Paper Lamps Add Spice and Interesting Lighting Choices
The idea of paper lamps adorning your home may sound a little “frat house” for your taste, but these versatile light fixtures may surprise you. As a matter of fact, once you start looking you are likely to find a style of paper lamp that fits in with just about every room in your home. They can be found in such a large variety of colors, shapes and sizes that even the pickiest designer cannot deny that they fit into more decorating schemes than a dorm room next to a bean bag chair.
These lamps can be worked into the decorating scheme of just about any room if you know where and how to use them. To save space and add a little more light to a dim corner, you can hang a cluster of two or three round rice paper lamps from the ceiling. Not only does this add an interesting and unique design to the room, but it also offers an alternative to hanging a permanent light fixture. For safety and aesthetic reasons, use a power cord the same color as your wall and hang the light fixtures behind something, like the entertainment center or a chair. It will keep anyone from tripping over the cord.
Wall sconces are another way to incorporate lamps into the design of your home. They also solve pressing space and light issues you may have because they take up no floor space and give of a soft accent light. These types of lamps are especially popular for rooms with a more earthy color scheme and design. This is especially true if you choose wall sconces where the paper is handmade – or at least looks like it is. Often these are made of rice paper or even cotton.
One of the best known and more traditional uses for these lamps is for outdoor decorating. Round bamboo paper lamps can be strung from a gazebo, trees or fences and serve a dual purpose. They offer necessary light for an outdoor evening picnic while also setting a calm, laid back mood. They can be great for adding an Asian touch or Polynesian accent to your party decorations. Just keep them away from the tiki torches!
These lamps are not solely for hanging from the wall or ceiling. More recent designs have given these former barbeque decorations their own leg to stand on, pun intended. Many contemporary designs are now calling for paper floor lamps to brighten up a room. Similar to the design of hanging lamps, these floor lamps are made of the same rice paper material with a wire or plastic internal structure to keep their shape.
What is different about floor sized lamps is that they can be up to six feet tall or more and come in many abstract or conventional shapes. A popular shape is similar to the silhouette of a person. They can be a little creepy at night when you’re walking to the bathroom, so you might want to give yourself time to get used to them. Other styles resemble boxes stacked unevenly on top of one another or a stack of books in a spiral design.
Maybe this is just a personal observation, but it does seem that paper lamps are never alone! Whether they’re lighting up a bar-b-que, standing tall or hanging from your ceiling, they always seem to look their best in a group of two or three, sometimes more. No one knows why this is, but it’s best not to question the laws of…paper. Whatever the reason is, using a few these lamps together to spruce up a room can be a creative and inexpensive way to add accent light and style.
Some Thoughts About Front Door Lighting
Lighting at the front door is an absolute must. However, homeowners frequently make mistakes when lighting this area. This article is an attempt to provide some basic guidelines to help you plan the kind of illumination that provides both safety and a “nice look” for this “first impression” area of your home. Light colored doors and walls around your entryway will help by bouncing your lighting outward.
Front door lighting should provide sufficient illumination for the walkway and steps that lead to the door. It should help visitors find the doorbell or knocker and help you find the keyhole. If you have one than one entry near the front of your home, be sure that the main entry (the one you want people to use) has the brightest lights and the most elaborate fixtures and make sure that there is enough light so that you can see who your visitors are.
The house number should also be illuminated for those first-time visitors.
Spend a little extra and purchase attractive, warm, appealing light fixtures that send a “welcome” message to your visitors. It’s also important to put identical fixtures on either side of the front door. It’s a design thing that provides a sense of balance to your main entryway and makes it look a little larger than it actually is.
A common mistake homeowners make is using lights that are too bright. Bright lights make the adjacent areas dark and that isn’t very appealing. Too much light also creates glare, which causes the visitor some level of discomfort. Your goal is to strike just the right balance of brightness so that safety is insured as well as a warm inviting glow.
A rule of thumb is to use 120V incandescent lights with low wattage bulbs (around 40W) or 15W compact fluorescents. The compact fluorescent will last about 10 times longer than the incandescent bulbs and will use only about a third of the energy needed for the incandescent lights that would produce a comparable amount of light.
Front door lighting fixtures that use colored or frosted lenses are easier on the eye and are generally more appealing than clear glass lenses.
Post lanterns are sometimes used as an alternative to wall mounted fixtures but can provide somewhat of a challenge in terms of getting the fixture that will do the job of illuminating the front door area.
Another option is to add low wattage lights under the overhang above your front door to highlight features such as your house number or some other decorative feature that’s near the front door. Remember that this is a second layer of light that should not overpower your primary front door lighting.
A word of caution: Don’t overdo your lighting arrangement near the front door area. Remember that the goal of front door lighting is to get visitors to the door and so the design focus should always have this as its primary goal.
One of the advantages in planning lighting for the front door is that you can take a look at what other homeowners in your area have done in terms of front door lighting with very little effort and without needing to bother them. Chances are that you will come away will a bunch of good ideas.
Decorating A Bathroom – 4 Decorating Tips To Create a Unique Bathroom Design
Bathroom decorating can be one of the most enjoyable rooms to decorate. First of all, it is a smaller room so wallpapering or painting and even replacing the type of flooring are jobs that do not have to overwhelm you. In fact, because of its size, you may be able to choose higher-quality materials since you will not be purchasing them in such high quantities. On the other hand, this is also the perfect situation to save money and create a beautiful designer look on a shoestring budget.
Decorating a bathroom is also a place where you can use a wide spectrum of ideas. A bathroom can be as whimsical as a fairy wonderland or as classical as a Greek sauna. Many times, decorating a bathroom depends on which bathroom it is. Is it is your home’s main bathroom, your master bath, or a bathroom that is used mainly by your children and other guests? Just as you spend time creating a certain feeling in every other room of your house doesn’t leave the bathroom to be simply utilitarian. Save a little bit of your personality in designing and decorating this room as well.
Decorating a bathroom doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to tear out existing fixtures and cabinetry in order to achieve the complete look that you are going for. If you can afford that and you feel it is necessary, go for it. However, it is amazing how dramatically the look of a bathroom can change and how much it can be transformed simply by using wall painting or wallpaper techniques. Replacing light fixtures and mirrors with ones that better represent the room’s style can attain another major change. Final touches such as installing designer towel bars and displaying matching linens in complementary colors makes the transformation complete.
If you have a bathroom that has the space, consider adding traditional pieces of furniture such as small chairs or tables, dressers or shelving units to add a unique dimension to your design. There are paints that are specifically made to adhere to glass or ceramic tile that can give you the added flexibility of decorating your bathroom’s window or wall tile. Adding a stained-glass effect to your bathroom window or to the edges around your vanity mirror gives your room even more of a custom designer look. Painting the window also gives you the added benefit of more privacy.
For a very unique look, you could replace your traditional bathroom door with a louvered door or in keeping with the idea of stained glass. You could purchase a door with French windows and paint the glass to match the rest of the room. Decorating a bathroom can be done to match the d