DECORATING ADVICE : The White Stuff Can Enhance Room

Question: We are building a new home, and I don’t know how to decorate it. I have many plants with blossoms of different colors. We will be purchasing new furniture for the main room, and we have some antique chests that we’d like to use there. I don’t know how to tie the look together.

Carole Blackman

Answer: If the color in your house is varied and constantly changing, I would keep everything as white as possible. Bleach all your floors, cover your walls in a washable white linen vinyl, and use white linen on your sofas and chairs. Your antique accents will look right against the white backgrounds. Accent your white sofa and chairs with cushions in colors from your plants, perhaps turquoise blue, yellow or bright red.

Q: We have recently added a solarium to the rear of our home. It has Mexican tiles on the floor and will contain a hot tub. We have installed a sliding glass door in this bedroom for entry from the house. I would like some suggestions for redecorating this room, since it is no longer needed as a bedroom. I was thinking about buying a sofa bed. The floor is covered in chocolate brown wall-to-wall carpeting. I would like to introduce yellow into this scheme.

Katie Lawson

A: You might turn this extra bedroom into a family room that could be used as a guest room when the need occurs. Get a sofa bed covered in a lemon yellow and green leaf pattern with some splashes of red. Add some natural rattan chairs covered in lemon yellow. Paint the walls light yellow and paint the ceiling and trim white. Install an antique white ceiling fan, and add some plants in Mexican pottery containers.