Interiors: bring a splash of summer to your decoration (Telegraph 30/06/2013)
“Change your outlook
Out with the heavy interlined drapes, in with the floatier summer fabrics. “If you start with a good material, which has been woven well, then new curtains do not have to cost a fortune,” says Joanne Cassabois from Prêt à Vivre, a company specialising in English fabrics and wool linens from third-generation weavers in Italy. Cheaper, more lightweight fabrics, which still hang well and feel luxurious to the touch, include the mixed blends linen viscose (from around £33 a metre) and wool linen (£38).
“A lot of home owners rip out the back of their house to extend, installing bifold doors, but haven’t given any thought to what to do with the light flooding through; heavy voiles diffuse the light and give a little more privacy,” she says. Vintage linens, which are treated before they are woven, “give a two-tone effect” to window dressings.”