Colin and Justin: Plaid habits

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Rebadge tartan for use in the modern home

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As patriotic Scottish Canadians, our hearts stir whenever tartan motifs garners profile across the commercial sector, news platforms or the corridors of social media. That’s why, Tartan Week looming, we’re excited for everything the legacy event brings.

The annual celebration of all things Scottish includes bagpiper flash mobs, Highland dance troops, clan gatherings and food tastings.

The hoolie kicks off on April 5th, with a procession along Sixth Avenue, New York, featuring thousands of revellers and many more who tune in via the organization’s live web feed – www.nyctartanweek.com

Commercially, Tartan Week also attracts an ancillary roster of Scottish (and Scottish by derivation) artists, entrepreneurs and businesses who gather to promote, support and develop deeper personal connections with their heritage.

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And so, to honour our own deep-seated love for the homeland, and to sate those with a fondness for tartan, cue a bedroom with more than a whiff of Highland reverie.

Making tartan work

We’ve visited countless Scottish castles and witnessed endless swathes of tartan spread liberally across walls, floors and upholstery specification. In historic spaces, steeped as they are in tradition, tartan overload seems totally at home.

To successfully arrange the motif across everyday domestic landscapes, however, requires a modicum of reserve, lest subject rooms end up resembling an Outlander prop store, post hurricane.

Wallpaper

If you’d struggle with a confident pattern such as that used in today’s subject room, consider an accent wall, then harvest the covering’s paler tones for use on other walls and textiles. This room easily supports our specification, so we carefully affixed it everywhere.

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Before pasting to the wall, assess where joins will be and paint floor to ceiling bands of the paper’s background shade to problem-solve visible seams. Get the look with Heritage Plaid by www.grahambrown.com

Carpet

Flooring colour selection was one of this project’s simplest aspects. We’d counsel that, to get the best from your wallpaper choice, simply plunder its various tones to ensure choices throughout your project cohere.

On most occasions, the tonal jigsaw assembled by the wallpaper’s designer is all you need to kick off a strong, successful scheme.

Window problem solver

Floor-length windows would have upped the architectural stakes, but short of knocking out existing fenestration and starting over, we had only one option – to fake it with full-length sheers.

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Due to its opaque nature, drapery such as this filters light to floor level, creating the appearance of taller glazed apertures, whilst dressing either side further suggests windows are bigger than they are.

Headboard

We enjoy playing background against foreground and arranging simple fabrics against strident wallpaper, to provide depth. Here, we chose textural off-white linen and designed a simple headboard with cute wee side wings, light padding and shiny nickel buttoning.

Hey – we’d be so much less without our trusty upholsterer who unstintingly translates plans into one-off designer pieces. Ask Dr Google for upholstery prescriptions in your locale and arrange to visit each company facility to assess work standards before committing.

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Night stands

If you have furniture you’d like to update, there are many ways to effect change without overspending. Paint is the simplest, but try wallpaper sections applied to door fronts, or switch up handles to create a new look for less.

For this assignment, we constructed MDF boxes, a project even those with limited DIY skills could tackle, being that mitring and edges are ultimately concealed.

Next, we asked our seamstress to make tight-fitting ‘skirts’ which we pulled over the custom frames, then smoothed into place. Alternatively, try hemming two carefully measured banners of fabric, crossed to drape at either side.

Okay, so this is certainly a tartan detailed room, but it’s far from overpowering. At Tartan Week, the celebration lasts for just a few short days, before guests can walk away.

But when it comes to interior décor specification, tartan’s appeal needs to endure longer. So think twice, before taking the plunge, to ensure you feel ‘plaid all over’, at every decorative turn. Who, after all, wants to feel responsible for putting the tart into tartan?

Watch for Colin and Justin on City-tv’s Breakfast Television and Colin and Justin’s Sub- Zero Reno on Paramount Plus TV. Find the Colin and Justin Home Collection in stores across Canada.
Visit www.colinandjustin.tv.

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