Jump Start: A Little Elegance
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| Paris, 2007. in the Louvre. (Thank you, Faux Fuchsia!) |
Between our child and dogs and a small house in various stages of dilapidation, our daily life is fairly rough-and-tumble. Nothing fancy, anything breakable up high and everything else frequently under a light dusting of dog hair. And between home and a strictly utilitarian office environment, there isn’t much inherent elegance in my daily life.
But elegance, even the simplest kind, is soothing, nurturing and restorative. A little beauty incorporated into daily life is good for the soul. Elegance and beauty in our environment remind us to stop, pay attention, sit up a bit straighter. So one of my Jump Starts has been to find small ways to add a bit of elegance to the quotidien.
1. Buy a small bouquet of flowers weekly for my office. Even just bunch of daisies from the supermarket adds such a nice touch.
2. Arrange fruit in a pretty bowl. Whether my grand-mère’s antique crystal compote (above) or just a bright ceramic bowl from TJ Maxx, it brings some life to a room.
3. Light a scented candle at bedtime. (But be sure and blow it out before you go to sleep!)
How have you found ways to incorporate a little elegance into your daily routine?
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Napoleon’s apartment at the Louvre!!! Luff it there.
I like to cook and eat elegant food. And dress the frig up xxxx
Placing little sachets of lavender to lingerie and linens is a great way to add a bit of elegance to daily life. I also like them in my handbag and the car. A whiff of this soothing scent always lifts my spirits.
I’d swap for dogs and family my house is like a mausoleum some times.
I do use our best wine glasses when I have an evening merlot, and it feels good. Wonderful pics, Une Femme.
We live in a big old farmhouse, with three cats, so it is defintely ‘comfortable’ and a a bit shabby around the edges. I try to keep my kitchen always picked up-it is also the dining room and entryway-and a nice tablecloth on the table. I like having a calm, uncluttered look when I come in, even if it doesn’t extend to the rest of the house.
Candles at the dinner table (even on taco Tuesday), flowers at the cube farm (aka, office), always some type of jewelry, and a nice trash bag in my car (instead of an empty tissue box). Such is my contribution to my utilitarian, male-dominated, helter-skelter world. 🙂
Flowers are a counterpoint to our dreary New York winters so I splurge whenever I can. And I have vowed to use the “good” things, my grandmother’s silver sugar spoon in the sugar bowl, my diamond earrings with jeans. No more saving my things for special occasions. I am finding ways to use them more often.
I always drink my tea from fine bone china — a china mug, mind you, not a cup and saucer, but I’ve been very particular about searching out mugs with the right lip and handle and weight. And at my office I keep an actual teapot to make up my tea rather than simply dipping a teabag in hot water. Just a little detail, but it makes me feel cared for by myself, which is good, right?
And I’m with you on the flowers . . . .picking up tulips on my way home today.
I’d add to your wonderful list some pretty lacy lingerie, perfume and some exotic tea served in a bone china cup and saucer. Flowers are really tops on my list too!
Candles and flowers are fool-proof for making life more civilized. I have a couple of other things I can’t live without.
Cloth napkins — at all meals! (They’re also more ecological, since I just throw them in the wash with whatever else I’m washing.)
Quality (and good smelling) hand wash and lotion in the powder room.
A cashmere scarf to keep me cozy all winter.
it’s the clutter that kills me. A bowl of lemons or camelia blossoms from my garden is beautiful, but less so if surrounded by stacks of mails and the kids’ backpacks, violin/coronet cases and various coats and shoes thrown about.
Lots and lots of green plants. I find they transform my home and office from cold/utilitarian to visually inviting, cozy, and fresh. I feel soothed by them and they bring life into a room. (Macrobiotics, for what it’s worth, says each room should contain 2 plants (at least) for health and emotional well being.) Unfortunately, 3 years ago we got 2 cats who destroy plants and I had to get rid of all my wonderful greenery! Tho I’ve hung on to a few little ones, they’re jammed up high and out of the way–as a result I don’t notice them much, they don’t get much sun, and they don’t thrive. I dream of someday living among elegant leaves and fronds again!
All of your ideas–esp the fruit in the bowl–are great, but as someone says above–it’s the clutter! So even a teeny bit of clutter control makes a big difference.
