Affordable Holiday Dining Décor That Looks Like It Was Done by the Pros- Grace Kelly
Decorating for the winter holidays does not have to be arduous or expensive. A professional look is easy by following even a few of the following hints. There are some simple rules of which to be aware before diving into the list of ideas.
First, one should work with the look that he already has in the dining room. For example, a rustic looking room could be decorated with an abundance of natural outdoor elements. On the other hand, a formal dining room may call for a more ornate look.
Second, one should always decorate in a way that feels comfortable to him. Most decorating can be done simply using items that the individual already has while obtaining a couple other pieces affordably. The key is to use the imagination to take indoor decorations, pieces from the outdoors and a few affordable add-ons to decorate just like the professionals.
Theme and Colors
The first step in decorating a dining room for the holidays is choosing a theme. A few options include rustic, elegant, country, modern or eclectic. In addition, the individual may choose to decorate around one or two simple items, such as snowflakes, pinecones, flowers or fruits. A good point to remember is that a theme does not have to be overdone to be meaningful. Professional decorators often prefer to use one or two main décor pieces that will catch the eye.
The second step is choosing a color scheme. Many prefer using a traditional palette of reds and greens. However, modern options would include shades of blue, shades of green, or an all white setting. A dining room will look quite elegant when outfitted in metallic colors.
Plants
Plants are the perfect way to enliven a room. They provide natural bursts of color and fresh scents. There are several ways to use fresh plants in a dining room.
§ Poinsettias are a staple for the holiday season. Because poinsettias come in varieties of reds and whites, they will match a variety of color schemes.
§ An environmentally friendly option is to place evergreen tree saplings on the table or the floor; in the spring, they can be planted outdoors.
The Table
The dining room table is the perfect place for creativity. The ideas for decorating here are as limitless as one’s imagination. First choose the color and design of the dishes, tablecloth and napkin.
§ Napkin rings are essential for a polished look. These can be store-bought or homemade using florist’s wire and greenery from a craft store.
§ Nametags make seating easy. The tags can be decorated with stamps, printed or hand-written on specialty paper, wired to sprigs of greenery or set in spray-painted pinecones.
§ Candles provide ambiance. Floating candles, set in short glass bowl filled with cranberries and water, will not block one’s view across the table. Pillar candles in varying widths and heights will look elegant when placed on glass pedestals.
§ A rustic look can be achieved with branches from evergreens or hardwoods placed in tall, straight glass vases. They will fit into a holiday theme when coated with metallic spray paint or fake snow, which can be found at craft stores.
§ Fruit always looks welcoming and can often be found on sale during this time of year. Citrus fruits provide bursts of color when placed in tall glass hurricane vases.
§ Those who have bulb ornaments left over after decorating can place these in glass bowls or vases for a festive centerpiece.
The Rest of the Room
After the table is decorated, one should not forget about the rest of the room. For a cohesive holiday look, doorways, windows and more can be decorated. For example, wreaths provide a cheery welcome when hung on windows. Fake or real evergreen branches can be placed around doorframes. Holly can be hung from a chandelier.
Holidays are the perfect time to get together with family and friends. Decorating the dining room for celebrations can be done affordably using many items one may already have around the home or yard. A professional look is simple to achieve with a simplistic, themed design.
Author Bio
Grace Kelly writes for Zintro, a marketplace of experts in various fields that helps connect investors, lawyers, analysts, designers, entrepreneurs, and more. Find an expert by discipline on Zintro.com consultant directory.
The main house dates from 1819. Stolper and gable boards are beautifully carved by Per Haugen from Lom, one of the masters in this demanding and traditional art© FOTO: Nils Petter Dale
EPOK Norge – Swedish Furniture
Swedish Gustavian Interiors From The Affari Catalogue
Country Swedish Style From The Affari Catalogue
An American’s Guide For Getting The Swedish Country Look
With the stresses this world has to offer, it is no wonder why there is such a gravitation towards a home that is cozy and relaxing. Our homes are places where we want to connect with our family and friends amidst the fast paced life we are living.
Country decorating has always been a very popular decorating approach in the US, and around the world for that matter. American painted furniture with colonial elements is often what you would find in many homes in America that are designed to reflect the early America period design, but rarely do you see a home decorated with a Swedish reflection.
Swedish country decorating has a slightly different slant than you find in America. The style and approach to furniture is quite a bit different. In Sweden we find the same countryside looks that are found away from the city with a homestead influence. We give you 5 tips to getting the Swedish look with the common elements that you can find in America online and in your local antique stores.
