Austin Toaf Rica

Archive for December, 2009

To increase the feeling of “no place like home,” how about decorating for a favorite aunt with a three-dimensional wall hanging? Grandmother’s hand-me-down dress against one wall is reminicent of times when women didn’t always wear jeans. I drape a red cut- glass necklace that belonged to Grandma Daisy over a gold-framed mirror as a symbol of her love of elegant things. Photographs of her in elaborate hats and lavish lace collars add the charm of the gilded age I missed.
For a girlfriend, change out of the Victorian style by replacing Grandma’s dress with Mom’s. I treasure my mother’s fifties-era little black dress, so early “Jackie.” In this outfit, Mom looked like the princess she never recognized herself to be. I can change the whole context of a guest room by using that dress to achieve black-and-white elegance. Photographs of Parisian scenes, stored from the girls’ old rooms, replace the Victorian motif.