A Heavy Accent

Some accessories can be overbearing...such as your aunt's overly ornate picture frames strewn throughout her small apartment. Adding accessories and wonderful art to your home is a great way to bring your own character and self into your home's design, but keep things in scale. Nothing is worse than entering a 500 square foot apartment only to find the furniture of a grandiose home lurking all over it. Small and subtle accessories that easily fit onto side tables are an easy way to incorporate your style without having your guests trip all over them.

Such accessories include picture frames that make less of a statement than the actual art in them and sleek candle holders that do not look like a prop from the game Clue. Shop for pieces that easily fit with your furniture and do not overpower them with their size. Happy shopping!

The Pampered Guest

Before you have people over there is a tradition that every family must follow prior to your guest's arrival....hide the junk, clean off the counter tops, and make sure the bathroom looks tidy. Hiding the junk is easy, simply find a large box and sweep everything into it...then hide the box in the closet for tomorrow. Having a tidy looking bathroom is completely different though. You want your guests to feel that they are using clean facilities and at the same time enjoying the stylish decor you have used to make this room an inviting one.

Give your bathroom some wonderful decor with matching fixtures and accessories. Whether you prefer a gold finish or a bronze finish, making your bathroom's accessories match is key to a well designed small place. Start choosing the right accessories for you bathroom and make your guests feel pampered!

Time to Decorate!

Clocks are instruments that keep us on schedule and help us coordinate our daily events. The word clock is derived from a Celtic word that means 'bell.' This is because people used to know what time it was in the day by their local church bells. There have been many different types of clocks. From sundials to clocks run by water, there are a variety of devices or methods for you stay on track.

A clock for your home can be a great functional accessory to add to any room. Whether you prefer a large and ornate timepiece to hang over your fireplace or a sleek and modern one to sit on a counter top there are a variety to choose from. So start thinking about what is missing from your room and add a functional piece that will keep your home looking nicely put together as well as keep you always on time. 

Lighting Up Your Life

Seasons greetings to all those wonderful people who devote so much time to decorating their homes and offices for the holidays! With twinkling lights and inflatable reindeers accessorizing our lawns, it is obvious that we are waist deep into the holiday season. This year has seen many trends in lighting, but as is true with most fads the classics are always the best. When planning where to place lights around your home it can be fun to add one or two artistic lighting elements to give your room some personality.

The main lighting in a home though should maintain a classic look. A look that is sharp and provides you with what you really need....functional lighting. Lighting that provides you with task appropriate illumination and lighting that provides an overall glow is a necessity. So this coming year after all of our Santa decorations are put away, consider changing up your design to give you the best and most functional design for you.

The Last Party of the Year

With New Year's Eve around the corner, everyone is beginning to feel the stress. Do you stay in for a romantic evening with a loved one, if you are single do you stay in and watch the ball drop while gorging on take-out, or do you brave the traffic and spend exorbitant amounts of money just for parking alone to?  My bet this year is a reflection of my new year's resolutions...keep it simple. a house party keeps things inexpensive and safe.

Dress up your house with some festive colored lights  by placing string lights and decorative candle holders around windows, counters, etc. Add little sparkly touches around your home , add some chilled bubbly and whatever food you would like to feed those friends of your yours. So whether you decide on ringing in the new year in four inch heels or in fuzzy socks, be safe and start out the new year in the place you spend so much time decorating....home.

Shimmery Glittery Goodness

Every girl dreams of living in a castle with a glimmering chandelier that simply leaves you breathless when you take in its majestic sparkly greatness. Chandeliers are not just for princesses, which is great because the vast majority of us are not and have very little hop of settling down with a prince. A chandelier in your home may sound unattainable due to their cost and size, but with the variety of lighting fixtures available in this day and age, you are bound to find the one you have always dreamed of owning....on a smaller scale.

In a smaller home, chandeliers work best (to scale) in a dining room where it can be a glittery accessory for your holiday meals or in a tall foyer where you can enjoy the fixture every time you set foot into your castle.

Groovy Lighting

Art is most definitely in the eye of the beholder. To some a particular painting is world class, one of a kind, and would fetch millions at auction. To others that same painting looks like a toddler had a great time with some finger paints. Whatever you choose to decorate your walls with, lighting is key to ensure that your art is presented at its best.

Easy to install, art lighting not only provides your art piece with the appropriate fetching glow, but it also provides ambient lighting to your room. So whether your idea of art is a painting of a landscape or a black light enhanced Pink Floyd poster, show it some love with the right lighting.

Night Light, Bright Light

Kids (and sometimes adults) can be scared of the dark. No matter that the kids are nodding off while brushing their teeth, as soon as you switch off the lights instant pandemonium breaks loose in their minds. Monsters hiding in the close and toe-grabbing animals hiding under the bed are all waiting to get them as soon as the room goes pitch black.

What people need to fight this battle of imaginary monsters vs. the sleepy children is not a samurai sword as the kids have suggested, instead a more effective and safer weapon is needed...a nightlight. Convenient and easy to to stick in an electrical plug or install as a sconce, a nightlight provides a low glow that is easy to sleep with and that keeps impending monsters at bay. If you have an infiltration of monsters in your home, pick these up and enjoy sleeping again.

Ergonomically Correct

Sitting at a desk for hours upon hours is where a lot of the human race spends their days. Hunched over and typing away, our bodies frozen in the same unnatural position, it would make our ancestors wonder if we were mad. Now that we all are becoming slightly more aware of the need to have proper chairs to help us control our posture and the need to have desks at an appropriate height for our individual needs, it has come to light that perhaps we should take note of the lighting that we use. 

