Talking texture and sharing some tips for adding more to your home

texture

noun

1. the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or a substance.
   synonyms: feel, touch, appearance, finish, surface, grain, quality, character, consistency, weave, nap
   "the quality and texture of the fabric"

It's something we take for granted in our homes and often it's something we add naturally when we decorate and furnish our rooms, guided by the products on sale no doubt. You might think you don't add texture, or don't have different textured items in the room you're in now.

Take a look around you, and look for the texture

Even if you're in the bathroom, a room you wouldn't naturally think would have much texture, I bet you've got fluffy towels - or wished you had - and a bath mat whose texture contrasts nicely with the smoothness of your tiles. Maybe you've got a loofah, or an exfoliator too... But enough about bathrooms, there's plenty more texture elsewhere in the house.

I'm sharing some snippets from our living room, to show how you can introduce texture easily if you think you could do with some more. 

With wooden floors, leather sofas, high ceilings and a wood and steel spiral staircase in the corner of our living room, we've had to work hard to reduce the echo and 'bounce' of sound, and we quickly realised that soft furnishings help. Cushions are a great way to add texture, and if you have cushions with removable covers then you can swap the covers to match the season.

The most obvious texture we've introduced in our living room is the bamboo wallpaper on the main wall. MOH found it years ago and showed it to me not expecting me to like it, but I did. And when we redecorated it was top of our list, and we haven't regretted it. It's also really easy to hang as it's about a metre wide and the note that comes with it says there's no need to match the pattern either - a novice wallpaper-ers dream!

A WALL LIGHT SHINING THE LIGHT ON OUR SPIRAL STAIRCASE

But it's not just textiles that add interest. Our round CD rack does that too, in a way that a more traditionally shaped rack might not. When I explained to our decorator that we wanted these two wallpapers together and to hang the CD rack back where it was, he told me it wouldn't work. But it does, maybe not in the traditional way, but that's not a reason not to do something is it?

I've mentioned cushions already, and throws, especially fringed throws are another quick way to add texture. And on those cold evenings they're great for some extra warmth too. Julian Charles are currently promoting their #NotCompleteWithout campaign and if you're looking to add more texture to your house then it's worth taking a look at www.juliancharles.co.uk as they've some great homeware items.

Nature too has some great textures, think of the smooth driftwood and the fun you can have searching for that. I've opted for something slightly more easy to find and that's giant pine cones, and equally as much fun to find on a long country walk. I display mine in terracotta pots from my dad, much to MOH's dislike. But for me the pots were too nice to leave in the greenhouse, and way too nice and characterful to just have earth in, I've three in a line, and no idea why I've only photographed two.

Lampshades can also add texture. The one above is a paper shade, you'd never think so would you, its pattern suggests texture and I love how it is against the radiator.  I said we'd worked hard to introduce texture, and along the way we've made what I can now call clever choices, at the time we just liked the chenille patterned material for our curtains.  

These add texture to the small Georgian-style windows but don't overpower the room, which I think is always a challenge with curtains. My ideal curtains are full, flowing and floor length curtains but they wouldn't suit our windows so they're on my list for another house!

Books add texture too. Whether they're more decorative like these above which we picked up in a local bookshop many years ago or your reading pile. If you look carefully in the photo below through the lamp base in the top right, you can spot my reading pile, which seems to have got a little out of control.  The encyclopedias which look old and interesting, are old and interesting but sadly we've no idea just how old. We liked their battered look and that they're Nelson's Encyclopedia, especially as we're up the road from Greenwich with its rich maritime history.

And with a beautiful wooden floor, at times it seems a crime to cover it with a rug but for us it's an essential. Without the rug the room feels bare, and we feel lost. It's amazing how a rug can help ground us, and zone the room - it's taken a while to get the right sized rug, but we're there now and we wouldn't be without it.

So, as I said at the top of this post it's easier to add texture than we think. Did you notice more texture than you first thought when you really looked?

* This is a collaborative post with Julian Charles, but all views and opinions are my own.

A year in Greenwich Park: February

Well the story of this month is lighter evenings - yay! That's been a real treat and long may it continue, and I'd rather this than more Doris, but more on that later. Let's start at the beginning of the month, and at the northern edge of the park. It's this gate that I've been using most mornings leaving the park, and you know how partial I am to some ironwork. It's full of character isn't it?

