The instant decorator can take heart that many decorative effects and even some historical styles owe a great deal to a spirit of improvisation. In the past, when materials were rare, expensive or hard to come by, people had to make do with what was to hand and the robust, exuberant results of this approach often seem more vital and appealing today than the virtuoso displays of fine craftsmanship in more stately surroundings.
Early American colonists, for example, working to establish their settlements in hard conditions, had little leisure and no money to import expensive luxuries such as hand-printed wallpapers from Europe. Instead, using colored limewash, earth colors and even soot, they stencilled their own simple hand-cut patterns directly on to walls or panelling, over fireplaces and on furniture, a vivacious and free interpretation of the rhythm and structure of traditionalwallpaper designs. And in some cases, paint was daubed on free hand in remarkable splodges and graphic blots – revealing with an endearing directness a deep desire for decoration whatever the limits of present circumstances.
Away from court circles and grand houses, such ingenious economies were usual. Vernacular traditions of decoration sometimes copied in cheaper materials what might be finely executed in luxury ones, but equally often displayed their own forthright style of decoration, handed down through generations. Rough walls washed in brilliant colour, or chalky white, homespun textiles set off with the simplest trimming, quilts and rugs pieced with scraps and snips of fabric, stylized natural or geometric patterns, and the soothing harmonies of stone and wood and clay are the basic elements we have fashioned into country style today an instant vocabulary of simple, reasonable decoration.
Around the world, many of these vernacular traditions persist, a source of ideas for every instant decorator. Paint, easy to use and cheap, is the bases for much decorative gaiety. Along the shores of the Mediterranean and Caribbean, brilliant partnerships of white, sea-greens and blues, hot pinks an rich ochres underscore architectural detail, singing out on painted shutters and doors. Zigzag patterning inside an African mud hut, the scorching clash of pink and magenta on a Mexican verandah, dashing pillar box and window frames and whitewashed walls on an Irish cottage are examples that vividly illustrate simple means of enrichment.
Art is another potent inspiration, whether it takes the form of calligraphic squiggles and dots painted free-hand on the wall for a Matisse-like background; Cocteau-inspired flights of fancy with mirror, fake leopardskin and voluminous drapery; or solid blocks of primary color for Mondrian modernism.
All kinds of ‘found’ objects, beautiful and free, can be the basis for a decorative theme. Sea shells piled in a glass jar or ranged on a window-sill are popular form of display; or you could go further and use the shells as decoration, sticking them on to a mantelpiece or threading them on a muslin curtains. Similarly, packing trunks could be revamped as seating or low tables; battered baskets, waterings-can and pails all make excellent containers.
One piece of advice often given in decorating books is to keep a scrapbook of ideas: pages torn from magazines, postcards, scraps of fabric or ribbon – anything which attracts you for its colour, pattern or ingenuity. This may feel wincingly self-conscious at first, but it will help you decide what you really like and will build up a fund of ideas to spark your imagination. More importantly, it can save a great deal of time when you are trying to think what to do with the spare room and your mind suddenly goes blank.
