Marcia Sherrill
Spring Fever!
Our Design Diva offers decorating relief for the purchase prone
BY
Marcia Sherrill
PHOTOGRAPHY
Steve Pomberg

Apply a moist towelette to your fevered brow and arm yourself with a frequent flier-earning charge card. It’s time to make your house an oasis you can escape to, winter be damned. Whether it’s sheer, gauzy drapes or a yard ringed with tiki torches and mosaic vases, you’ll have your home screaming “summer time and the living is easy.” And if that fails, at least you’ll have the miles for that Jamaica trip you’ve always wanted.

Fabric that has been soiled by your ungrateful spawn and that slob with the Sloppy Joe who passes himself off as your loving spouse has got to be replaced. Whether you treat yourself to a $500-a-yard fabric at ADAC or storm the gates at mega-discounters such as Boca Bargoons and Lewis & Sheron, make it your goal this spring to have those sofas and loveseats fit for human habitation. The deft tossing of 20 throws will only hide so many stains. Slipcovers are still an easy fix; with new options such as linens and cheery chintzes, you can Bring Back The Buatta (as in legendary designer Mario) with polished cottons that avoid the cliché giant blooms and opt for small graphic patterns and bold awning stripes. 

Entertaining is about to commence in a major way. Children are graduating, friends are 4th-of-Julying—or God help us—marrying, so get rid of the remnants of Granny’s trousseau and treat yourself to the glorious new options in tablecloths and napkins, monograms and French motifs. Might I even suggest uber-mod designs from the likes of New York’s Kim Seybert with beading and shell trims to keep your table sparkling? Embrace exotic themes and vibrant colors, and ransack the Indian and Chinese shops that dot Peachtree-Dunwoody Road. Scoop up glass votives, brass vases and Turkish-style lanterns that will give your house that Global Village feeling.

Vintage is all the rage, so why live with that knotty pine Paul Bunyan suite that your mother ordered from the beloved Sears catalog? Tap into the trends for ’40s French furniture and scour thrift marts for gilt metal side tables, mirrored desks and tables and velvet-upholstered ottomans. Or try recruiting some local talent and enlist them in making your home insta-glam: Mirror some of your more unsightly pieces or throw some glossy turquoise and coral paint on Formica-topped dressers.

Earth is at the forefront of our national thinking, so get your Gore on with sustainable textiles such as jutes and hemps and look into eco-friendly flooring like bamboo for a kitchen update. Speaking of, bamboo is having a renaissance in everything from bookshelves to waste baskets to Ballard Designs breakfast chairs. Earth-tone colors and neutrals will work with any theme; when re-covering a sofa or jazzing up window treatments, add a hint of nature with shell trim.

Rattan and wicker will shake off the wintertime blues and instantly reveal any room’s sunny side. Try a rattan side table in the master bedroom, a wicker lampshade in the living room or a vine-wrapped table in the bath, and you will feel your fever lift like a case of the old-fashioned vapors.