Close to the gate, quite early in the month there was signs that Spring was coming, it was lovely to see a blast of pink.  I've been walking past the tree below regularly too, and this month it's been the trees that I've seen most often. I've missed the man with the Jack Russell for most of this month, I think that's partly a timing thing and partly a route thing, but I'm hoping to bump into them again.

Good news is that I've started to see the man with the black spaniel again, but I think it's a different black spaniel, a younger version if you see what I mean, and it's fun to watch them as they take their walk. I think the new spaniel has its owner well and truly trained and wrapped around their figurative little finger already, and I expect the owner is enjoying his new companion.

It's been a dull month mostly, weather-wise I mean. There have been blue skies but not so many and at one point I thought I might be struggling for photos for this post, but the lighter evenings turned that around. With the lighter evenings came some gorgeous sunsets, the photo below was on my first evening walk through Greenwich Park on the way home. That hasn't happened since October/November last year, so it was quite a treat.

Relishing walks home through the park I decided to make the most of it and instead of leaving at the Maze Hill exit I carried on towards the flower garden and across the grass on my most-usual summer route. It was still a little damp, but it was nice to walk that way again. This tree had me puzzled as I approached it. 

The dark circle you can see is in fact mulch, and I presume it's to give the ground around the tree a feed and a boost. It's not something I've seen before, but it does make sense. While I was pondering the mulch I noticed a couple of tree stumps in the distance, where up to fairly recently there'd been trees.

The evidence m'lud:

Bolstered by two visits to the park some days, when Doris came along I was keen to see what impact she would have. And that's Doris the storm, not any other Doris. And it was pretty windy, my hair was going everywhere so I thought I'd capture that. Doris, the little minx, had other ideas and threw my scarf up into my face. Indeed.

Yesterday the blue skies were back and there was sun too. Feeling the sun on my back as I walked down the main avenue towards my tree - well I couldn't not include it could I - was very welcome. You can just feel the warmth can't you in the shots below.

So that's February, still full of action despite it being a short month. I'm already looking forward to March and to seeing the bulbs spring into life as along with autumn, spring is one of the times of year I enjoy most.

How's your February been?

Spring is on its way - hooray!

Last weekend was the first time in a while that I've ventured out into our garden. Part of my garden was forced as I knew I should be planting those tulips I'd discovered a few weeks back, and because from the house the greenhouse was calling me needing a water. As luck would have it Sunday was a relatively warm day so layered up I headed out with my phone in my hand. 

The other reason for taking a look around the garden was to see if Doris had played any of her havoc in our garden, as I'd spotted a neighbour's fence was down, both front and back. I was hoping that another neighbour's trampoline hadn't bounced into our garden, it hadn't. And thankfully Doris had left us alone, maybe she too, marvelled at my lone daffodil instead, and took pity on us!

It's a beautiful daffodil, but just a bit lonely I'd say.  I'm hoping there'll be a few more to come as I've plenty of shoots coming up, so I could be lucky.  Back near the house I found some of my own snowdrops nestling amongst the black grass. Every time I see a snowdrop I'm still amazed at how delicate they look, but how hardy they must be to be out there right now.

I spotted a dot of yellow at the back of the garden and soon afterwards snapped this, it's nibbled petals and textured leaves and if you look closely the promise of more flowers to come.  

And then I spotted my hellebores. I mean I've been seeing some pink from my seat at the table and hoped it was hellebores, and it was. We started with one plant a good few years ago and it's been self-seeding ever since, so now I have a row of these gorgeous plants spreading across the garden. 

One day I'll get brave and see if one of them fancies a change of scenery and try it in another part of the garden. With multiple plants that are self seeding it's easy to be brave like this. They seem such shy flowers with their heads downcast and their almost paper-like leaves. I was keen to photograph the inside of the flower as naturally as I could, but without looking a total loon and laying on the grass. Shoving my iPhone quite literally under their noses seemed to work.

Well for a bit, and then I decided to take a proper look. This flower is done and it's starting to set its seeds - see the bulbous bit in the middle - they'll burst and scatter their seeds when they're ready, and then hopefully next year I'll have a few more plants which I'll need to protect from MOH's over zealous weeding tendencies.

Ah hellebores, too pretty to be hidden away. But also a sure sign that Spring is on its way - hooray!