As for decorating your place for Halloween on the cheap —
Decorate your home and yard with everyday items and almost-trash, like leftover candle stubs and toilet-paper ghosts, the glossy magazines tell you. Right. Not.
What genius was the first to suggest that lighted candles and paper products could be a safe mix? Now throw in gangs of rambling trick-or-treating kids wearing capes and robes and all manner of flammable costumes? Uh-uh.
Not only that, it has been known to rain on October 31st… So what happens to your elegant glowing lights and drifting ghosts, if it rains? Soggy toilet paper draped over trees. In the dark. Not so chic and clever after all, is it? And you’ll just have to clean it all up the next day…
You can do better, even on a tight budget.
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There are few color combinations as flexible as black and white. So why do we only seem to see it in either a modern minimalist style or formally traditional, or maybe upmarket French Country, or self-conscious goth?
There’s got to be another way — liveable and classic, but with a touch of whimsy — much more personal…
I’d love to do a room in the black-and-white toile decor style, but with a funky twist.
Instead of the usual toile landscape pattern, for example, what about doing your throw pillows or valences or other accents in a black-and-white dog print fabric?
Or do a trapunto treatment on a swatch of toile, padding out areas of the print to make a three-dimensional effect? Very special as upholstery on the top of an ottoman, or framed as wall art.
And if you’re using fabric as wall art, why not go for an over-sized piece of an over-sized print? I covered a 3×5-foot bulletin board in a bold Art Deco-inspired fabric for a home office, once. It really jazzed the place up!
Go for the unexpected, that’s what I’m saying — because black and white decor can be anything but conservative and boring!
In Ribbons and Trims, the decor-craft book that I was gushing about earlier this week, there’s a picture of a simple off-white lampshade covered in closely-fitted parallel rows of black pompom trim — what they used to call “bobbles” — of the kind you might associate with an edging on a curtain or a tourist-souvenir sombrero.
Just imagine — in an otherwise traditional room, a lamp like that would show such a sense of humour and style!
What could be even better than black-and-white toile accessories to add a note of nostalgic elegance to your decor?
The same vintage pattern in a velvet-textured wallpaper!
It’s part of the opulent W&R Antique Velvet Wallpaper collection at Wandrlust.
