Ellington

"You are what you eat!" …If I only had a dollar for every time I heard myself utter that truism over the years, I'd be rich. Or at the very least, never eat a fat slice of chocolate cake again. Don't even get me started on Violet Beauregarde's blueberry pie explosion—the sad Wonka scene would make any child who grew up reading Roald Dahl shudder.

But what if I told you to go ahead and absorb all that rich cocoa goodness? Bathe and bask in its sumptuousness! The Devil's food itself is yours for the taking! Gobble it up for lunch, dinner, and dessert. Only this time, by osmosis.

So maybe it's not exactly like sitting down to a hot fudge sundae, but I'm telling you that surrounding yourself with the tints and tones of the foods you love isn't a cheap decorating trick to pass by. Indeed, I've gravitated toward home furnishings, artwork and accessories that mimic the very fodder I find most appealing for years.

I do love me a little chocolate now and then; but in this house it's less cocoa and more kumquat. I have a weakness for vibrant fruits and veggies, a taste for bold spices, and a penchant for the saturated hues of the sea. Persimmon sits with cranberry and clementine in a turquoise bowl on the coffee table. Arugula and kale get tossed together with deep, dark spinach and dressed with ginger, turmeric, saffron and aleppo chilis. The mere thought of my living room is known to bring on a tummy-grumbling Pavlovian slobber.

I dream in color; why not eat and breathe it too?

So next time you're in the grocery store to pick up dinner provisions, stop to ponder the produce [or sweets!] section a little longer than usual. You might just find a little inspiration for that bland spare bedroom—and satiate your famished inner decorator all at the same time.