Home Decor: Creative Uses of Wooden Trays

You have been using wooden trays for serving. If not, you might be using them for storing items like cutlery, cups, mugs etc. There are different types of wooden trays available these days and you are making use of them in various ways but what do you do with these trays when they become old and you get bored with them? Do you either push them into garage storage or sell them off as scrap? Whatever you have been doing with them, there are many creative ways to use these wooden trays. In fact, they are so innovative and beautiful ways that you would be tempted to bring new unfinished wooden trays and apply these techniques to satisfy the creative soul in you. Here are some novel ways to use wooden trays that I found on net while searching!

Room Divider

Make a folding screen or room divider by using some decorative trays. You will need three or four shelving units that are hinged together. Just fasten the trays onto the units and your room divider is ready.

Multi Level Side Table

If you need a side table with multiple levels, use trays for making one. Take three or four trays and wooden dowels having thickness of about one inch. Cut them into needed size. Drill holes in the corner of each tray and into the ends of the dowels. Then fasten the dowels to trays by using threaded rods. Screw wooden balls on top rod to give a finished look to the table.

Table Centerpiece

Take a wooden tray and fill its bottom with a layer of sand. Now take some decorated pillar candles and votive candles and arrange them in a beautiful pattern in the center of the tray. Now decorate the fringes with any of the materials of your choice- it can be pebbles, berries, gourds, bamboo sticks, anything! Place it on table and make it a delightful experience for your guests.

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Decorate Home with Handicrafts on Diwali

Diwali cleaning is over and now its time to decorate home for Diwali. Market is full with different and innovative handicrafts. Decorate your home with them. Here are some Diwali ideas for decorating home as well as performing rituals.

Laksmi Ganesha Jhula: How good they both look on a jhula. Get a handmade piece of swing with Diwali idols of Ganesha and Laksmi and place them at your pooja place. You and your guests, all will love that!

Personalized Photo Candle: A candle with a family picture on it! Great isn't it. Buy one to keep in your living room. I undersatand, you'll not be able to light it. Just decorate with it and buy other decorative candles for lighting your home.

Ganesh Wooden Wall Hanging: bring all luck to your home, bring a wall hanging of Ganesha or for that matter of goddess Lakshmi. You can give it as gift to your friends too. A great Diwali idea!

Decorative Diwali diyas: Decorate your living room with them. When lighted up they'll look fabulous. You can even use them as show pieces afterwords.

Wooden Trays and Bowls: Decorate your dining table with fabulous hand crafted wooden trays and bowls. Serve Diwali sweets to your guests in style too.

Handcrafted Table: Buy attractive furniture like a painted wooden handcrafted telephone table and keep it at the corner of your living room or bring a simple table to keep at the center and place all goodies for your guests.

Buy Handicrafts For Diwali Gifts online just by clicking the images.

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Wrought Iron Chandelier- For Elegance and Strength

Whether you buy traditional black wrought iron chandeliers or more sophisticated painted ones, they are sure to bring elegance and charm to your home. What more they also guarantee strength, steadfastness, and constancy. They are available in a variety of shapes and styles. Lets have a look at some of today's prevalent wrought iron chandeliers.

Kichler Chandeliers: These may have finished or rustic appearance. The rustic ones have somewhat primitive appearance and the candlestick lights just compliment this look. They come in ornamental details, style and various number of lights.

Interwoven Scrolls Chandeliers: Mostly with six-arms, the interlocking scrolls can't just be ignored. You can customize their looks and soften the lighting with optional chandelier shades.

Simple Sweep Chandelier: They may or may not come with candle-type light fixture. Inspired by early 19th century styles, they remind the chandeliers and candelabras that gave grace to the monasteries in Europe.

Wrought Iron Spanish Chandeliers: They come in both versions- simple and grand. If you have decorated your home the Spanish way, they become a must for your interiors. If you want them to be in the larger areas, go for Five-Light or Nine-Light model otherwise the one with three lights is sufficient.

Wrought Iron Crystal Chandeliers: If you can't afford to leave any of the two- crystal and wrought iron, you'll find some crystal accents features on a wrought iron frame. You get both- the strength of wrought iron and sparkle and shine of crystal- what a great combination indeed!

After buying these amazing chandeliers, you will also need to know how to clean wrought iron chandelier light fixtures.

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Interior Decoration with Votive and Candle Holders

Candles are one thing that bring instant feel of romanticism as soon as they are lighted. What's better than wrought iron candle holders to decorate your interiors then. Have a look at what kinds of votive and candle holders are available there for you and how can you illuminate your home interiors with style.

