Posted on: December 1, 2006
Illuminate the Holidays
Choosing candles for your décor is as simple as following your nose. Creating an inspired display isn’t much tougher. Here’s how to cast a warm glow on your winter home.
By Sally Farhat
CTW Features
Image courtesy Root Candles
The turkey is cooked, the cookies are baked and the stockings are hung with care. Face it: despite your idyllic efforts, the normal holiday scene has become as stale as Grandma’s fruitcake.
It’s time to light a fire under your festive décor.
“Candles are often overlooked as the easiest, most inexpensive and flexible way to add beauty to an interior,” says Laura Jones, creative director of Medina, Ohio-based Root Candles.
According to the National Candle Association in Washington D.C., more than a third of all candles are bought during the holidays, and 7 of 10 houses use candles in ways both functional and decorative. Whether illuminating a dinner table, lighting a staircase or brightening a bathroom, they provide light, warmth and allure.
And don’t forget the way they smell. It’s the number-one reason people buy candles, says Gary Cycz, marketing director for Guild House Candles, a division of American Greetings in Cleveland, Ohio.
“Our entire nose system is associated with memory,” says interior designer Deborah Burnett, author of Comfortable Living By Design. “I remember going home at Christmas, and what it smelled like. You can use candles to make your home feel the way you want it to feel and evoke new memories.”
She recommends layering candles with differing complementary scents to create a unique fragrance, and as a general rule, always group them in threes, fives or sevens. Burnett also says to look beyond traditional holiday colors; blue and silver can be just as appropriate as red and green.
If you’re struggling to place your candles in the best spots, Burnett suggests taking photos of the living room, laying them side-by-side and finding empty spaces to which your eye is naturally drawn.
“Suddenly, you’ll say, ‘I can’t believe my house looks like this,’” she says. “You’ll see the blank spots in the room. You might forget the buffet piece or the top of the armoire that is dying for something.”
Industry pros say they’re seeing more variety in textures, shapes, colors and scents. Pillars (the fat, columnar candles) and tapers (the tall, slender kind) will never go out of style, but it’s worth considering expanding your candle repetoire beyond these traditional favorites.
“I’m seeing more ovals, squares and cones,” says Cycz, who suggests choosing some unique shapes to “express your personality.”
Here are some expert tips about how to use candles to light up your home this holiday season:
• Lay out candles in front of a mirror for added depth. Look for holiday-shaped candles, including green Christmas trees with “snowy” glitter.
• Don’t think inside only: Put luminaries with votive candles along a walkway or around the door.
• Place a candle next to the bed in the guest room if folks are spending the night. Many travel sets are packaged in a decorative tin they can take it home.
• Glass votives placed inside larger glass holders illuminate a stairwell in an entrance hall.
• The larger the surface, the larger the candles should be. Take a shallow, round glass bowl, for example, and fill it with four candles of different heights.
• Fill up the mantel. This is a great place to mix and match different colors and types of candles. Anything from pear, berry, tulip and primrose to the holiday-inspired scents of chestnut, cinnamon and sugar cookies are ideal.
• Dine without scents. The dining room table is best for the unscented variety so you don’t mess with the aroma of the food. And forget the candelabra: this table is one of the best spots for creativity. Float candles and holly leaves in a punch bowl filled with water for a romantic centerpiece. Buy a large piece of your favorite fabric, tuck the cut ends under the main body of fabric and scrunch it into billows and pockets on the tabletop. Fill the pockets with votives or a bunch of candlesticks.
• Surround any candles with greenery, pine combs, poinsettias and shelled walnuts. Mix with unexpected fragrances such as orange blossom, red rose and jasmine.
• In the bathroom, fill up the tub with water (if there are no kids around). Then, light up some floating candles.
• Create a sense of drama with lots of crystal-pressed or engraved glassware, glass handled flatware, a chandelier over the table and crystal droplets hung from candles and vases.
• Use a collection of silver cups to hold cylindrical forms, then group them on a buffet with other silver pieces.
• Make a centerpiece by placing a column candle in a pottery bowl and surrounding its base with stones, or try a porcelain bowl and fill it with fake pearls.
• Remove the labels from candles in glass jars.