Here Are A Couple Tips To Getting A Country Swedish Look In Your Home
This Swedish decorated house in Dalarna, Sweden has all the rustic elements
you would expect to see in a house set in the Scandinavian country. Borrow a couple ideas from this home for your personal decorating.
1. Collect The Right Style Period Furniture.
This family house in the Swedish countryside has some very authentic Swedish looking furniture. Gustavian style Rococo chairs through out the home show off a Gustavian look that is famously created in Sweden. The chairs alone tell you this home is from Sweden. Finding these very rare pieces of furniture in America is next to impossible, and buying true antiques can be very costly making a whole home decorated around the Gustavian style a far reach for most people.
There are some furniture pieces in America that double the looks found in Sweden.
– Consider decorating with furniture that is has clean straight lines, and made out of wood. In the picture above the drop leaf table looks much like the early shaker style seen in America. Look at some of the furniture from Chelsea Textiles to get some good ideas. Many of these tables such as this one, and this one, can be found for less. Collect furniture such as drop tables which can be used in the middle of a living room paired with a sofa, they can also be pushed against the wall.
Other items that are universal to some degree are wall shelves. Find wall shelves that are made of wood, and slightly cut with a curve. The top of this cupboard is a great example of a look that is found in the country. Plate racks for the walls are easily found on ebay and can be painted any color to create a uniform look within your home. Collecting plates that can be positioned on the wall or on plate racks is another common element in Swedish styled homes.
– Have a couple pieces in your home which are just plain wood. Consider stripping a side chair down to its bare wood, and waxing it. Beauty can be found in wood, and gives a much needed balance towards an interior with many painted finishes.
–Wood Slat walls are another very common architectural element with Swedish styled homes. Often times these walls are painted a white or a gray with gilt mirrors hung on the wall.
– Another option is to collect Queen Anne furniture which then can be manipulated with paint to get the look of the backroads in Sweden.
-Wooden chairs and old benches can be a stylish approach in decorating your home. You can include a corner cupboard, plate racks and even sideboards and serve as storage areas around your dining room.
–Shop on ebay for the just right pieces to finish off every room in your home
2. Get The Color Right
This pinterest page gives a person some excellent examples of Colonial decorating in America. Much like Swedish decorating, painted wood is a very common element. When comparing the two styles, one thing is very evident, the colors are slightly different. Dark blues are very common with Swedish and Nordic style antiques, as well as lighter hues of elementary colors. In this photograph you can see a wide range of salmon oranges, deep blues and red. Consider bringing the historical c0lors that are found in Sweden inside your home.
Decorating with red and pink can be very country. While pink is shunned these days, it can be a dramatic color which can really speak volumes in your home. Getting the right color, and adding additional painting techniques such as distressing and glazing can give a terrific historical look. Black is also a great color for primitive interiors. Other country colors to consider are yellow, and red, and creamy white. Consider putting more of an emphasis on the bolder richer colors such as a deep red than the light blues and whites found in the castles of Sweden. Borrow from the colors found in Sweden for your wood accessories, furniture and walls.
Wood can be painted and heavily distressed to give you the dramatic looks that
are found in Sweden. Light colored drapes around the windows let in the light, and give this home a soft touch. Antique Swedish mirrors also make this home, and a pair of sofas in blue and white stripe are the colors found in Sweden. Wooden floor with Nordic Style runners sewn together making a large rug. In this home antique kitchen table is paired with Swedish Leksand chairs.
Country style decorating can capture the spirit of the simplicity of country living amidst the modern times. Country decorating is one way of reminiscing the pasts. It reminds us of how we are living our lives. Decorations inspired by country living makes us closer to nature. A cozy home reminds us to live simple lives.
Picture Credits- isogninelcassettodiadriana.blog, Weranda Country
Gustavian Style: Warm Or Cool Tones?
Swedish Gustavian Pine Benches
Gustavian style is all about painted surfaces, intricate wood carvings, distressed wood flooring, and beautiful family heirloom furniture. Gray painted furniture are commonly associated with Swedish interiors. Gray can be both a cold and warm color depending on the hue of the paint. When gray is mixed with yellow, it can take on a color that is more warm, where as mixed with purple, or blue, it can appear on the colder tones. Gray is a staple color in old world Swedish homes, and will work with any color palette. Here are a couple examples of cool and warm color tones:
Cool Tone Examples:
The cool color tones can be very attractive and fresh. Light blue can open up the home, and allow it to appear more spacious.
