AS I WALK AROUND MY HOUSE there are things I just have to touch. I can’t help but stroke the smooth-grained banister of old oak that curves around the staircase. I tend to kick off my sandals to feel under my toes the rough texture of the seagrass matting in the drawing room – somehow reminiscent of a pebbly beach. There’s a cosy shaman’s blanket that I hunch into when it’s cool and a polished piece of rose quartz that feels fresh on my forehead when the temperature soars.
The feel and textures in your home are partly what gives an abode its ‘feel-good factor’. By choosing fabrics and furnishings in a wide variety of textures you can do far more than make your home look interesting and attractive. Every time your hands, feet, face (or indeed any part of you) come in touch with a different texture, it makes you focus on your body; it pulls you back out of your mind into a real sense of the here and now. It’s like giving yourself a few moments of instant mindfulness meditation. All too often we drift through our days living in our heads and hearts, but rarely in our bodies. But a surprise to the senses can ground you like nothing else. A change in temperature from the warmth of a woollen carpet to the cool underfoot of stone; a shift from the smoothness of satin to the rough and readiness of hessian or jute gives you a nudge: you suddenly remember that you have a body once again.
Texture, as well as shape and design, can also make us feel comfortable or uncomfortable. ‘Surfaces, textures and feel count for as much as efficiency, ‘Thomas Moore reminds us – and how right he is. So choose your textures with as much care for their feel as their washability; as much concern for the smile they bring to your face as their cost-effectiveness. Become aware of the rough and smooth; the cool and warm; the matt and the gloss; the etched and the furrowed.
Start by taking a look back to your answers to the ‘touch’ section in Chapter 6. What are the literal ‘feelings’, the sensations you remembered when you thought about your most well-loved homes? If you’re not sure or really don’t feel very much in tune with this often forgotten sense of touch, then go on a texture-finding mission. Designers nowadays are realizing just how much fun they can have playing with different feels and textures on fabrics and furniture so visit a few large stores and let your fingers do some exploring. As always, nature offers a whole store and more within a few paces of your front door – whether you live in the city or the country. Trees, stones, grass, leaves and plants: all have texture and a feel all of their own.
Like everything else in your home, the textures you choose are totally individual. There is no correct way of introducing texture, just whatever takes your mood and whatever makes your soul smile. But let’s take a look at the enormous range of possibilities when it comes to texture and feel.
FABRICS
Feel the difference between silk and mohair; velvet and cashmere; linen and corduroy. Check out how pure wool feels next to a synthetic fibre; how a pure cotton garment varies from one mixed with acrylic. Don’t just feel them with your fingers; run the fabric over your face, against your cheek. What does your skin tell you about this material? Each evokes a different mood, a new feeling, a totally fresh sensation.
Cool Textures
If you put up crisp cotton curtains in a living room and cover your chairs with a nice slubbed-linen union, you will usher in a cool feel to the room. You may have chosen rich, dark colours and the room may look warm, but as soon as you sit down it won’t feel warm. Cottons and linens are wonderful fabrics for rooms which need to feel brisk and bright; or cool and calm. They are businesslike, honest and friendly. They feel cool to the skin and so make wonderful bed linens – there is nothing more delicious than sliding between pure linen or 100 per cent fine cotton sheets in a hot, clammy summer.
Warm and Cosy Fabrics
On the other hand, if you wanted to bring a warm, cocooning, cosy feel to a room you might look at fabrics which are softer, more gentle and enveloping. Soft 100 per cent wool gives a welcoming warmth; so does chenille and brushed cotton. Moleskin and peached fabrics make you want to snuggle up. Add a few veritable ‘comfort blankets’ made in mohair or alpaca and you wouldn’t want to leave the nest!
If you want to usher in a mood of pure sensuality there are some highly seductive fabrics willing to play romantic games. Velvet is the prime seducer – soft, voluptuous and totally abandoned. Plain, crushed, devoré: play with all three. It can be a delicate fabric so not such a great idea for furnishing: but you can achieve the same effect by using a heavier velour: Aphrodite would still approve!
Silk and satin have become synonymous with sexy bedclothes and it’s true that there is little to beat the feel of satin against bare skin. However, satin sheets are a bit hackneyed (and a devil to wash) so maybe introduce satin in other guises: on pillows and cushions, bed covers, drapes for a four-poster?
Fur, of course, is the other prime sensation-seeker, beloved of medieval bedchambers, but no-one with a conscience can bear to buy fur so we’ll have to give that one a miss unless you have an ancient fur stuffed in a closet or find a thrift-store bargain. Some designers are now playing with quite realistic fake furs which make superb pillows and throws – check out the fashion fabric departments.
