Decorating for the holidays is much more than decking the halls with boughs of holly. While a fully trimmed Christmas tree will be the centre of attention, here are a few ideas from designers for homeowners to decorate and brighten their homes for the season.
Decorate
The trick to setting the mood for the season is to embellish the home artfully, says Teresa Ryback, principal designer of tdSwansburg Design Studio. Her suggestions:
* Change the fabric colours in the living room to reflect the holiday season. Change cushions, throws, table runners and tablecloths. Ryback recommends choosing expensive furnishings with a neutral colour. Numerous small changes are then possible over the year without having to worry about seasonally coloured cushions clashing with the couch, or the bright red bows screaming at the window coverings.
* If there's no room in your linen closet or your budget for a lot of special-occasion table linens, Ryback suggests using colourful, seasonal paper serviettes at the dinner table, instead. They can also be used as coasters in the living room.
* Introduce sparkly and highly reflective accessories into the home: polished silverware, candelabras, etc. The reflections from lights, candles and the fireplace add drama to any room.
* Don't limit colours to the traditional palette of red and green. Blue and silver are also growing in popularity.
* Don't limit your decorating canvas to the tree or the mantel. In Ryback's case, nothing says Christmas more than rope boughs wrapped around the staircase bannister.
Sights and scents
The season isn't just about colour. Bring in nature and, with it, the smells, too, suggests Teri McGeachie, owner of Flowers to You. Her advice:
* Christmas is about introducing a tree into the house. Add to that by bringing indoors fresh-cut cedar, fir or pine. They can be used to decorate a mantel, staircase or used in a wreath.
* Use cinnamon sticks for their smell, and curly willow for their architectural interest.
* For an alternative to traditional red and green, ask for Carolina Sapphire branches. This member of the cypress family has a silvery-blue hue and is very aromatic.
* When ordering or making a centrepiece for the table, be sure to maintain a sense of scale. If the arrangement is too large, guests might get a twig in the gravy.
Keep it no higher than 35.5 cm (14 inches), so people can see each other across the table.
Illuminate
In the rush to prepare the home for guests, some people forget to consider their lighting needs, according to Ray Laming, a lighting consultant with Mclaren Electric. Here are his recommendations:
* Always check lighting levels after a renovation or even after a new coat of paint. With the fashion for painting rooms in darker colours, he says, people find out too late their existing lighting might not be bright enough.
* Watch out for glare. Cranking up the lights to compensate for a dark room can end up causing an uncomfortable glare. More than one source of light -- such as under-counter lights in conjunction with the main overhead light in a kitchen -- is the solution.
* To get more light without resorting to higher-watt bulbs, consider changing from a flush to semi-flush ceiling fixture. The added exposure of the bulb results in light reflecting off the ceiling.
* Consider a change from incandescent lights to CF (compact fluorescent) and LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs. They produce less heat and save energy. Some CF bulbs now come in reds and greens, and a few can also operate on dimmer switches.
* Use smaller-task lights to highlight and accent valued treasures, such as art or vintage decorations.
-- Canwest News Service
