261: 5 Ideas for Welcoming the Seasons into Your Home
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
Shannon Ables
4.7 • 944 Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2019
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"A home should reveal the personalities of its inhabitants. At its best it should be a portrait of who you are . . . Look at your house as an artist would and have fun creating vignettes as a painter would a still life." —Kristin Perers, author of A Home for All Seasons
Fall will arrive next week on the 23rd and spring for the southern hemispheren on the same date. The changing of the seasons, as I recently shared in an interview on the Synced Life podcast, is a consistent and dependable way to be present in our everyday lives.
By choosing to be present during each season we are acknowledging that its presence in our lives is evanescent, fleeting and in three months' time will transition into something different. Waiting nine more months is necessary to experience the gifts of each season. Simply knowing the reality, we have all the more motivation to revel in the gifts of each season.
Last month TSLL reader Tracy emailed me and introduced me to Kristin Perers' book, A Home for All Seasons which was released quite a few years ago. But as one might imagine, since we have the same seasons each year, it is a classic of a book to refer to every three months - if nothing else, to serve a reminder for ample inspiration.
Perers suggests that when we decorate with the seasons, revolving with them, we make our home feel much more alive and dynamic, but at the same time, reflective of the home's inhabitants. And in so doing, we improve the quality of our days as our moods due to our emotions are elevated with each day we spend in our sanctuary.
Below are a handful of ways to decorate and adorn seasonally as inspired by Perers' book.
1.Let the seasonal blooms make their statement
Whether you pick up your blooms at the farmers' market or from your yard and garden, appreciating the daffodils in early spring, the peonies in late spring, mums in fall and dahlias in late summer, remind us to savor until the blooms are no more.
2. Textiles - slipcovers, curtains, table linens, bed linens, pillows
Depending upon what you have in your home that is upholstered, if you have slipcovers, changing the type of fabric if not the color as well is a way to eagerly begin a new season as well as care properly for the linens you have.
3. Determine the focal points of each community room (living room, dining, kitchen, etc.), and change or decorate it differently for the seasons.
For example, if your fireplace is the focal point, adorn the mantle with seasonal details. If your dining table is the focal point, either with table linens or blooms, choose what you place on top of it to align with the seasons.
4. Create space to contemplate the beauty of nature
I love this suggestion that Perers makes, and while she suggestions physically bringing things in from outside and placing them about the home to prompt us to ponder nature's beauty, I think as well it would be delightful to create somewhere in the home where you can look outside and be cognizant of what season it is. For example, my parents have a sun room in their country home, and with each season my mom will rearrange the furniture: spring - space is made for young seedlings in preparation for planting in the coming months; in summer, ample seating is the preference as it serves as a wonderful place to soak up the sun when stepping outside due to work projects inside is not possible; autumn and the arrangements and bouquets change; and in the winter, the holiday tree is adorned for the festive, wintery season. All the while, we can see outside to observe and celebrate the beauty of the outdoors.
5. Give the bedroom special attention
While making sure to attend to all four of the previous items above for our bedrooms — different blankets, duvet covers and pillow covers for the bed; seasonal blooms for the side table, etc. — always keep in mind the power of a space we inhabit, especially in such an intimate fashion as our bedrooms. Here are a few ways to welcome the changing of the seasons in our most intimate room of our sanctuary:
- Different candle scents for each season
- Intentional framed photos or artwork to inspire your most current dream.
- Linen curtains in the summer, and while selecting the same hue, choose a heavier fabric for late fall and winter to add warmth.
- Different robes and sleepwear for each season.
~Discover and learn more about Kristin Perers' book A Home for All Seasons
SIMILAR POSTS/EPISODES from the Archives You Might Enjoy:
~Why Not . . . Prep for a Great Fall?
~10 Ways to Welcome Spring: An Opportunity to Start Fresh
~Why Not . . . Savor the Reason for the Seasons?
Petit Plaisir:
~Papier hardback customized notebooks (UK site; French site; Australian site; German site)
~TSLL post: Why Not . . . Make Lists? 20 Lists to Keep in Your Everyday Life?
~Check out the second season of The Simply Luxurious Kitchen, the cooking show!
~
~The Simple Sophisticate, episode #261
~Subscribe to The Simple Sophisticate: iTunes | Stitcher | iHeartRadio | YouTube | Spotify
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the simple Sophisticate Podcast, where intelligent living is paired with signature style. |
| 0:16.3 | I'm your host, Shannon Ables. |
| 0:18.8 | And whether you're listening on your commute, exercising, working in the garden, or sitting down with a hot cup of tea or a |
| 0:25.0 | cafe ole. Thank you for tuning in. Let's get started. Welcome to the 261st episode of the Simple Sophisticate. Now today what we're |
| 0:49.3 | going to be talking about are the seasons. As we know the seasons are going to be shifting here next week on the 23rd. |
| 0:55.6 | For our northern hemisphere dwellers, we are going to be shifting into fall in the 23rd |
| 1:00.7 | and spring in the southern on the same date. |
| 1:03.6 | And so I thought I'd bring in some inspiration |
| 1:07.0 | from a book I recently read, recommended to me by a reader |
| 1:10.2 | that fit this theme perfectly. |
| 1:13.0 | Before I dive into that book though, |
| 1:15.0 | I want to give you a hint as to what this week's |
| 1:16.7 | Pateep-Pazir is. |
| 1:18.2 | It's something that I recently did for myself |
| 1:21.1 | upon my move, but it doesn't have to be for that occasion. It can be for any |
| 1:26.2 | occasion and it's a way to record ideas, preserve events, and history, and also just offer inspiration as you look forward in your life in any arena that you truly enjoy investing in. |
| 1:42.0 | So I'm excited to share with you what that is and let's get |
| 1:46.0 | into today's episode. So I want to begin with a quote from the book that is titled |
| 1:51.3 | A Home for All Seasons by Kristen Peers and she writes a home |
| 1:55.7 | should reveal the personalities of its inhabitants. At its best it should be a |
| 2:00.1 | portrait of who you are. Look at your house as an artist would and have fun creating |
| 2:05.0 | vignettes as a painter, wood a still life. Now I recently had the opportunity to be a guest on |
... |
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