Here’s 10 easy steps to help you decorate like the white-washed charmer and pull things from different eras into one harmonious whole.
BRUSH UP ON COLOUR
Never underestimate the transformative powers of colour. Paint offers immediate gratification, even the good stuff is affordable, and a careful amateur can do a good job. Hate your house. Try paint first. We love the blue and white theme used at Halcyon House.
BE INDIVIDUAL
Follow Halcyon’s lead and don’t confine yourself to what’s in showrooms. Style is imagination, balance, and knowing how to finish things. That might be using a knockout fabric on your bedhead, carrying it through with matching cushions on your bed, then picking it up with a clashing design on the wall. Use your imagination.
SPEND ON UNUSUAL LIGHTING
Halycon’s rustic sconces, table lamps, wall lights and ceiling fixtures are not only focal points, but also add a fab injection of good-looking texture.
KEEP IT REAL
Choose natural fabrics over synthetic, authentic old paintings over reproductions. Something battered and weathered with a history has style simply because it’s real. But then so does something that is unapologetically modern: it will always speak authentically of the age in which it was made.
DON’T BE TIMID
If you love a fabric, or colour, don’t just cover a cushion in it. Go for it! Display things in big, bold groups, don’t dissipate their effect by scattering them arround. Aim for effect, not the middle ground. Be ambitious.
PUNCH UP YOUR ROOMS WITH A POP OF BLUE
The Parisian-style blue café chairs and stools at Halcyon have a lot more impact in the hotel’s common areas than would your average Joe seating. Try the all-weather, fade-resistant designs for seating at kitchen counters, dining tables, even outdoors. Very Riviera.
A TOUCH OF TRADITION
Take inspiration from the past and period details. Halcyon House not only adds an element of history to its spaces, the copius use of vintage landscapes and marine paintings plus blue and white china, sets a tone of serious sophistication, but the play of scale and placement keeps the look fresh and current.
BALANCE FLOWERS WITH FOLIAGE
Do as Halcyon House does with flowers and go with the seasons, be confident and imaginative. You want your flowers to look as natural as possible, not as if they have come out of a glasshouse.
THROW IN SOMETHING UNEXPECTED
Once you’ve made the big decisions the rest is how you put it all together. Pair the unexpected. Mix incongruous elements: plastic woven chairs teamed with an old timber table; florals with ikat.
A GREAT BANQUETTE
Rethink how you gather around the pool with a great banquette. It’s one of the best ways to make your pool area look expensive.
PLANT IT OUT
Even if your outdoor space is small, try Mediterranean chic with olive trees in terracotta pots. A classic, classic look.
MAKE AT LEAST ONE SPECTACULAR CHANGE
One of the biggest bangs for your buck to create extra space is to add bifold doors or windows. Look at Halcyon’s open-air bar, and you get the picture. It’s not cheap, but it’s life changing.