1. As you can see this home has light blue painted walls, and furniture which is painted in the exact same color tones. Furniture is accented in gold, and other pieces are painted in white.
2. This ad for Tara Shaw is based on the cool color tones. A very light blue floor, and a gray wall with undertones of blue are the perfect back drop for this antique piece of furniture painted in blue-gray. As you can see white washed pine furniture adds a touch of wood, and works with the color palette. See more of the furniture here
Some Tips For Cool Interiors :
– Use several glazes when washing your furniture. Look at the color depth with these chairs- Pair of 18th C. Rococo Gustavian side chairs in the original paint From Marston Luce Antiques. The color is very rich and dark, and would work perfectly with a room based in the lighter blue tones.
– Paint your walls a very light blue and accent with punchy shades of blue such as seen in the table cloth. Add in lots of white painted accent pieces.
– A blue painted wall can go a long way to create a cool interior. Here we see a combination of blue gray and white.
– Brighter whites are used in cooler tones, while beige color washes and upholstery are used for warmer palettes.
Warm Tone Examples:
Warmer tones tend to feature traces of yellow, and brown in the swatches. A warmer palette will make your home appear to be warmer in the winter than a room that is painted in a light shade of blue. Rich yellows work so beautifully with gold, and brass.
This ad for Horchow features an interior bathed in the warmer tones of brown. Wood is washed with brown or beige paint allowing the natural wood to show through.
–Olivier & Chantal’s French Home is a great example of a warm color palette. The walls are painted a dark gray, and red painted furniture give an opportunity for color to be apart of this room. Red is also a warm color, making it the perfect choice against the dark gray walls that appear in this room. Untreated wood breaks up the painted surfaces, and allow the eye some rest. Solid upholstery allows this home to remain uncluttered. Simplicity, and clean looks govern the Swedish style. See more of this home here
-This Campagne cover features a Gustavian room with lots of warm tones. Lots of beige is used with a combination of white. Looking closely at the furniture, painted finishes on the clock and the settee reveal exposed warm wood, with beautiful distressed white finishes. See more of this home here.
Some Tips For Warm Interiors:
1. Paint your walls yellow and combine beige and gray into the interior. Work with darker tones instead of light paint colors.
2. Incorporate stone and concrete into a warm interior. Display stone busts or urns on pedestals. Consider leaving the wood raw and untouched without any polishing or lacquer. Add in brass instead of silver.
3. Incorporate black painted furniture into a warm decorating scheme. Black painted furniture often looks terrific against tones of yellow.
4. Consider also working with the darker green color palette. Combine green upholstery with untouched pine frames, or gilt wood frames. Work with a country theme with lots of distressed furniture, or work with brighter Kelly greens such as the colors featured on Lars Scandinavian Design Book. As you can see the secondary color is always beige not white.
Outstanding Reproduction French And Swedish Furniture From NOIR
For more than ten years, Noir has been designing, building and importing a unique collection of home furnishings. The company emphasizes their collections around natural fabrics, carved furniture and outstanding finishes. The best thing about Noir is they base their collections around the very best designs of our time. In their collections, you will see a variety of furniture from key designs in history such as Empire, English, French and Gustavian looking pieces.
Noir builds their furniture using high quality solid wood, instead of composite woods. You would be surprised to learn that some of the most recognized furniture brands which used to build in wood, are now gravitating towards composite woods to save money. Noir uses solid wood, something that is almost forgotten in a world concerned about the bottom dollar. Buying solid wood will ensure that your furniture will stay in your family for years to come.
Wood washes have become extremely popular in the last 10 years. Some of the best reproduction designers such as Restoration Hardware have been building furniture that combine the best of painted furniture and the beauty of wood in a wash finish. With painted furniture, you often don’t get the detail of the wood, and additionally wood left alone can look rather plain. Washing wood gives you the extra edge towards an appearance of aged furniture that we have all come to enjoy.
Noir’s Gustavian Pieces……
I am particularly thrilled with the Fabian three seater sofa in a weathered finish, as well as the Fabian loveseat. With this collection, they have also produced an armchair to complete the collection. It seems as though the Louis XVI styles,(square back chairs, and sofas) can be challenging to find locally, but they are still widely available through dealers, ebay and amazon of all places. Gustavian collections such as these three pieces are incredibly hard to find and some what rare to have available in a reproduction, which makes this collection particularly exciting! Scroll through their website, and find dealers who carry the Noir furniture here.
