Only Make-Believe - Gardens for the Winter Weary
If you feel artistically challenged, then try substituting a picket fence for the lattice. You don't see nearly as much wall through the pickets. Cheat and get a few nice-looking silk flowers to poke through the slats.
In a bedroom, why not use the picket fence idea for the bed's head and footboards, and then use decorative birdhouses as finials atop the posts. You could use a trellis as a device for organizing scarves or jewelry by adding small pegs to it as hangers. In fact you could even use small sections of picket fencing as interior shutters on the window, and lattice for the closet doors. If you do this, though, make sure it is in the room of someone who tends to keep their closets neat.
And of course you must use a few pieces of lacy white wicker - chairs and perhaps a table or two.
Sophisticated - Perhaps Shabby Chic
Maybe country cottage isn't quite the style for you. You want something a bit more elegant - even faded elegance if that's all you can afford - or if you want to appear to be so rich that you can afford a disregard for precious objects.
Gazing balls clustered together in odd numbers can function as sculpture for your coffee table or dining table. Try using a trio of silver ones mixed with silver candlesticks with tall white tapers - or use a cluster of votive lights in clear glass.
For the walls and tabletops, once again, check the local garden center. More and more of them are stocking really lovely sculptures and wall plaques in cast stone. Some even mimic the look of architectural fragments very convincingly. And do look for the new pots that look convincingly like stone or lead but which weigh almost nothing. They make fantastic looking wastebaskets.
Instead of lattice, use wrought iron or cast iron for a more luxurious look. Keep your eyes peeled - salvage yards and flea markets often have sections of cast iron fencing. These can do everything that lattice can - in fact they make a very sophisticated looking headboard for the bed. You may not want to use these for shutters though - the iron bars on windows look has come to mean protection from danger rather than the happy refuge feeling we seek in the garden. But if you get lucky and find some very ornate panels, you may be able to create a look that is more
Latest Articles