Open closets in your home and look inside. How would you describe the wardrobe for
your bedrooms and bathrooms, the truly private sanctuaries of your home? The
sheets you experience as you pull up the covers and turn off the lights and
then awaken to in the morning, and the towels you use to dry your body after
bathing, are of paramount importance in the decoration of houses. The art of
living well at home is to have the eye pleased wherever it wanders, and some
of the most important fabrics in our home are stored in the linen closet.
You get a good idea about the mood of a household from looking in the closets. Just as you are particular about the softness of a cotton nightshirt
or pajamas against your skin, you should never compromise on fine linens. After twenty years you may
have some Porthault or other cotton sheets with a high-quality thread count
that are so old they're full of rips, but they still feel so soft and
luxurious that you can't bear to part with them. The ultimate luxury is to
use your finest linens every day. Indulge yourself, your family, and your
guests by having a wonderful, eclectic selection of sheets, pillows, shams,
blankets, bath towels, and other bed linens.
To be sure your bed linens, terry-cloth bath towels, and dining room tablecloths speak for you, go back to
your basic, personal color palette. Sheets are just as important as clothes, and
I suggest you spend time, energy, and money collecting pure cotton, linen, or
even silk bed linens to enhance your private sanctuary and to nourish yourself
aesthetically. You owe it to yourself to add spice, fantasy, and elegance to the
most intimate moments of your life.
Don't hold back
on purchasing a new set of good sheets or buying three or four new pure white or
brightly colored terry-cloth towels to spruce up your collection. Express your
love of color in the bedroom and bathroom. Even if you prefer white sheets, they
can be embroidered, trimmed, scalloped, or bound beautifully in a fresh tint.
You can collect old white pillow shams, napkins, tablecloths, and hand towels
for years. You may enjoy having a very fine, white cotton, square embroidered
tablecloth draped over a round pine three-legged table in the bedroom to delight
the eye and to inspire a glass of iced tea and a visit.
Each sheet, bath towel, tablecloth, napkin, pillow, and hand towel is part of
the tapestry of home, enticing you to ritualize your daily activities. Here is
where you can quietly and regularly have function and convenience as well as
luxury, elegance, and refinement. The seductive details make a difference when
you're loving, and they comfort you when you're sick. Dinner at the kitchen
table becomes a celebration when you light a candle, put a fresh flower in a
vase, play music, and enjoy pretty cotton napkins. If you want to know more
about yourself, look at your cotton napkins, tablecloths, towels, and sheets.
Look at your striped and flowered cotton hand towels, tea cloths, and cocktail
napkins. All the colors can be from the garden, the sky, and sea. These sweet
refinements should be among your greatest treasures of home life and will grow
in meaning as the memories of happy times with family and friends accumulate.
Your house needs as many seasonal "clothes" as your body. When you build a
collection of fabrics that are sensuous and inviting, you will feel uplifted in
spirit, always having a variety to choose from that will complement your mood,
the weather, and the time of year.
Putting your things in order can be a creative process. You can have fun figuring out the most convenient as well as practical solutions to
storage. Remember that often it's not how much you have, but how well you
arrange things that makes all the difference. Common sense and convenience are
of primary importance in organizing your accumulated possessions so you have
peace of mind about where everything is. But for those who love to feast their
eyes on beautiful things, even the insides of closets and storage areas are
opportunities for experiencing the beauty of order, while also being suitable to
your purposes and needs. This is a tall order if you don't live alone and
everyone in the family has a different set of passions and needs. One system is
never right for everyone, but there are some general rules.
If you like all the things you store, or if they're intensely personal and
meaningful, they can always be arranged in an attractive way so your closets and
storage are aesthetically uplifting as well as sensible.
