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Mixing it up

Susan Griffith helps clients add pizazz to their decor without getting over their heads.

Back in the late 1970s, Susan Fayner Griffith was running Sitwell, a downtown furniture store familiar to many Bostonians. But times change and styles evolve, and Griffith took her expertise and decorating passion to Miami, where she opened a furniture and accessories store called Panache.

When she decided to move back to New England four years ago, she brought along Panache, opening a shop in Nantucket. Last year, she opened a second shop, on Newbury Street in Boston, with her daughter, Lara Fayner, as partner. Both stores stock furniture and accessories, and when customers want to put together a look, Griffith provides interior design consulting.

The inventory comes from smaller suppliers and lesser-known young designers. "I cherry-pick these little companies," says Griffith, who brings back finds from Germany, France, Africa, and Japan as well as the United States. Step into the Boston store, and you'll find hand-woven rugs from Peru next to a contemporary sofa with a gold linen slipcover, scattered with African mud cloth pillows. It's this mixing of styles and handiwork that Griffith loves and hopes her clients will try.

For someone contemplating a decor change, this jumble of styles, colors, and shapes could inspire, but it may also perplex. Griffith has some advice on getting started:

First, think about how your home is linked to your mood and how much you expect decor to affect it. That will help you budget. And consider your lifestyle. If you have three children and a dog, your choices will probably differ from those of a single executive.

As you evaluate what you want to change, consider mixing styles and periods to give your home dimension. "No matter how beautiful your sofa is," she says, "if it's coming from the same place everything else did, it reflects a one-dimensional home, and it's boring."

Keep the decor thing in perspective, she says; it's not forever. "A lot of people are afraid of bright colors," says Griffith. "I say, what's the worst that can happen? You paint again!" However, she cautions, don't paint a heating grate or ugly molding a contrasting color; you'll just emphasize it. Paint them the same color as the walls, so they disappear.

Lamps are not the place to skimp, says Griffith: Look for lamps that accentuate other beautiful things in your room, and choose the right bulbs. Lighting art is different from lighting a reading corner; think function before you choose.

The simplest, least expensive transformations include changing the wall colors, buying a new, inexpensive rug, getting new slipcovers, changing the floor plan - "make it just the opposite of what it was," says Griffith - adding a new throw to the couch or a chair, and introducing fresh flowers.

Getting rid of things is also quick and effective. "Throw out all those silk flowers and that old pillow you keep moving from chair to chair," she says. "Sometimes just throwing things out makes a big change."