Napoleon’s apartment is more like elegance squared! There’s not much daily elegance here either, but we do start the day lazily with Peets Americanos, in bed, in classic brown Italian expresso cafe cups.
I buy fresh flowers every week for the front hall and my bedside table. I light candles for dinner every night and we always use cloth napkins. In fact my children didn’t use paper napkins until they ate lunch at the school cafeteria. I play classical music in our home all day, even if its just the dogs home to enjoy it. I have several small lamps on timers so that when we return home in the evening the house is lit and welcoming (with music playing). It makes a lovely difference.
Have a beautiful day,
Jennifer
I think flowers and candles are a fabulous way of incorporating elegance into ones life.
Fresh flowers from the garden are my idea of elegance in the home.
Ah…it’s time to plant more roses now!
Funny! I’ve just myself turned a horrible corner in my kitchen where a usually chaotically untidy bookshelf lives to incorporate a bunch of tulips in a vase, a lavender Diptyque candle, colourful notebooks in one neat pile and my favourite style books in another. I feel infinitely more elegant looking at it. Great minds…
I so agree…a little elegance is restorative. This is why I love to get out and experience life!! I also love candles, flowers, eating on the fancy dishes all the time….drinking juice from a wine glass….dressing up for what some would consider a mundane teaching job!! Wearing sparkles on Wednesday!!!
I have a pretty bromeliad in our bathroom on the marble surrounding the bathtub. I was surprised at what a difference it made in the ambience.
I do enjoy having a loose arrangement of flowers in our family room on the coffee table.
Fruit in a pretty bowl is a great idea as is using the good crystal wineglasses for everyday wine. Sometimes we use our sterling flatware for just us.
Elegance, huh? There’s not much of that around here, but I’m good on comfort without clutter. I just have to work on elegance in my mind!
I splurge on beeswax candles- the look is not so elegant but the feel of the room when burning them is.
Nothing can beat nature for sheer elegance. As you say, a vase of the simplest of flowers lifts not only one’s home…but one’s life.
April
I agree with all the comments about flowers. They are an easy elegant touch. I try and keep my car washed and vacuumed, too. As always, a lovely bath with some fragrant bath gel and some pretty p.j.s provides soothing elegance to the end of the day.
Pseu,
Here is the blog that I was telling you about at lunch.
http://thefrenchsampler.blogspot.com/
I think you will enjoy it.
Lovely ideas. I like to buy fresh flowers for my home but I rarely do. I should try to do that more often.
I enjoy a fire in the fireplace on cold nights and will often ask my husband to build one for us to give the room a little extra ambiance.
Totally agree with you regarding a little elegance in everyday life… One thing that makes me feel that way is to use a lovely linen napkin when I have my dinner – not always but the days I do I always feel that little bit better! X
Fortunately my lovely old cat doesn’t destroy plants, as I love both!
Oh, I usually drink ordinary wine out of little French Duralex tumblers. Not chic, but elegant somehow for their perfect form.
Hooray, “anonymous” is back as a commenting option! I had wanted to recommend a book on this topic of everyday elegance, whoch I first read years ago; it made an impression on me and prompted me to “up my game” in terms of making more of an effort to make my daily surroundings more pleasant and beautiful. The book is called “Living a Beautiful Life” by Alexandra Stoddard. She is an interior designer, and starts the book by noting that most of her clients want to focus all their budget on the living rooms and dining rooms of their houses, in other words the public spaces. Alexandra argues that it’s more important to really focus on the personal areas where you spend most of your time; your bedroom, bathroom, even your closet. Make sure that there’s something that will bring you joy every day; this is why I hung framed pictures of vintage Barbie fashions in my closet! (Who among us doesn’t love vintage Barbie fashions? Especially that red velvet flare coat with the white satin lining?)
—Jill Ann
We live in a small house w/*five* dogs. No carpets, thankfully. Yes, classical music, flowers & decluttering. Life is often rough & tumble, but we still get to exercise some choice in the matter, as your post & these comments so clearly illustrate.
I always wear perfume (for my own pleasure), have fruit in an Italian ceramic bowl (15$ thrift store). We rent in a lower-income town full of noisy, inelegant, inconsiderate neighbors. It’s an uphill battle currently to live a civilized life 🙂 due to our budget & the rude neighbors. So we’ve installed nice wooden blinds & have a lovely mermaidy shower curtain. We have fun, funky art made by friends, some alabaster lamps w/gorgeous lampshades & some beautifully mosaiced tables made by my father. We have a few antiques mixed in & a lot of our furniture is wood, which is easy to clean. After rainfall, we can hear the nearby creek trickling, which is an elegant sound.
