Add color, warmth to get through the winter
Don’t be fooled by all the attention paid to “spring cleaning,” says interior decorator and professional organizer Kathryn Bechen.
the transition from summer to fall can be an even better time to get your home organized and in shape, since many of us shift our focus indoors.
the approach of fall is an opportunity, Bechen says, to infuse your space with enough color and warmth to carry you through the winter ahead.
Clean and clear
Late summer and early fall are the ideal times to go through your wardrobe and kitchen cabinets selecting things for donation, says Donna Smallin, an organizing and cleaning guru whose most recent book is “A to Z Storage Solutions” (Storey, 2008). If you wait any longer, she says, the holidays will arrive and you won’t get the donation done in time for the coming year’s tax return.
Be tough, she says: Warm-weather items that you didn’t use this past spring and summer really should go.
Interior designer Mallory Mathison advises putting away the plastic and acrylic kitchen items you relied on all summer. Bringing out heavier pottery pieces and baskets will change the look of your kitchen, especially if you use them to display fall vegetables and fruits.
Sort through the remaining clutter that’s accumulated all summer and get things put away. Then, Smallin says, clean everything that normally gets ignored, from light switches and light fixtures to door frames and kitchen cabinets. For an added face-lift, touch up the paint around doors and windows. and use a smudge remover to banish fingerprints and other evidence of a busy summer.
Rugs and floors should be cleaned if you’ve had a lot of indoor-outdoor traffic during the summer. also be sure to clean summer bedding and linens before packing them away, Bechen says. She advises storing summer items in large plastic storage bins. If you choose opaque ones, rather than clear, label them to identify the contents.
Last, you can clean your home with scented products, and bring in woodsy fragrances with sprays and candles.
does all of this sound daunting? “The thought of doing a whole big cleaning can be overwhelming,” Smallin says, so “each day, pick one thing that inspires you” and tackle that task.
there are many creative ways to bring in the warm, deep colors and cozy textures of fall, Mathison says. Some are obvious: bed and bath linens, accent pillows, place mats, cloth napkins. but there are plenty of other opportunities for injecting fall colors.
“People think of slipcovers for summer, but you can slipcover a chair with chocolate brown velvet,” Mathison says, and bring a cozy fall look into the room. She also loves “a pair of really worn-in, dark brown espresso leather pillows.”
More tips for fall
Mathison advises clients to swap out white lampshades for warmer-colored ones when summer ends. “Say you have a black iron lamp,” she says. “Using a toffee-colored linen shade looks so different than a white silk shade. and it casts a warmer glow.”
She also brings a golden glow to picture frames and furniture using a product called Rub n Buff, which gives a warm, burnished look.
and Mathison loves layering rugs at this time of year. “If you have something like a 9-by-12 sea grass rug,” she says, “layer a slightly smaller rug on top” that has deeper colors and a cozy texture. You can also add warm throw blankets over a sofa or chair.
“Look to what’s happening in fashion” this time of year, Mathison says. “You’re layering your house in the same way to feel cozy … pulling out a cable-knit cashmere throw the same way you’ll pull out your sweaters.”
Small moves, big payoff
most of us don’t have time to redecorate heavily each season, Bechen says. and we probably don’t have room to store a lot of seasonal items.
For maximum impact without too much work, she suggests focusing seasonal decorating on your front entryway and your dining table.
at the entryway, hang a fall wreath and add a seasonal welcome mat, Bechen says. both are available in many styles, from simple to elaborate, and can help put your personal stamp on the space.
To go a step further, Mathison says, swap out the fading summer plants and flowers in outdoor planters with fresh plants in fall colors.
For your dining table, add a tablecloth and centerpiece in warm reds, golds and browns. Keep the centerpiece relatively simple, warns Bechen – say a basket of pumpkins and gourds. that way, you can keep it in place while the family eats.
Seasonal decorating, she says, doesn’t have to involve every room. better a few small but bold moves. “If you scatter it all throughout the space, it doesn’t have the impact. You want it to pop.”
This article appeared on page E – 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Add color, warmth to get through the winter
at Potter’s Ridge Hotel We moved to One Tagaytay Place the next day, driving past the cut-off to Sta. Rosa towards DAP. on the outside, it didn’t look too promising, resembling a Makati office building; it was also on the other side of the road away from the lake, so only the upper floors would get a view, and we didn’t. But I’d seen pictures of the rooms online, where I made our booking, and was impressed by the modernity and yet also the apparent comfortableness of things. when we stepped into our room, we didn’t immediately realize how small it was, because every inch of space had been used thoughtfully, so that we actually had a small kitchen and dining table at the far end. I had a small, easily movable work table for my laptop (and yes, the wifi worked, and was free), and the large flat-screen TV was a pleasure to use. The bedcover was thick and snuggle-worthy. too busy to step out—I was finishing a book draft, so this was really no vacation—we took our meals in the restaurant downstairs, and were surprised by how good and reasonably priced the food was; Beng pronounced the pumpkin soup the best she’d ever had. 
Our room at One Tagaytay Place on the other hand, as I mentioned earlier, we had to settle for a view of—yes, the parking lot, and the green, fog-draped hills of Cavite beyond. The breakfast buffet was so-so—again, a pity, because I’m one of those guys who thinks of the breakfast buffet as one of the highlights of a hotel stay. overall, One Tagaytay Place proved well worth the tab. (Let me also remark that the interior designer did a good job using muted colors—avocado green, coffee brown—instead of the pinks and violets that seem to afflict many other places in this country.) it was a restful weekend, capped by a stop along the way to load up on buko pie and white corn. And, of course, some take-home bulalo from Leslie’s, which has probably the best public view of Taal Lake. Can’t wait to finish another book! 
The lake view from Leslie’s * One of the nice things about watching TV in a hotel is that you’ll probably get more channels than you do at home. In Tagaytay, that meant the History Channel and the Crime and Investigation Channel—just the thing I was looking for to complete my weekend escapade. I mean it—there’s nothing I find more relaxing, strangely enough, than watching murder and mayhem, much less for the gore than the sheer cathartic effect of witnessing the evil that men (and some women) do—especially if they do it to others and not to you. So Beng and I spent much of our two restful Tagaytay evenings watching shows about serial killers, cannibals, and other miscreants while munching on peanuts and chippies. why, we soon wondered, did all or most serial killers happen to be in America, and why didn’t we have them in the Philippines? (Of course, as I was writing this, real life just had to butt in and spoil this thesis, by flushing out a suspected serial killer in Angeles City, preying mainly on Caucasians, in an odd twist.) Could it be, I theorized, that they don’t eat rice, like we do? Don’t be silly, Beng said, what would rice have to do with the compulsion to kill? well, I said, it’s the chewing…. We need to chew our rice, and in the process, we calm down, we get sleepy, we don’t think about killing people…. I’m getting sleepy right now…. You’re just getting old, Beng said. And that’s the last thing I remember hearing. Email me at and visit my blog at penmanila.net.
Good luck.
