Changing Décor with the Seasons

Many of us are now in the process of decorating for the winter holidays, having taken down the Halloween and autumnal décor we’ve had up inside and out since Labor Day. Perhaps you never decorated for Halloween, and started your winter decorating as summer began to wane. Some of you may change things up ever so slightly as the winter holidays approach, while others switch things up whenever the mood hits. It’s your house! There is no right or wrong way to decorate it for the holidays or any time of year.

At our house, we change out our kitchen curtains and many of our pillow covers and tablescapes with the seasons. For us, changing the kitchen curtains is a must – they pick up kitchen odors and grease, and washing them at least once a year is absolutely necessary. Our kitchen windows also get a lot of direct sun, and changing the curtains every three months extends their life, since each set of curtains then spends nine months in storage. Being able to regularly launder the pillow covers in our living room is just as important, as our dog moves from the couch to a chair and back again many times each day. But just as important to me (at least) is the opportunity to tweak the atmosphere in our home with the seasons: cozy for winter, hopeful for spring, exuberant in summer, and calming for fall. Finally, it’s a way for me to celebrate and enjoy the many fabric colors, patterns, and textures I come across and to experiment with ways to mix them up.

When I make a new pillow cover for the living room, or a new set of curtains for the kitchen, I begin by washing the fabric. Yes, even the designer linens I find on the remnant table get washed if they are going into my home. I do this to see how the fabric will hold up under regular laundry conditions, and to preshrink and remove any sizing. I would rather ruin a $5 remnant before I add a zipper or lining to it, and before I invest the time to design and make something from it. If the fabric is something I am repurposing, like our new winter kitchen valances made from an old set of bark cloth drapes (which were suffering from sun rot), it is likely to need a good wash before I start to sew. I wash the fabric on delicate, in cold water, and hang dry. These fabrics will never see the inside of my dryer. And, that is how I will continue to wash them in the years to come. My only exceptions to this process are the few pillow covers we have purchased over the years at Pottery Barn or Ikea (I follow their cleaning instructions) and the rare times I use velvet. Our current winter pillows in the living room are made from a set of four velvet upholstery samples, and those I do take to the dry cleaner.

Even if you do not make your pillow covers or curtains, you can still change them with the seasons. It gives your home a refresh, and can also stem the boredom of always looking at the same things month after month after month. It can even satisfy the urge for change and something new which trends inspire without the waste of constantly buying new things only to get rid of them when the trends change.

Having so many changes of pillow covers and curtains doesn’t strain our storage. We only change the pillow covers; the inserts remain in place, and pillow covers, without the inserts, can be stored flat or folded. In our little bungalow, there are only a few closets and built-ins, so we use an old painted dresser in our dining room to store our pillow covers and kitchen curtains in the off-season. I could just as easily place them in an unscented garbage bag and slide them under the bed. They really don’t take up that much space.

I have an old set of Ladybird books I display in a stack in our front entry. These four books, What to Look For in Winter/Spring/Summer/Autumn, set the seasonal mood for our home, even if I am the only one who ever notices. At the start of each season I hit reset by moving the appropriate book to the top of the small stack, and we are off to the races.