add spice with pumpkin
Halloween’s over for another year but here’s a way to keep the lively warmth of pumpkin in your home all winter long…sumptuous velvet drapes.
The moment I saw this photograph of Ina Gartner’s Manhattan apartment (you know and love her as The Barefoot Contessa cookbook author, magazine personality and television host) in House Beautiful a few years back, I knew I loved it.
Just the words alone ~ “pumpkin coloured velvet curtains” ~ mmm..if that doesn’t warm up your living room on a bleak November day, what will?
But if that doesn’t suit, how about eggplant? Or olive green or red current? Ina would love that we’re using food for inspiration! 
This room is a wonderful example of what I believe to be a simple recipe for successful decorating: livable neutrals on the walls, floors and some furnishings, livened up with a punch of intense, forthright colour that creates instant look-at-me interest and personality.
Without the shot of orange in this room it would look like any other. And yet the orange doesn’t have to be orange - it could be any other intense hue.
It also doesn’t have to be on the drapes (although I think it’s a great place to add softness and luxury to a Canadian room), it could be on the sofas instead and the curtains done in natural linen.
Remember my own red sofa? It steals the show with white walls and beige/brown floors.
You’ve likely got the neutral room, now just pick a place for a pow! of colour.
Easy to change. Easy to live with. Definitely a statement.
Ok, if I haven’t convinced you, I’ve convinced myself….I don’t know where I’m going to put it but I’m off to find “pumpkin coloured velvet!” … “yards and yards of it!” … she joyously exclaims!
Velvet to match the flames in the crackling fireplace on a cold winter night…heaven.
Thank you for another great recipe Ina!
Oh, I meant to mention that Pottery Barn carries some nice colours of velvet drapes…here’s an image….
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