I had a good chuckle the other day when someone on a Facebookgroup quite innocently asked what she could use to turn a blackleather sofa into a light brown leather sofa. No, she wasn't lookingfor a slipcover, she likes the leather. Just not the colour.
My fingers naturally itched to type: you need a light brown cow(with a heart condition). But, of course, I restrained myselfbecause, you know, not everyone's sense of humour is welldeveloped. Be that as it may, before long there were someingenious responses, and this one had me laughing out loud:"Magic! You need magic!".
Sometimes magic is indeed the only solution, even if you haveto create your own.
That's what Home readers are known for and as I've said manytimes before, it's also one of the hazards of my job. There are somany beautiful and clever ideas out there that I contract a chroniccase of ‘unbiblical greed' when I page through the storiesand photos in the magazine.
I've just completed a renovation in my own home, a messy businessthat finally drove me to move out because one can only endure so much- especially if you unexpectedly end up fostering a rescue dog and all it wantsto do is run away every time a builder/tiler/painter/plumber/electrician opensthe front gate. My nerves were shattered.
But the dog wasn't my biggest headache. It was making final decisionsabout tiles and paint colours that kept me awake at night and eventuallydelayed the project by weeks. Because just when I thought I had reached adecision, there were new things to consider. I was so overwhelmed that Isimply cancelled the tiler and painter and started the search from scratch.When you're spending money, you don't want to make mistakes!
Which brings me to the bedroom story on page 54. Blue is my favouritecolour, and both of my bedrooms are blue. For me, it's both a warm and a coolcolour. It soothes the soul but still makes a style statement. And you can usevirtually any other colour with it. It's the perfect choice.
Until I saw the green bedroom on page 67. And suddenly I'm, well, greenwith envy. Should I repaint? (As it is, I have a thing about a terracotta pot with acactus in it; take a look at what designer Juanita Lacock says about howbeautifully green and terracotta go together in her expert advice on page 66.)I see floating shelves made of old scaffolding (oh, that staircase on page 35!)and a new bedroom in my future...
The green craze actually started to take hold when we worked on our annualpaint guide: In Home Paint It, which this year focuseson chalk paint projects and includes two free high-quality stencils, there's a chest of drawers that ShellyBergh decorated for us with Annie Sloan's AmsterdamGreen. The tin of paint is staring at me here next to mycomputer screen, and just this morning I GoogledTjhoko Paint's green shades as well.
I'm not usually an indecisive person. But this issue ofHome you're holding in your hands has definitelycreated a d cor dilemma under my own roof.
Should we stick to blue, or should we go for green?
Ai, just when I wanted to pack away the paintbrushes…
Two major competitions are currently underway: our third Rookie Stylistcompetition in partnership with Mr Price Home and theannual Fix it with Flair in partnership with JoJo, both with cashand vouchers up for grabs. Who can resist that? Enter now!