We do not all have perfect vision and even if we did our eyes get tired from staring at the computer box all day. We need appropriate lighting to minimize eye strain and headaches. Lamps allow you to brighten up the area you are specifically working in. This lessens your need to move closer to what you are looking at and therefore eases possible back pain created by bad posture. Treat yourself well with products made to make your life healthier!

Slight Light

We all have those friends who just have everything so perfectly put together. They have a doting partner, amazingly clean looking kids, new shiny cars and a house the glows...Glows! In the next couple of weeks as you get barraged by holiday parties and cheese balls, notice the differences in lighting used during festive occasions. Having all lights on makes everything look too stark and makes your guest's evening make-up look clownish. Having a home that is too dark rewards you with safety hazards and the inability for anyone to see your facial expressions while they are talking to you...which may be a good thing depending on who did the cooking.

To achieve the glow or to get started on working toward that glow you must play with your lighting. Try turning off your main ceiling light and illuminating simply with lamps and low lights. Make sure that your home is bright enough  that everyone can make out exits and walkways clearly. After that level of light has been established, let your creativity loose. Add a cluster of candles to brighten up a sitting area or turn on a Tiffany lamp to throw colorful hues around the room. Have fun!

Country Charm

You may live in the big city, surrounded by metal structures and gleaming glass, but we all know that some of you have hearts that are pure country. So whether you live in a tiny condo on the 30th floor in the heart of downtown or somewhere deep in cattle country, who says you can't decorate in the style that best reflects your true self.

Warm and charming, country kitchens are known to be functional places that can feed an army while looking sweeter than molasses. One way to turn any humble kitchen into one fit for a country cottage is by changing your fixtures. Fixtures that look semi-industrial can dramatically change the overall feel of this favorite room. add some cozy paint and come colorful curtains for good measure and you are ready to live the country dream. Now all we need is a cowboy...

Bare Bones Lighting

We have all come across them recently, those monstrous clear bulbs with the lightning rod of fiery light inside of them. From the Home Depot to the latest design magazines these bulbs are the "new" vintage look to hit the streets. With their bare bones look, usually without any sort of fixture to balance it out, they are lighting design's take on edginess. Great as an accent piece and as something that adds a whole lot of character to any space, they are not meant to be the main light source for any room. 

Unique and fun, they offer an artistic element in a small design. Look beyond the dazzling light and make sure that when you add this element to your room, that you already have layered lighting working in your favor. Make sure that the lighting used in your room is functional for all tasks and then you can add some of these dazzling light fixtures to make the room's character really pop. 

Dining Room Lights

Now as the holiday season is in full swing you may be noticing that holiday events generally revolve around some sort of treat or platter in the dining room or kitchen. Some sort of fatty goodness that is guaranteed to turn your favorite pair of jeans into a death grip around your waist is sure to be showcased. Cookies and grandma's spiked punch are some of the many common holiday treats that deserve to have their own special spot on the dining room table. Dining rooms and kitchens alike are family gathering places that need to have a lighting fixture that not only shows off the wonderful spread in all of its yummy glory, but is a decorative touch that will give your a finishing touch.

Lighting fixtures hung over the dining room table can be of any design. This formal room can handle a fixture with a little pizzazz so choose one that you love and that you will enjoy seeing in the many pictures of holiday gatherings!

Design On a Dime or Maybe Just a Nickel

If you ever feel that surge of need to redo your home's style or if you decide to finally give it some style, this do-it-yourself is for you. With the upcoming new year just weeks away, we are all primed for a better, brighter new year that hopefully has some great big changes in store for us. Since those changes have yet to take place and we are still on our normal penny-pinching path, here are some ways to shake things up and finally lose that 1980's decor that has been haunting your home for much too long.

The first and most impressive bang for your buck comes through the use of paint. Cover up that boring color with something fresh and new. It will bring you instant gratification. Another easy way to transform your home's look is by revamping the fixtures that you already have. Some lights may look vintage, others just old and on their last leg. Change their style with new lamp shades in modern designs or get new and improved pendants light covers that show off your fashion sense. Good design does not have to cost a fortune, so start experimenting with new looks. It will be worth it!

Finish First

When choosing a design for a bathroom or kitchen, there is much debate as to what gets chosen first. Some people prefer to choose their cabinets first, while others believe that you must first start with the finish of your fixtures. The finish is an important element that sometimes gets overlooked. Many people may not directly notice the finish when they walk into your kitchen, but the overall effect of it is an imminent part of the whole look. There are many different finishes to choose from that have colors that range from cool to warm.

Brass, copper, chrome, nickel-plated, gold-plated, matte or shiny, satin sheen, and on and on. The finish of your fixtures is a very personal choice that should add to the overall look that you are going for. If you would like a Tuscan feel, choose an oil-rubbed finish. If you are going for a Scandinavian or modern look, choose a chrome finish. Go to your local design or hardware store to explore the many finishes available, they will make a huge impact on the final design you end with.

Wall Mounted Candle Light

A wonderful contemporary design that mounts on your wall is not only as pretty as a picture, but it also holds your attention in rapt fascination as your new found art piece sparkles with fiery light within its frame. As an easy way to add design and style to your home, even it you do not have much room to spare, a wall candle holder brings warmth into any room. Available in a variety of patterns, these candle holders offer an elegant and contemporary way to lighten up any room of the house. Regardless if you are trying to decorate a hallway or grand living room, a wall candle holder easily transforms any room into a well-designed space.

Hanging these candle holders are a cinch and requires the same effort as it would take to mount a framed art piece. Choose the right one for your space and enjoy the many compliments it is sure to bring you!