Leather
Leather can either work wonderfully or be a complete disaster. Coloured leather is generally a no-no: the more natural the better. And leather is one of those natural coverings which simply gets better and better with age. A battered old Chesterfield immediately sums up venerable libraries and old country homes; ponyskin gives a feel of Mexico or the old West. Suede is right up to the moment – but won’t wear well. They are all interesting textures – providing you aren’t a committed vegetarian!
FLOOR COVERINGS
Why should it matter what you put on your floor? Well, apart from looking good, a feel-good floor becomes far more than merely something to walk on. Interesting textures simply demand to be padded over with bare feet: the interchange of rough to smooth, from warm to cool, is an education for our sense-deprived feet. Think how wonderful it feels to have the warm sand of a beach scrunch between your toes; how blissful fresh new grass feels underfoot; how different the worn wood of a deck might feel.
Why not bring the same variety of flooring textures within your own home, to perk up your feet and re-establish your grounding with the earth? Feel the difference between smooth polished wood and coarse sandstone tiling. How do your toes react to a thick pile carpet and the rough hairiness of coir or sisal? How does marble differ from cork? Let your toes explore. It’s not just your feet either: wood is supportive if you’re doing yoga; lino is warm and hygienic for a child to roll and play on; a tufted kilim invites you to lie down and stretch out on a Sunday with a pile of papers and a mug of freshly made coffee. A shaggy cotton pile feels comforting when you step out of the shower. Every fireside should have a hairy rug of some description.
WALLS
We often forget that walls can feel nice too but just think about the rough uneven surface of old plaster; the moulded contours of wood panelling; the sheer slide of glass; the cool density of stone. Don’t just stick to paint and plain paper; be a little imaginative. Obviously it depends on the style of your home, but sometimes plain brick looks great – either left nude or painted – and it feels good too. Rough-hewn stone gives a very earthy feel and can be enlivened with natural paints if you like.
In the olden days it was common to ‘paper’ walls with fabrics. Nowadays it tends to be only the very rich who can afford such luxuries but you could always ‘fabric’ a small room – or choose very cheap fabric and dye and decorate it to your own design. Tapestries were also popular wall-coverings, but again, genuine tapestries are very expensive. However, you could buy a large piece of beautiful fabric and give it the tapestry treatment, hanging it on a large wooden or gilded pole.
Stone and tiles are natural choices for kitchens and bathrooms – investigate the huge range of tiles and stone surfaces now available and decide which you’d like to run your hand over while you’re cooking. Talking of kitchens, many people put up a blackboard for notes and messages: why not paint a whole wall with blackboard paint. You’re unlikely to run out of space for shopping lists and it’s perfect if you have children as they can draw to their heart’s content on the walls without anyone complaining. Another alternative is to put thick cork all over one wall as a giant notice board: ideal for photos, postcards, messages, dried flowers, mementos, whatever …
SURFACES
Don’t just stick to veneers and fibreboard. Choose a variety of surfaces around the home which invite stroking and finger-tapping. Think about all the myriad types of wood – from warm nutty oak to the cool smooth surface of ash and beech. Play with stone – from rough concrete to hard cold granite and marble. Who says surfaces have to be smooth? Think about a shelf of gritty earth-baked clay tiles; a table of interlaced bamboo. Let your fingers trace the patterns of a basket-weave chair back. Embed shells and pebbles in concrete for sink and bath surrounds. Glass is a useful surfacing material with its own cool or textured feel – and many artists and designers will etch or sand-blast glass to your own specifications so you can choose your very own pattern or texture.
If you can’t afford to buy new furniture or put up new drapes or soft furnishings, then go wild with some new trimmings. The finishing touches you add can totally change the appearance – and feel – of a room.
Plain cotton curtains could be invested with a deep fringe or an added border in a more tactile fabric. Tie-backs and tassels can transform curtains – they come in all kinds of fabrics, from chenille to silk, from wool to gold thread. Or you could make your own.
Ribbons, fringing and ropes can brighten up pillows and cushions and give new life to an old blind or bedspread. Beads give good feel-nice feelings too: you could make a fringe of them to edge a bedroom curtain or go totally wild and make a new curtain entirely out of beads (experiment with glass, ceramic and wooden beads to see which feels nicest as you push through its tendrils).
There are so many wonderful materials you can use in the home – once you free your imagination and let it wander. Basically, try to forget about the rules and let your senses take precedence over your brain. The end result may not be as practical as nylon, as hard-wearing as plastic and acrylic, but it will certainly feel a whole lot nicer. Before we end this chapter, here are just a few more idle thoughts on texture to tempt your senses into action.
TEXTURE TIPS