Spring brings a welcome change every year, but after record-high summer temps and this winter’s hard freeze, New Orleans residents are especially ready for the region’s best weather. Synonymous with festival season, spring is a time for entertaining both indoors and out and provides a good excuse for a fresh start around the house. We checked in with local experts on tips for sprucing up the home to usher in this convivial season.
Starting with the basics, designer Chad Graci begins with bedding.
“I usually change out my bedding in the spring to something lighter and brighter with fewer pillows,” he says. “I think spring is about opening up windows, airing out rooms, and letting nature back in. Bring some flowers in for spring – groundbreaking.”
Flowers are one way to reintroduce color to the home, something all experts agree is a welcome trend this year. A return to richness and color is overtaking the last decade’s obsession with white and gray. Regarding textiles – from rugs to upholstery and window treatments – Designer Kelly Sutton is observing a warmer color palette with earthy colors that can still feel neutral in certain circumstances.
For Sutton, spring inspires change.
“Sometimes I’m craving a new feeling and will paint an accent wall or just assess some of the spaces and see how I can adjust the arrangement to breathe new life into the room while purging anything that is not needed anymore,” she says.
Less can be more, stresses Sutton. Small changes like simplifying the styling of a bookcase can change the feel of a room. She recommends identifying dual purpose pieces that can make a room more organized and less cluttered. Another way Sutton likes to change the vibe in a room is through a new area rug, which can either brighten things up or bring in more color or texture.
Owner and president of NOLA Rugs, Inc., Sharon Schenck is celebrating her 50th year in the global rug business. Schenck’s expertise provides an advantage for local rug shoppers. Her biggest tip is to seek quality first and foremost, which means seeing and touching a new rug in person. Color and quality can be deceiving in online photographs.
Natural rug fibers like wool and silk are best. Both have been used for hundreds of years and still outperform today’s less environmentally friendly, off-gassing alternatives. According to Schenck, designing, sizing, and graphing a custom, hand-knotted rug now takes a fraction of the time it once did, which opens up a world of options for rooms that need custom sizes or colors.
Spring is also a great time to clean your current rug.
“The beauty of a good handwoven rug with solid dyes is that it can typically be totally wet washed,” says Schenck. Stains and spills should be cleaned right away, and high-traffic rugs probably need a wash every few years.
Sprucing up doesn’t always mean adding something new – at Sylvia T. Designs, owner and master artisan Sylvia Thompson-Dias revitalizes aspects of the home through refinishing. She recommends refinishing cabinets when they start to show wear and tear or feel out of style. Refinishing can breathe new life to them while adding value to the home without the high cost of replacement. The same is true of cracking plaster.
“There are a lot of options these days to address plaster issues, and now, with modern materials, you don’t have to replace lath,” she says. “Beautiful and high-quality lime plasters, which breathe and are durable, can be applied to drywall, for instance.”
For people looking to spruce up their kitchen, plastering your stove hood adds pizzazz without breaking the bank. According to Thompson-Dias, this central, eye-catching feature looks more artistic than paint or stainless steel and can complement tile, wood, and other materials.
And what about your outdoor space? For an exterior spruce up, Mullins Landscaping associate landscape designer Matthew Quitzau recommends first freshening up garden beds post-winter with simple weeding, trimming, and re-mulching.
“This not only revitalizes the beds without significant costs but also prepares the plants for new growth,” he says. For new projects, Quitzau sees a trend toward simpler planting designs with fewer tiers or specimen plants set in a mass of groundcover. His advice – no matter the size of your design – is to plan for adequate irrigation.
“Ensuring a consistent watering system for new and existing plants is crucial for their survival and thriving,” he says. Considering last year’s hot, dry summer, it’s better to plan in spring for what next season may bring.
