Home decorating: summer living

A relaxed holiday home is the perfect place to spend lazy summer days.

 

Mix and match
Beach houses are often furnished with cast-offs from other houses, along with other ‘treasures’ discovered along the way. When combining an eclectic collection of items, neutral tones usually work best. If you find a perfectly-formed item that’s just the wrong colour, a few coats of paint or a new fabric covering can help to transform it. With smaller collectables, choose a common theme for your collection, whether it be texture, colour or subject.

 

Sleep easy
When designing a bedroom, aim to eliminate as much clutter as possible, to keep the space restful. Under-bed drawers and tall boy dressers can provide much-needed out-of-sight storage. Choosing furniture in tones of white will create a calming, simple canvas which you can then punctuate with bursts of colour from interchangeable items such as fresh flowers, cushions and bed linen. When in doubt, keep it simple.

 

Between the sheets
If you’re looking to invest in new bed linen, take a look at thread counts. The thread count of a sheet refers to the number of threads per 10 square cm of fabric. The higher the thread count, the softer the fabric. If you’re choosing between 100 per cent cotton or a cotton/polyester blend, consider that cotton sheets will be softer and will ‘breathe’ more. The advantage of polyester-blend sheets is that they are cheaper, and won’t wrinkle as much.

 

Back to nature
One of the main aims when building this house was ensuring that it integrated well with its surrounding natural environment. The colours of the outside walls were chosen to replicate the colours of the nearby trees and pine cone seeds, while unfinished wooden floors and natural materials are employed throughout the interior. The decking that edges the house was built around the existing living trees.

Photography: Daniella Mac Adden. Styling: Mariana Repoport.