Summertime and the living (room) is easily transformed. That's right: 'tis the season to roll up the heavy rugs and bring out those linen slipcovers.
This particular summer, though, the range of linen furnishings is broader than usual, encompassing much more than slipcovers and drapery panels and extending beyond the parlour.
Take, for instance, organic lifestyle company Gaima's eco-chic shower curtain made of flax grown without pesticides. Besides adding a warm, natural note to almost any style of bathroom, it's resistant to mould and mildew and stands up to numerous washings, acquiring a super-soft texture in the process.
Then there's American-based Anthropologie's charming “linen” side table, a compact poplar-frame piece covered entirely with sanded linen and finished with a translucent glaze. (Even though Anthropologie recently began shipping to Canada, the table is available in its U.S. stores only. Measuring 23.5 inches high and 18.5 inches wide, however, it should slip easily into your back seat during that next road trip to Seattle, Chicago or Detroit.)
Linen side table, $524 (U.S.) at Anthropologie stores in the United States, www.anthropologie.com.
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Cheryl Zale, the showroom manager at Crown Wallpaper + Fabrics in Toronto, cites the growing popularity of linen wall coverings among a wide cross-section of decorators.
The company, which also operates showrooms in Vancouver and Montreal, offers a handsome range of textured linen wallpapers (most of which are from Belgium and Japan) in a variety of earthy tones.
“Some [customers] like the fact that they're eco-friendly; others like their sophistication,” says Zale. “Linen wallcoverings are eclectic – you can use them in a very traditional setting or a very contemporary setting. But they're also classic – they don't date.”
According to Zale, buyers are using such coverings, which are typically laminated to a paper backing for easy application to walls, “all over the house, from the front hall to living and dining rooms to master bedroom.s”
At the other end of the colour spectrum from Crown's elegantly muted papers are a growing array of uncommonly vibrant linen housewares.
Balanced Design of Rhode Island, for instance, offers a range of enticing linen and linen/hemp toss pillows sporting simple stripes and patterns in arresting shades and combos, while Bookhou, a Toronto design firm run by John Booth and Arounna Khounnoraj, has made storage sublime with its canvas-lined, natural-linen basket bearing hand-painted images of tiny red trees.
Now wouldn't those look great with that slipcovered sofa?
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