• There are smaller sized wall candle holders that generally hold only one candle. They are available in various amazing twisted and curled shapes to match any of the room's decor.
• There are certain wrought iron candle holders that have mirrors behind them giving distinctive artful appearance and, not to mention, more of light when illuminated.
• You can even find wall sconces in a bird cage which looks like a housing for the candle, giving it a unique look. Bring it home to make your home decor unique too.
• As far as size of these holders are concerned, you can find them for almost any size of candle- from votive to larger pillar candles.
• What more, if you think that a single candle holder is not sufficient in your large room, get them in pairs. They come in a large variety of pairs.
• And if, anyhow, you don't get satisfied with a pair, go for larger holders that can hold from two to upto sixteen or more candles. Celebrate the joy of lights right at your home!
• If you want something different, go for decorative plate candle holders to set your pillar candles.
• Bring a candle holder shaped like a small lamp. It will add soft light to any room, best suited for your bedroom.
• Fascinated by floating candles? Choose one from many fancy wrought iron bowls as your candle holder or buy a candle in a jar with an ornamental lid.

After installing, don't forget to keep your wrought iron candle holders clean and pretty for lifelong experience of art and beauty.

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Home Decor with Wrought Iron Plant Stands

If you are fond of gardening, you must be well acquainted with plant stands. You must be needing them for organizing your many plants in your small garden. If your garden is not so small, you might be using these plant stands for giving a decorative accent to your outdoors. Did you know that these wrought iron plant stands are not just used for outdoor decoration and plants organization but also for decorating your interiors? The indoor plant stands and tiered plant stands are used for such purpose. Many of you might not be even using them for gardening purpose but you can very well use them for home decor. Natural or artificial plants- all look good on them. And if you don't want to take pains of taking care of plants then also you can use the plant stands for decorating any of the parts of your home. You can show off your collectibles or show pieces on them. You can even place them just by themselves in any corner of a room to give an accent to your room's decor. Read various Tips for Choosing and Decorating with Plant Stands

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Wrought Iron Sconces- Advantages and Mounting Ideas

Whenever it comes to home decor, we can never forget any wall decor items. Among paintings, wall hangings and many such other wall decors, wrought iron sconces hold a very special place. Although sconces basically act as lighting fixture, they are not just for this purpose only. They are for adding style and romance to the surroundings. They are for lending relaxing warmth. Lets know how wrought iron sconces score over any other light fixture?

Advantages of Wall Sconces

Apart from the unique characteristics described above, sconces have many other properties.

• Sconces can be used as stand alone fixtures- with no other lights in a room to create magical romantic feel.
• They can also be used along with other larger light fixtures like chandeliers for a grand and welcoming feel.
• There are various versions of sconces. You can get such sconces on which you can place and light actual candles and other sconces too with electric bulbs that look exactly like candles. These bulbs come in pillar candle style and candelabra style bulbs.
• They are comparatively inexpensive than other larger fixtures.
• They can function as the primary fixture in a room. Alternatively, they can be used to enhance the beauty of other larger fixtures.
• You can save on electricity by using low wattage bulbs to create the unique warm feel for which the sconces are popular. On the other hand, if you need more light from them, you can add a light dimmer switch with stronger bulbs.
• Wrought iron sconces or for that matter, any other type of sconce comes in various styles like rustic, modern, antique, and classic to choose from.
• They can be easily mounted to the desired place on walls. Most sconces have a plate that connects directly to the wall The mounting instructions that come with the sconces make it all the more easy exercise.

Where to Mount Wrought Iron Sconces?

Now when you are so fascinated by the magical light fixtures- the sconces, you might want to decorate your home with some of them. If you can't think of the places where they will look good, here are some ideas for you-

• Place the wall candle holder on both the sides of a wall mirror anywhere in your home.
• If you have any kind of framed art print in your home, like over your fire place, you can place two sconces on either side of such artwork.
• Hallways are the perfect place to put sconces in place.
• Mount them on the wall on one or both sides of a stairway by matching them with your home decor style and theme.
• Decorate your bedroom with sconces. If there is a tapestry anywhere, place two sconces on its each side. It will look beautiful!

There are couple of more advices regarding sconces. If you are going for electric sconce and are not very comfortable with fixing wires, you should definitely take help of an expert electrician. And if any time, you come across some beautiful wrought iron which look like a true art work, never leave it. You might later regret like this fellow who is searching an antique wrought iron tree with tealight sconces once seen but not bought then!

