All summer I played around with colour schemes involving orange and yellow. I dearly love both colours. Orange, Green and Violet is a beautiful triad and show up in my scrap pages regularly. But I wasn't sure I wanted my house in that colour scheme! And is that colour above blue? or violet? Well, a violet-blue would do--but have you seen anything--anything--violet-blue lately? (Well, maybe lately--very lately--and I predict there will soon be more.) But yellow is the opposite (or complementary colour) of violet. And it's cheerier to boot. Not only that, but my kitchen is already yellow and I love it.
Checking out books from the library on colour and decorating, I discovered Susan Sargent. Checking out her website and products I discovered these draperies. At $300.00 a panel, they were so completely out of my price range it hurt.
During this cure, I took down some curtain panels in the living room to make way for the brown drapes I have up now, and found they fit perfectly in this space, my "library landing," if you will----created during the first week of the cure. 
But they just. don't. work. Too dark, too long, and I hated them.Today I wandered into Value Village (a second hand shop with items of dubious quality but copious quantities of them) and scored these:
Oh happy day! They are the colour scheme I've been dreaming of. They are the right "vintage" (whatever it may be) to please me. I also bought a dark rust orange sheet to lengthen them if I want, but I don't think I do. It's as if they were tailored to the length of that window.
Being "old fashioned" they do require metal prong inserts for the pleats--and thus a curtain ring which will accept it. I've looked almost everywhere I can think of--and nada. zip. zilch.
Nevertheless, I'm thrilled.
PS. These "Joyous Colours" are not wardrobe candiates. They do funny things to my skin!
I'm happy for you -- but I can't see the pic of the drapes you bought!!! It just has a little box-indicating-there-should-be-an-image-here.
ReplyDeleteI love your Library Landing. It is perfect.
Okay, I can see the image of the drapes now. Ignore what I just said. Except the happy for you, and love the Library Landing part. :)
ReplyDeleteOf course, I adore your new curtains (and could wear them, if I were Scarlet O'Hara in need of a quickie cocktail dress).
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, one thing you won't hear me say is to dress how you decorate or vice-versa. What looks good in the light through your window doesn't necessarily look good against your skin.
Thank you. It's a pet peeve of mine, that advice to "go look in your closet" to find colour schemes to decorate with! How boring! How unimaginative! Sure, steal all my fun. Decorating is about choices and reinvention and finding great stuff costing next to nothing....well, I suppose some would say the same about their wardrobe.
ReplyDeleteOk, I can visit this later after WT.
I definitely don't want to "go look in my closet" to find color schemes for decorating... definitely. While I love to dress in red, and cobalt blue, and turquoise (and clear, true, purple), there's no way I'd want an abundance of those colors in my decor. Okay, I have red accents in my kitchen, but just small accents. Too much COLOR (has to be in capital letters) in home decor just gets me agitated and tense. Color in clothing gives me joy.
ReplyDeleteYour new curtain is a happy curtain. A joy-bringing curtain. And I'm trying to find an idea in my mind to deal with the hook thingies that need to go in the top of the curtain. Maybe I'll dream something up in the night (literally). They say if you have a problem or conundrum like that, to think about it as you're going to sleep, and a solution may present itself to you in your sleep. Hmmm, I dunno. (How come "they" always know so much?)
Too much COLOR (has to be in capital letters) in home decor just gets me agitated and tense. Color in clothing gives me joy.
ReplyDeleteNow THAT is a very important and cogently put distinction.
Weirdly, I just realized that the color scheme of our current apartment does correspond with our (the husband's and mine, not the royal "we") wardrobes. This wasn't deliberate and hasn't been true in other homes, and it was largely a result of having to work with the color of the upstairs carpet.
I love the print on those curtains...what a great find. I don't think I would ever decorate my house in the colors I wear...because my wardrobe is almost entirely black...though hopefully by participating in the wardrobe therapy cure, I'll lighten up a bit and add color to my wardrobe.
ReplyDeleteare the hooks you need like these? http://www.loudfrog.com/itemdetail.aspx?detailID=233783
ReplyDeleteObviously you don't want nine pounds, but might be able to buy a few instead. I know my local fabric store carries these...
BTW, I absolutely LOVE the landing library!