Xtraordinary Women Magazine July 2015 | Page 36

ask decor diva On our blog, The Design Tabloid, we have an #AskDecorDiva column where we invite our readers to send in any query or decor dilemma that they might have. We in our turn do our utmost to present a do-able solution using our many years of experience and skills. We are hoping that the #AskDecorDiva column will become a regular feature in the Xtraordinary Women magazine. So please, share your decor questions with us! This is an invaluable opportunity to get some awesome (not to mention FREE) advice from some cool decorators. BY Rose McClement Dear Decor Diva, “I’m trying to jazz up my sitting room. I have two dark brown leather sofas which I love, and two big Morris chairs with loose cushions back and bottom. These need re-covering and I want to them to be the focus to pull everything together – so new upholstery on the chairs, new scatters for the couches, new rug. I can’t bear beige and shades of cream and brown but I love jewel colours and would like to go deep blue. Question: does blue go, do I need to pick a patterned, textured fabric for the chairs that would feature brown somehow to link with the couches? Kind regards, Christina Dear Christina, I have to start off by saying that not having an image of the actual room and style of your sofa makes this reply very general. In regards to your chief query - whether or not your colour choice of deep blue will work with your dark brown leather sofas: The answer to that is a definite YES it will! In fact Indigo blue and jewel blues will work very well with brown. You can even consider introducing some warm tones like a Tangerine Tango colour to add dimension and warmth. It is always best to work from the floor upwards in terms of décor layers. In your case, this would be your rug. If you are brave enough, I would suggest you consider something with Moroccan, Aztec, or Navajo patterns, which include the colours I mentioned earlier. Kilims are super trendy once again. Then keep an element of fun going, by continuing on with pattern on your Morris chair cushions. I would say that a narrow striped fabric, with chenille or velvet type texture would work well – the stripes can be drawn from the colours in the rug. Have loads of fun with your scatter cushions patterns and textures. Again draw the colours out of the rug. Mix in plain fabrics, with geo fabrics, with retro patterns, with stripes and then very tactile textured fabrics as well.