If you haven’t already done so at the onset of summer, give your home a whole new monsoon wardrobe dominated by sheers—on the windows, as tablecloths, bed linen or even as canoies over the bed. The shades ruling this season are white, mint green, icy blue, apricot, even violets and indigo. You can either buy readymade sheer curtains and linen from upmarket design houses. Or you can create your own range of sheer designer wear for your house by buying reams of voiles and organdie from the market and getting it stitched to suit your needs. But the cheapest and most innovative option is to dig out old organdie saris and voile dupattas and touch them up a bit to give a splash of sheers to your interiors. Here’s how:

Use colourful voile dupattas as banners on your windows and doors for a quick makeover for your rooms. Hang them in alternate colours, say lime green alternating with apricot shade or violet with white. Voile with applique embroidery on it is easily available in the market nowadays. This is ideal for curtains and window screens. The patterns are mostly derived from the bari patti (big leaf) motifs used commonly in North India.

Organdie saris with shadow embroidery or applique work can serve as beautiful room dividers in place of the usual heavy wooden screens or the common net curtains. The magic of sheers is their ability to link and divide a room at the same time. Their traslucent quality helps to create space within a space but also gives the feeling of continuity between the rooms. They can partition without actually dividing a room.

Dining tables and coffee tables too need cool summer and monsoon clothing. Thick tablecloths are heavy on the eye in the hot and wet months, besides taking long to dry up in the monsoon months. Organdie and voile runners and tablecloths are easy to maintain in the humid weather as they dry up quickly. Create a riot of colour, that is at the same time soothing to the eye, by converting voile duppattas or organdie saris into table spreads. Starch them a bit to give a look of freshness to the fabrics.

Create interesting corners by simply hanging a cluster of dupattas over a lampshade and watch the effect as light plays with their pastel hues. Or hang these dupattas above a cluster of potted plants in your living room to create a breezy feeling.

Voiles, muslin and organdie can also cast their magic in the personal zone—the bedroom. Duvets with organdie borders can provide a welcome relief from those satin or staid cotton covers that are the obvious choice.

And last but not the least, extend the cloudy feel of the outdoors to your bedroom by hanging an organdie sari as a canopy over your bed. Nothing can evoke the softness and romance of billowy cirrus clouds better than a feathery sheer canopy over your head. So soak in sheer magic indoors as the Rain God makes his presence felt outdoors.