We mostly content ourselves w/small chunks of “elegant time”, when what we do/eat/drink/listen to is mindful & of high quality. Then, we go back to poop-scooping & other inelegant chores!
Fresh flowers, always. I’ve even trained Spouse to notice when they need replacing 🙂 And fruit. I also agree with the commenters who mentioned lack of clutter – clear surfaces give the illusion of calm. And I think calm is integral to elegance …
Fresh flowers, cloth napkins at every meal, and a roaring fire when it’s cold.
I use my silver every day, never go without perfume, and refuse anyone to answe phones or devices during meals. Cloth napkins, and the stereo is set on the local classical station all day. Now, TRULY elegant would be to have a cleaning service once a week to scrub down the place!
As others have said candles fresh flowers napkins but also clean ordered house speaking softly 1000TC Egyptian cotton sheets fluffy white towels French perfume every day and wear it also to bed. Beautiful bed clothes and French lingerie also eating the best quality food I can afford. Fresh air classical music kindness and serenity.
Good perfume every day without fail. Linen napkins and tablecloth. Using what’s left of my nan’s Hampshire dinner service (Royal Doulton). Flowers or greenery in at least one vase. Fruit in old shallow blue and white soup bowls. Potpourri in every room (regularly topped up from the garden and utterly outdone by the dogs). Keeping things tidy (which is mostly moving my husband’s clutter back into his study and the constant picking up of dog toys). And all my hair pins, ties and combs are laid out in old crystal sweet dishes which otherwise wouldn’t be used.
Dammit, life is too short for bad books, food, wine, coffee or company!
I can so relate to the dusty, cat hair covered ornaments that have to be placed high up!
My way of bringing elegance and style into our apartment:
– utilitarian objects such as towel holders, brooms, cutlery, etc are very colourful and funky and appeal to my inner frivolous child
– my homewear may be comfortable draw string pants, but never raggedy or torn and always ironed.
– home perfume, scented candles to make the appartment lightly fragranced in feel good smell. I’m fond of citrus, lemon grass, mint in the summer and berries or vanilla in the winter
I like flowers, although maybe not heavily scented ones like lilies. I like to cut them from the garden during the season, even if it’s only lavendar springs and leaves.
I SHOULD buy more flowers – I love them at the Farmers Market. Maybe a good NY resolution to follow?
I do not like scented candles much. I like the idea of beeswax candles, though – nice suggestion from above.
Incense and potpourri indoors generally drives me mad. I can’t stay in a store that smells like that.
I can’t imagine having to dust that chandelier – although I suppose if I had one, I’d be able to afford a maid!
I find there are 2 types of potpourri – the very strongly scented one that is bought, and the much less obtrusive one that is made (layers of rose petals and salt). The latter is very much my preference! I don’t think obtrusive equals elegance, quite the reverse.
I *can* imagine cleaning those chandeliers, I suspect each one would take an entire day! I have 2 very much smaller and simpler ones (again, my nan’s) and they get a once a year dismantle/wash. What takes the most time is rehanging all the lustres, particularly where the wires keep detaching. I’m very good at accepting the slight Miss Havisham look….
Elegance can be a killer to allergic/asthmatic people like me. I have a very elegant sister-in-law who loves her signature scented candles, perfumes, flowers, and every time we go there or she comes here I have to remind her to hold it back, or I will have to flee to survive (literally). I feel like such a killjoy, but there it is.
I do appreciate elegant dressing, though. A French scarf is never wrong. And the most elegant of all: kindness, consideration, a warm smile.
Mirrors everywhere! Preferably framed in rococo gold. My greatest indulgence and weakness, I’m afraid. Even in my gardening-ripped jeans my reflection is elegant!
As much dog hair as I’m usually wearing, I’m incorporating it as a fashion statement. I’m ashamed to admit how lame I am at interior decoration of any kind. I do occasionally buy myself fresh flowers to sooth my soul, and we always have clementines on the kitchen table, although not in nearly as nice a bowl.