the walls in our little living room a dark color to make the cream and beige furniture stand out. Will this make the room look even smaller?

A. Intense, bold colors completely change the dimensions of a room, but that doesn’t mean it shrinks the space. Darker paint shows off architectural details and alters the light in a room, which is a good thing, as the walls become more interesting. It brings warmth and drama into a room and makes it feel friendlier.

You can create a fabulous background to highlight your furniture with a delicious caf8E au lait, rich caramel or milk chocolate on the walls. Do the trim in cream to contrast with the walls and tie in with the furniture. Bring the wall color to the furniture with pillows, throws and area rugs. For a cool and trendy window treatment, pull all the shades together in an oversized plaid.

Remember the ceiling! It’s the fifth wall of your room. Paint it a couple of shades lighter than the walls. Colored ceilings do not close in the space — they make a room look and feel complete.

Think turquoise for an accent color. Possibilities are a vase, a lamp with a turquoise glass base, touches of turquoise in the pillows and maybe the window treatment and rugs. But don’t overdo it. An accent color should be subtly introduced — it shouldnsmack you in the face.

Q. I have just installed mocha-colored kitchen cabinets, trimmed at the top with white crown molding that reaches to the ceiling. The rest of the kitchen also has crown molding, but it’s a different color. What is the rule for joining these moldings?

A. Traditionally, crown moldings throughout the house are painted the same color for uniformity. However, these days there are no hard and fast rules for much of anything, although I do think that since moldings are a decorative element, they should be treated as such — they should not be painted the same color as the walls so that they disappear.

Here are some options for you to consider: if your intent is to make your cabinets look taller, paint the crown moldings above them the same color as the cabinets. If height isn’t an issue and the molding is the same size and design as the rest of the kitchen, go for uniformity and match it up with the same color.

What you should not do is introduce a third color. This means: Don’t do mocha cabinets, white crown moldings above them and another color on the rest of the kitchen crown moldings.

Tip: When you need extra shelf space in the kitchen, go up the window with glass shelving. The glass disappears and doesn’t block the natural light. Be sure to tuck in some greenery – it’s the perfect place for growing things. You’ll add decorative interest to your window and pick up the needed storage space as well.

A word of warning: If we happen to have a “cold spell,” move live plants away from the window until it warms up a bit.

Q. How much furniture can one room hold? I “inherited” an oak dining room table and four chairs from my in-laws. The set has to go in our formal living room because the dining room is already beautifully decorated with my own things. Our piano also needs to be in the living room. Any ideas about how I can make this all work?

A. The problem isn’t so much about the amount of furniture as it is about what kind of furniture you’re trying to put into one room. Of course, if your living room is generously sized, you can zone the space for different uses and unify the pieces with little tricks like changing the upholstery on the seats of the oak chairs to match or coordinate with the living room furniture. Or add seat cushions on bare wood chairs to tie them in with the rest of the furniture. Then there is always the slipcover option.

A smallish dining room table can be used as a game table or shoved against the wall. Dressed with a lamp, flowers and gobs of books, it becomes a library table. Find other uses for the extra chairs. But if the set screams “dining room” and doesn’t work with the existing living room d8Ecor, look for opportunities to use the furniture elsewhere, or pass it on to another member of the family.

Until next time, happy holidays and happy decorating.

Priscilla Kohutek, internationally published home decorating columnist and author, draws from her own experience and the advice of experts to answer your questions. Send your queries to her via e-mail at Priscilla@askpriscilla.com or mail them to SAN ANTONIO WOMAN, 8603 Botts Lane, San Antonio, TX 78217.