Tag Archives: dining

How to Decorate With Stylish Chandeliers

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When it comes to lighting effects, not all chandeliers are alike. Here is a run down of the different types of chandeliers and the type of light they are likely to cast over your dining room table.

Late Victorian: The late Victorian style of chandelier lighting is very similar to the late seventies style of chandelier. This style consists of stacked circular glass blown globes that are stacked in brass wheels of usually eight and then four tiers. This type of chandelier casts a very soft pearly glow and look best in a dim wood paneled room. The more stark seventies versions with the pure white opaque glass look best hanging over a kitchen table and tend to cast a much brighter light.

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Gas Electric: This style of chandelier consists of tulip shaped flutes and is usually made of heavy engraved glass. In Victorian times there would have been candles inside these frosted flutes but now a days there is candle shaped light bulbs or regular light bulbs. This style of chandelier which is usually mounted on a metallic wheel, whether it be brass, iron or metal, are usually very bright and sometimes look better somewhere like a bathroom where you need lots of light and not necessarily in a dining room where something more subtle is required.

Arts and Crafts: You know you are looking at an Arts and Crafts style of chandelier if the glass shades are dangling downwards from the wheel rather than sitting like cups on the rim of the wheel. This is characterized by balanced mobiles that consist of two to four to six lampshades on a rustic looking metal frame that hangs from the ceiling.

Mission Style: If the chandelier has black iron limbs or wheels then it is probably mission style. Mission style chandeliers usually also have square shades made of streaked white or pearly opaque glass. This type of chandelier usually casts a dimmer light then most.

Wagon Wheel: This eclectic chandelier was a common sight in the suburbs in the seventies and basically consisted of a wooden wheel that was topped with miniature lamps shades. It casts a nice, yellowish dim light for a dining room.

Atomic Age: Also known as a fifties revival style, these are the chandeliers that look like metal starbursts from which shoot multicolored Christmas bulbs. This unique style never seems that dated as it looks both modern and antique at the same time and the light that it can cast is often pretty because of the different colored bulbs. It does however cast a dimmer light than most.

Art Deco Chandeliers – These are getting rarer and rarer and cast beautiful soft lights the colored round pendant drops and flower shaped fluted shades that are characteristic of the style. The glass on an art deco chandelier is often green or pink and it can also be frosted or streaked with color.

There are hundreds of more styles of chandeliers, especially if you want to get into discussing crystal pendant chandeliers but the above represents the most common and affordable styles that you can find online or in stores.

Decorating With Tropical Chic

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Tropical chic is a popular, exotic way to decorate any room. Jungle themes, vivid colors and natural woods are part of the look. The style is reminiscent of the wild while at the same time becoming sophisticated and peaceful. Different textures of wood are mixed with intricate animal and plant patterns to create a visual interest that makes you feel like you are lounging in the middle of a tropical forest.

Common motifs on fabrics using this style include stylized palm trees, banana leaf prints, pineapples, coconuts, monkeys and large exotic blossoms. Furniture often is made out of rattan or wood and then covered with large cushions covered with grass clothe, leather and prints. The furniture tends to casual, comfortable and unstructured and slightly larger than usual.

When animal or floral patterns are not used then paints and fabrics tend to be in neutral tones such as ivory, cream, beige, khaki, camel, tan deep brown, mustard yellow, crimson, avocado, light sage, mustard yellow, crimson and banana yellow. Accents are in crimsons, corals, dark brown, black and gold. Patterns are big and not tiny or demure.

Another characteristic of this look is giant looking furniture that seems that it might embrace you… Wicker, bamboo, iron and rattan are created in a larger scale so that people look like they are disappearing into the comfort of the room. Rugs and curtains tend to have Zebra, giraffe or leopard prints.

Window coverings should be natural. Linen panels, plantation shutters or bamboo or matchstick blinds suit the look of this room. This matches grass cloth mats, wicker baskets and folding screens that are also a signature part of this look.

The artwork that looks best with this décor is usually one that is done in demure browns, oranges and greens. Forest scenes and animal scenes are typical. Go for large simple vases filled with sheathes of bamboo or large single blossoms of exotics such as the Birds of Paradise or Orchids.

When it comes to a dining room tableware might be made of bamboo and the plates out of natural colored stone wear. Rattan or textured colored placemats can complete the look. Rattan or bamboo tables painted black or natural with thick glass paned tops are also characteristic of this look.

Stand alone large plants such as palm trees in pots are an inexpensive addition to a room in which the Tropical Chic theme is attempting to be expressed.