Loved up

Saint Valentine’s Day is just five days away and gifts are obliged to be personal.

But there’s nothing to stop you going a step further and stringing up pink and red bunting and baking a heart-shaped cake for your loved-one too. But have you ever considered romance as the basis of your interiors look?

I’m not suggesting you come over all hearts and flowers as a permanent home interiors styling theme: those you live with might up sticks. But consider using lighting, fabrics, colour, and furnishings to evoke a sense of springtime in bloom, to recreate the mood from that perfect holiday, or to evoke anything that for you means romantic. It could be a very natural look based on drift wood and woodland finds, or the breezy seaside look with its sandy tones and lightsome blues.

To get this look, it isn’t necessary to have an adorable cottage or clapboard seaside Cape Cod hideaway, or even a grand Georgian house. It will work in contemporary or traditional homes, lending itself especially well, but not exclusively, to the bedroom, and just as easily to an intimate little alcove or window area overlooking a lush garden in full bloom.

We’re all familiar by now with shabby chic and its distressed furniture, faded vintage fabrics, and foxed mirrors mottled with decades of use. It’s nothing if not romantic, but perhaps at times trying a little too hard. How many of us could really live long-term with lace curtains, unravelling ones at that;antimacassars and chipped enamel?

Really, creating a romantic interior is about detail — detail that evokes a memory and channels the nostalgic vein, whether that’s in a traditional space or something more contemporary.

To set the scene — especially should you lack the chandeliers and foxed mirrors — raid the colour cards of the season. As luck should have it, the colourways just launched provide a beautiful backdrop to creating a romantic interior. Dusky and hot pinks, deep indigo blue that fades to violet, and even the orange spectrum which at its paler end, has a warm fleshy tone to off-set deliciously against creamy neutrals.

But if you’d rather your romantic interior was more classical in its approach, opt for those putty wall colours mixed with gleaming white fabrics trimmed in broderie anglaise. Add in an ornate crystal chandelier and you have a very chic romantic look.

Whimsical patterns like damask, floral, and even paisley on drapery, linens and accessories, add another flavour of romance. If you don’t want them in colour detail, they can be found as imprints in fabrics, often picked out in soft satins. This is altogether more subtle if you want to stick with a classic look.

Fabrics should be soft and luxurious with glazed cottons and even satins, the latter finish working beautifully in cushions and other soft decorative accessories. Velvet drapery with its softness and luxury falling into tactile folds on the floor is another option, bringing a luxury and softness that also translates to the bed. Padded velvet headboards are the in-vogue bedroom furniture item. Finished with traditional buttoning, fashion colours like grey and deep pinks bring them bang up to date. Remember, we’re aiming here for charm but with style.