The changing seasons can be a perfect inspiration for keeping your home looking current. As Toronto designer Jacqueline Glass explains, you don't need to spend a lot of time or cash to add a bit of seasonal dash. Here are a few of her favourite fresheners.
Fall
Stock up on scented candles as soon as the weather starts to turn cool; look for spicy scents such as "Baked Goods" from Pier One.
A vintage wicker basket, which Jacqueline fills with bread and herbs in the summer, can be used to hold freshly picked apples in the fall; she puts it on her dining room table as a centrepiece, and lets friends and family help themselves.
Return dark-colour throws and cosy pillows to the living room sofa. Dark, rich colours provide a transition from warm-weather decorating to cool-weather decorating.
For nights when it's still warm enough to sit outside on the patio, have a basket filled with socks and light throws to keep guests warm.
Plant fall mums and kale in your garden. Strew a few pumpkins among the last of the greenery in flowerbeds and window boxes, making them look as if they were growing there.
Winter
If you have a fireplace, make it the focal point of the room. Supplement your lighting with candles in multiples on the mantel; pull chairs up to the hearth.
Light slipcovers are put away at last; bring out heavier throws in materials like wool plaid, to ward off midwinter chills.
"I read more in winter," Jacqueline notes, "so I like to have lots of books around me." She'll take favourites down from the shelf and place them in big stacks on tables all through her home—coffee table books on coffee tables where people can leaf through them, but also stacks of novels on side tables by her favourite reading chair, in the hall, on bedside tables, and in guest rooms.
Create a cosy vignette by placing a silver tray on a side table. Set it with a couple of snifters and a cut-glass decanter of brandy that's at the ready for sipping while you read by the fire.
Image courtesy of Crate and Barrel
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