Formal meal

Apr20

Attending formal meals may cause a problem for many. The summary below could be useful also if only the home dinners with friends wanted to be made more glamorous:
The tablecloth should be plain or tone-on-tone patterned as far as possible, expediently white or cream, in starched and ironed condition. This provides neutral base to the table set and the served food also. It should be overhanging about 30 cm from the edge of the table, this way the legs of the guest can go underneath. If a table runner is placed, the color of the napkins should be matched with it. If not, the napkins should be made of the fabric of the tablecloth or at least in the same color but made of fabric is a must. This should be placed in the middle of the plate or on the left of the forks.
The so-called service plate has to wait the guests when taking seats. The plates containing various dishes are placed on this, which are taken off after every dish. Even the service plate is taken off before the dessert. If there is a pattern, coat of arms or other decoration on the plate, it should always be on the top of it opposite to the guest.
All the cutleries for using are pre-placed around the service plate. Using order: from outside to inside. Knifes are put on the right side of the plate (appetizer, salad, main dish) with their edges towards the plate, and the soup spoon. Forks are placed on the left side, in the same order. The dessert fork is put above the plate with its handle on the left, and the dessert spoon above this with its handle on the right. The bread plate is on the left side of the plate with the butter knife on it.
Glasses are put on the right side of the plate, above the knives. Maximum four glasses can be here, in a rectangular order or in a row in decreasing sizes to the right. These are glasses for water, red vine, white vine and aperitif. The set can be changed of course depending on the served drinks. Glass for champagne is not pre-placed.
The seating card is put above the dessert cutleries, the salt and pepper cellars are placed above the forks. The table centerpiece should be chosen according to the free visibility of the opposite guests above or under it, so the discussion is not disturbed by it. The needed space for comfortable eating is about 60 cm per person, this has to be considered when laying the table.
Ask for help of a style-advisor for formal and classy entertaining preparations.

Doll house anno

Apr17

Antique doll houses: miniature lifelike copies of homes in and out

Variations 4.

Apr15

Variations for a theme: plants

Feng Shui

Apr13

The philosophy of Feng Shui based interior design is to establish the balance between the individual and the environment. Its essence is the harmony of energies and objects, the elements and styles. Much more complex and more serious interior design trend than generally considered.
When it comes to Feng Shui, most of the people associate colorful mandalas, choking smoke and Buddha statues, nevertheless, this knowledge is known to look back on a long history. Feng Shui is independent to location and style. These energies work the same way in a minimal or a baroque interior, in Japan or Hungary also. Basically, there are two different aspects of an apartment or house:
Considering the rooms as separate units is the essence of space management, since Jin or Jang characteristics, colors, forms, materials and motifs are assigned to each of them. This is the primer method of harmonizing the environment.
Using the Bagua map, the home is considered as one unit. The total floor area is divided into nine equal parts, where all sub-units has its own characteristics based on the map. In this later case, orientation has an important role. The given areas should be intensified or weakened, deficits should be fulfilled depending on the required result.
Whichever we choose, we have to keep in mind: the theory is general, but the methods and tools used may have different meanings in different cultures or even countries. E.g.: dolphin as motif has a different meaning in a region, where such animals really live in the wild, from another region, where they are not organic part of the environment.
When applying Feng Shui, we have to be careful with the relation of objects used, spaces and the people living in them, so ask help from an interior designer who hase massive bases in the area.

Bathtubs

Apr9

Stand alone bathtubs with or without legs

1950s

Apr7

Those 50s…

Old postcards 1.

Apr3

Easter on old postcards

Painted wood

Apr1

Painted wooden furniture – have a go at it bravely!

Inspiration 6.

Mar31

Let our favourite book be an inspiration

Tiffany glass

Mar30

Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) is an American glass painter, the inventor of Tiffany glass and an outstanding artist of the secession era. He gained international fame at the World Fare in Paris at 1900, where he exhibited his own made, iridescent and opalescent glass. Revolutionized stain glass production: instead of the plumb rail technique, he edged the glass parts with yellow copper tape. By soldering these to each-other, fine, curved forms could be realized.
General characteristic of the products designed and manufactured by him is that they consist of many small glass parts and very colorful, images are highly detailed and summarized: they follow the general ruling style elements of secession. He produced glass windows, lamps and jewellery as well.
At the production of coloured glass, several metals are mixed in the melted glass. Each and every metal has its own color effect. Chromium results green, iron results brown, cobalt causes bright blue and indium provides yellow glass. Different oxides of the metals also produce different colors, thus the palette of hues are very wide.
Tiffany objects can be the focus points of our home. Although they are beautiful, don’t overdose them. One-two bigger item and some smaller can be fully enough in one space. They easily dominate their environment by the shining colors and heaviness. In case of lapms, we should consider the projected, colourful light when we turn them on. The situation is the same with stain glass windows: it seriously colors the incoming light.
When purchasing genuine Tiffany items, ask help from an expert to exclude potential fake ones. If you would like to turn your home more colourful by a Tiffany object, ask the help of an interior designer for planning.