Archive | November 2016

Wall panelling

Bold though elegant wall pannelings

Advent wreath

The sacral advent wreath is made of pine branches, has a round shape, decorated with four candles, three of them is purple and one is pink. They are to be lit on the four Sundays before Christmas, one more on each Sunday, so on the last Sunday all of them are burning. Nowadays we consider the advent wreath freely, it can have any shape and the colors and numbers of the candles can be also different from the tradition, even the lighting is not important, just the decorating function. Let’s choose an advent wreath for our classic home which is integrated to the Christmas decoration and fits to the colors of the interior.
If we would like to decorate the mantelpiece with it, don’t force the round shape. A multi-tined candle holder can be decorated as an advent wreath. Bind pine branches to its body. Stick berry branches among them and decorate it with ribbons and Christmas ornaments.
We can use a porcelain cake stand instead of a wreath body. If we would like to make it more unique, put four smaller saucers on it and insert the tall candles in them. Make sure it stands stably. Fill the saucers with moss, put holly berry or thuja branches around them. The cake stand and the saucers can be different in color but pay attention to harmony.
An antique silver plate could be a perfect base. Stand thick cylinder candles beside each other. Decorate them with ribbons and evergreens. Sprinkle walnuts, peanuts around them and make it more colorful with some apples or dried slices of orange.
For vintage style, put the candles in small tin buckets or clay pots. Fill them with moss. Put them on a wooden disc and use bark as decoration. It’s simpler and shiny solution if we put the white cylinder candles in jars. Just stand them in a row and number.
Ask for help of an interior designer for choosing the perfect festive decorations of your home.

Advent calendars

Nov25

Reusable and creative advent calendars

Kitchen floor plans

Nov23

Basic kitchen layouts on the floorplan and in reality (galley, U-shape, L-shape)

Candle

Nov21

Demand for candles increases in this time of the year. The aim is not only dismissing the early darkness with cozy and romantic lighting but raising the shine of the coming feasts also. However, there are differences between the materials of candles and the production methods have a long history in elder days.
Beeswax was the first known wax. Nowadays using it is fashionable again. It burns long but it’s harder to work with. The candle is made of it by bailing, casting or rolling up wax sheets. The material has the smell and the color of honey.
Candles were made of tallow until the end of the 19th century. These were cheaper than wax, so mostly the poor used them. It had bad small because of its animal origin and sooted very much. In the ancient times animal fat and plant oils were burnt in small clay pots as lamps.
Stearin comes from natural fat, the candle made of it will be opalescent and milk-white. is the solid material breaks easily, candle can be made of it only by casting.
Paraffin is a petrol derivative, nowadays this is the most common material. It is easily workable, colorable and suitable for both casting and bailing.
The material of gel candle is actually a gelatinous textured limpid wax. It is suitable for casting. Bubbling can be eliminated by dipping the glass in hot water during casting.
Wick is an essential part of any kind of candles, which is a spun cotton material treated with paraffin. This provides the soot-free burning.
Any shape, color or smell candle is chosen for mood-lighting, it will be the part of the interior. Ask for help of an interior designer for planning the mood-lighting for a special occasion.

New England style

Nov18

New Endland style interiors (nature inspired neutral colors combined with white and blue, with nautical ornaments)

Old postcards 11.

Nov16

Thanksgiving on old postcards

Festive outdoor lighting

Nov14

It already gets dark early in the middle of November, so we can begin to decorate our balconies, houses and gardens with light garlands. The simplest method is to fix the tensed fairy lights to the rail or the drip, or wrap it around trees, shrubs and the pergola. It will look nice, however, we can be more creative.
Let’s buy glass or plastic LED luminous globes in different sizes. These fit very well in an urn shaped pot and a bird bath. But they can be also placed alongside the garden path. We can even make them by ourselves using old globe lampshades. Put the lights in it and seal it with a proper sized tin can at the socket. This latter can be used as a stand for stability, but we can transform it to a huge Christmas ball ornament by turning it upside down and fix a bigger hook in it.
Let’s use the hanging wicker baskets which held flowers in the summer. Pad it with light garlands with pulling out the small lights on the holes of it. Cover it with cotton wool and maybe fill it with glass ball ornaments. Hang it to its place where it was in summer. It will be a cozy sight.
If there is a human or animal shaped sculpture in the garden, it can be decorated with light garland. The garland should be formed spherical by looping it throughout itself for keeping the shape. Place it in the hands or at the feet of the statue as if it was played with.
Let’s make artificial icicles until there are no real ones. Cut the legs of some nylon stockings. Fill it with cotton wool with placing the light garland among it. Sew it at the top. Hang it under the roof, near the front door or on the patio, preferably protected from rain because cotton wool sucks water quickly.
It’s important to use only outdoor, waterproof light garlands for safety! Ask for help of an interior designer for planning the festive outdoor lighting.