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Handrails- For Beauty and Safety of Your Home

Many items are used in a house that serve the dual purpose of safety and beauty. Hand rails are one of such things. Basically, they are meant to be grabbed while climbing or getting down the stairs or ramps. They can be found in a wide variety of materials and styles. You will find metal handrails that are very durable and do not damage or break easily. Then there are glass handrails that are so beautiful that they give a marvelous effect and sense of more space to the interior of a house. However, they are not so safe as they can get broken very easily. Wooden railings also look good and are more suitable for houses with traditional decor. However, there is one kind of handrail that is getting more and more popular due to its many qualities- durability, beauty, easy maintenance and its compatibility with almost all types of home decor- traditional as well as contemporary. It is the wrought iron hand rails.

You might want to know as to which type of handrails will suit your home? Also, many other factors have to be considered while buying handrails and care has to be taken when installing them. Know about all these facts. Read Tips for Buying and Installing Handrails

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Wrought Iron Wind Chimes - For Style, Luck and Prosperity

Wrought Iron is mostly associated with decorative furniture, gates, and railings etc. However, the tough, malleable, and easily welded wrought iron is also used to make various handicraft items. One of such very popular wrought iron handicrafts is the wrought iron wind chimes. Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese knowledge about the flow of “chi” or energy, also uses wind chimes as a very effective tool for bring luck, prosperity and positive energy in a house. And as these iron wind chimes are so beautiful that they render unique style to one's home. So, if you want to bring good luck, prosperity, energy, popularity and all the good things to your home, just read on to know how to use these chimes in a proper way.

Choose the Right Wind Chime

First of all, you must select your wind chime according the size of your room or garden, wherever you wish to hang it- small size for small sized rooms and big one for bigger spaces. After size, sound is the most important consideration. In fact, sound is what makes a chime effective. Metal chimes produce the most penetrating sound and thus, wrought iron wind chimes are just perfect for the purpose. Now comes the Feng shui as wells Vaastu consideration- the directions best suited for wind chimes.

Place Wind Chimes in Proper Directions

Wind Chimes are mainly used as Feng Shui tools for circulating positive energy and as such they should be placed in those directions of the house where there is most of the negative energy. The north and west sides are considered such negative energy prone areas of the house.

North facing windows and entrance doors: Whenever windows and doors are north facing, a very little or no sunlight reaches the interiors of the house which in turn leads to cold, dark and depressing atmosphere. Thus, metal wind chimes placed in the north, west or northwest areas of a home can bring positive energy in the house leading to ultimate prosperity.

Western area of the House: Western direction is generally regarded to be children's area. A wind chime placed in this direction promotes the chances of having children and positively influence their health, behavior and studies. Hollow metal wind chimes hanged in western direction particularly brings more energy in the house.

What more! Wind chimes can even cure depression and laziness. Get some Feng Shui Tips about the same.

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Wrought Iron Chandeliers- Buying and Caring Tips

Chandeliers add charm and style to our homes. From among many varieties of chandeliers, wrought iron chandeliers are considered to be classic. Whatever style of home decor you chose, they look good with all. As these chandeliers are made of tough wrought iron, they are durable too. Thus, wrought iron chandeliers are stylish, durable, classic and compliment any style of home decor. So why wait? Go and buy some beautiful wrought iron chandeliers. Just keep the following facts in mind while buying one.

• Measure the height of the room where chandelier will be hung. At least 6 feet 5 inches headroom should be left from the floor.
• A room smaller than 10' by 10', can have a chandelier with 17" to 20" diameter. A room of 12' x 12' will need one with 26" or 27" diameter whereas the same should be 24" to 36" for a room of 14' x 14'.
• If buying for dining room, the chandelier should be approximately 12 inches shorter than the width of dining table. Also, the chandelier should be 30" from the surface of the table. This will ensure sufficient light and to avoid bumped heads.
• Wrought iron is very heavy. As such, the ceiling electrical box should be such that can support its heavy weight.
• Although wrought iron chandeliers are classic then also some style are more suitable to particular decor styles. A simple chandelier having square or rectangular base with candle style lamp shades goes well with a contemporary or transitional look whereas a grand multi-tiered chandelier suits best to traditional style of home decor.

After you've bought your wrought iron chandelier, now comes the question of its maintenance, you sure want it to look as good as it was on the first day it entered your home. It is, in fact, very easy to maintain a wrought iron chandelier, just follow the tips given below

• Dust the chandelier with a clean, soft cloth in every seven or ten days.
• For a more complete cleaning, soak the cloth in a mild detergent and water solution. You can even use 4 tablespoons baking soda and 1 quart of water or a cleaner solution. After wiping, rinse and dry with a clean, soft cloth.
• A thin coat of liquid wax can also be applied on the chandelier with the help of a clean cloth. This gives added protection to your chandelier.
• Never hang a wrought iron chandelier in a damp area, it leads the iron to rust over time.

These simple tricks can keep your wrought iron chandelier shining.

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