If you won’t be rocking in your hammock in the Hamptons this summer or diving from your dock in Harbor Springs, how about taking a holiday in your head? That’s the advice we got when we asked lifestyle wizard Carolyn Espley Miller, creator of the award-winning blog Slim Paley (
slimpaley.com
), for some tips on creating a “vacation” atmosphere when summer means staying close to home. Well actually — at home. Miller’s addictive little blog is crammed with ideas for living a more beautiful life — from fashion to food to furnishings — she transports her readers away with every mouthwatering post. Here are her suggestions for turning “everyday” into “holiday.”
1
. Turndown service not included
Sweet summer dreams don’t happen under tartan blankets and flannel sheets. Fold them up and put them away, advises Miller: “In summer, my sheets become plain white sheets — simple, crisp and cool.” Switch to the whitest white hotel linen sheets you can find (preferably starched and ironed), and you’ll feel as if you’re weekending with Martha out in Quogue.
2.
Coral. It’s not just for reefs
Miller thinks summer is a state of mind, so don’t miss any opportunity to fool your brain into thinking vacation. “Pull out your coral beads,” she advises, “In fact, pull out all the accessories you only wear at the beach and drape them on your door handles, or your bathroom mirror. It will feel vacation-y, and you’ll wear them more. And buy a bunch of those summer nail polish colors, set them out in a crystal bowl and put a spray of summer roses next to it. Gorgeous? Forget about it.”
3.
Ashes to ashcans
Come July, a fireplace full of ashes isn’t going to evoke anything but shivers. “Give your fireplace a good clean, and fill it with straw hats,” suggests Miller, “or buy some palm fronds and elephant ears, put them in a big white vase, and stick it inside your hearth.”
4.
Juicy fruit
If your summer desire is an exotic locale, then shop exotic — really exotic. “Don’t play it safe,” says Miller, “Lose the neutrals. I’m doing a party table with lots of turquoise tea lights. Then I’m going to fill bowls with kumquats and leave a few scattered around the table. Turquoise and kumquat is such an exotic combination.” And just like that, you’re in Marrakech checking in to La Mamounia.
5.
Margarita mill
Pull up a spinning stool and vacationize your bar. Maybe you won’t be served by some irresistibly charming islander, but you can still hide your wintry brown liquors and put your white spirits front and center. Miller suggests channeling the tropics with stacks of limes and lemons and a wicker covered bottle of rum. “Get some of those nice cans of orange San Pellegrino too. It’s all about the look. Even if you never touch a drink, looking at a tropical bar is nice.”
6.
Manipulate your senses
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Play “pretend spa.” Miller suggests buying some coconut oil, a little container of Epsom salts, a nice new buff and maybe some Moroccan oils. “When you open the coconut oil, it immediately takes you to a holiday place; it just smells so good. And after you use it on your hair, rub a little on your shoulders.”
7.
Oh, to be in England …
Nothing evokes languid breezes and slowly turning fans like a very British carafe of cucumber water. Miller says she keeps one in the kitchen and another in the bathroom. “Then it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m not at home. I have cucumber in my water!'”
8.
Summer camp art project
Miller keeps a bulletin board at her home chockablock with beach-y stimuli. “Postcards and pictures, things I’ve collected like little pieces of driftwood, shells. Anything to do with beach or tropics, they all go up there. It’s so nice to look at every day.”
9.
The body beautiful
Miller calls this her “heinously good idea.” Put your smallest bathing suit out where you can’t avoid seeing it. “You’ll look at it and think, ‘That’s what I’d be wearing if I were at the beach right now. I’d better drink my cucumber water and exfoliate and use that summer nail polish.’ You’ll have no choice but to behave like you’re on vacation.”
10.
Summer scents
No sense is as subconsciously tied to memory as smell. Miller says when the orange groves near her Santa Barbara home bloom, her brain goes into summer mode, “If I could wish anything for my blog, it would be that it have a scent.” Close your eyes, and take a deep breath of vacation by surrounding yourself with a scent such as Neroli Portofino by Tom Ford.
Staying home?
Send your senses on the Grand Tour
“In order to do a little desk-chair traveling, you have to appeal to all the senses, not just the visual,” says Miller. “Find music that makes you feel like you’re walking on a beach. Everyone thinks ‘Beach Boys,’ but what if you listened to music that took you out of the norm, to a really tropical place?”
Summer listening
*”Sufi Traveler,” Mercan Dede: “Spices, souks and smoky hookahs.”
*”Olympia,” Bryan Ferry: “How does he manage to remain so hot and cool at the same time?!”
*”Careless Love,” Madeleine Peyroux: “A modern-day Billie Holiday.”
*”Nine Types of Light,” TV on The Radio, right: “New CD from this hyper-cool band.”
Summer reading
The phrase “lost in a book” didn’t come out of nowhere. Miller suggests pulling out anything on your bookshelf that will take you to your summer place. “Put them everywhere — on your coffee table, in the guest room, by your bed. if you have a sheltered outdoor porch, put them out there. Do it for your soul.”
*”The Greengage Summer” by Rumer Godden: “Summer in the French countryside, exquisitely evoked.”
*”The Hamilton Case” by Michelle de Kretser: “Intrigue in the torpid jungles of 1930’s Ceylon.”
*”One Last Look” by Susanna Moore: “A trek, 1936 Calcutta — fiction, but based on actual diaries. A surreal, sensual dream of a book.”