by Carol King

Flowers on wallpaper, slipcovers, carpets, draperies, and pictures don’t seem so important in summer when all the world is a garden, but boy are they uplifting during a blizzard! Instead of loitering around the florist’s cooler and sticking my head in when no one’s looking to get a dose of life giving lilies, roses, and spicy sweet carnations, when I need a flower hit, I can simply look at my dining room curtains.

The big fat peachy rust roses, the fresh green leaves, not to mention assorted fruit, forget me nots, and other fanciful stuff of the artist’s fevered imagination and this particular color-way, which was not the one I wanted, but why go over the wailing and tearing of hair when the wrong fabric arrived? Well, they just perk me right up when it’s sleeting, snowing, or otherwise acting like winter outside.

These curtains remind me of the garden in high summer and give the room a gardenesque feel. I think they are pretty, even if I did make them myself and can see how the jabots still, no matter how much I fiddle with them, don’t hang quite right. If ever you come here, just avert your eyes.

Whether you are creating a garden, a home office, or a dining room, the design process is always the same. Ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” (Because I need my head examined and life isn’’t complicated enough, is why.)

What is needed? What is wanted? What is possible? What is the style?” In the dining room, in addition to the need for swags in the windows so the windows all across the front of the house would match, and to warm up the room with color, and to coordinate with the Oriental rug and blue woodwork trim, the overriding concern was always, “What fabrics and colors will look good with the flowers from the garden? Or else the flowers and fruit that are available in winter?”

This may seem a tad picky, but if the daffodils in your garden are bright yellow and orange and you adore sunflowers, and your wallpaper is pink-yes, I know, flowers are always attractive, but they are more attractive if they look good in the room where you put them.

Looking good is sort of the point, isn’t it? It is just as easy to chose colors and fabrics for your house that look great with the garden flowers you love as it is to chose colors that clash. Failing that, you can always choose garden flowers to go with your decor. Today I’m making out my plant and seed orders, and as always, I’m not only thinking about what the garden needs, I’m considering what will look good in the dining room, living room and elsewhere.

[Thanks: http://www.theday.com]