Jane Moore, The Successful Woman Behind Jane Moore, Ltd. Which Specializes In Swedish Antiques
18th century French Louis XVI Console with White Marble Top, 19th century Swedish Grey Four-Legged Table, circa 1850, French Antique Louis XVI Carved Wood Trumeau Mirror with garden and musical attributes, circa 1760, 18th Century French Coal Burner
Jane Moore, is the successful woman behind the shop Jane Moore, Ltd. which specializes in Swedish and French antiques. You may recall the extravagant Swedish home that was featured in March of 2008 in Veranda Magazine.
The Dallas home was remodeled and filled with beautiful Swedish antique furniture. The same house was then featured in Swedish Country Interiors, by Rhonda Eleish, Edie Van Breems.
Nobody has put together a better article than the one by Indulge Decor Blog featuring comparisons of this home between the publications of Veranda and Swedish Country Interiors.
18th C. Swedish Rococo black painted chest with rare brass hardware decorated with crown and cross, circa 1760.
19th C. Swedish White Buffet– Original Paint $4,350
18th C. white buffet duo corps, circa 1760 Jane Moore Interiors
19th C. Swedish Gustavian dark blue cupboard with original date, circa 1842 $5,280
Jane Moore Interiors, 2922 Virginia Street, Houston, Texas 77098
An Interview With Tara Shaw About Her Swedish Furniture Line
(These pieces are no longer on Amazon…sorry)
A few select pieces from Tara Shaw are now being sold through Horchow.
Reminiscent of favorite antiques imported from Europe, Tara Shaw Maison offers reproduction furnishings and decor for the home that will become your new classics. Simple yet elegant, this handcrafted birch Swedish side chair is hand carved of birch wood with a hand-painted finish. 19″W x 13.5″D x 38″T. This terrific chair sells for $1499 from Horchow.
Horchow had an interview with Tara Shaw that was very inspiring:
HORCHOW: What inspired your furniture collection?
TARA SHAW: “Guerrilla antiquing” for 15 years in Europe. II was so difficult, finding one-of-a-kind items and knowing only one person could buy it and enjoy it. I couldn’t find these finishes and styles in a reproduction line – that inspired me to create the pieces I wanted.
HORCHOW: As an interior designer, what are your go-to’s?
TARA SHAW: For fabrics, Dedar; I used their acanthus print in gray and cream for a showhouse bedroom. For paint, Benjamin Moore #925. an ivory that works with
whites or colors; tor high-gloss. “Possibly Pink” from Fine Paints of Europe. For wallpaper, I just launched my own “Grisailles”, based on the grisailles panels in
Tara Shaw Maison.
HORCHOW: Which design era is most inspiring to you?
TARA SHAW: Louis XV! in France and King Gustav II in Sweden. Louis was the father of the straight leg. and both are known for clean lines, pale painted finishes gilded to perfection.
Three distinct chair backs, each featuring elegant curves, intertwine to form the back of this breathtaking Swedish-Rococo-style bench. Reproduced from a European original, it offers a unique seating option formal enough for grand dining rooms yet casual enough for entryways, bedrooms, or other areas.
- Hand carved of birch; no two are exactly alike.
- Seat upholstered in poly/cotton.
- Hand-painted finish.
- 64″W x 20″D x 42″T; seat height, 20″T.
- Imported.
Inspired by a European original, this stately bench features ornate carvings on the apron and legs for Old World charm and antique appeal. From Tara Shaw.
- Frame is hand-carved birch with a hand-painted finish.
- Upholstery is polyester/cotton blend.
- 52″W x 22.5″D x 21″T.
- Imported.
English Tea Tables : A Must Have Statement Piece In An Outstanding Swedish Room
Tripod tables were designed originally to serve tea. Some were designed to tilt like the pie table which could then be folded up and stored away. You would think the tripod table is English in origin because they have been traditionally associated with England and North America, but it was also popular in other areas of the world as well.
It is not uncommon to find tripod tables in Swedish interiors because they were executed in Scandinavia, Germany, The Netherlands, and France. Dutch painters were known to decorate the oval tops of these three legged tables with landscapes starting in the late 17th century, and this following survived well into the 19th century. In the late 18th century the English style became extremely fashionable, and cabinet-makers in Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands executed furniture in this style.
- Scandinavian Design by Lars Bolander withHeather Smith MacIsaac
- Swedish Painted Tilt Top Candle Stand From Rhonda Eleish and Edie Van Breems
- Swedish Furniture & Decorating Ideas- London-Townhouse By designer Katrin Cargill
