20 December 2019 - Who doesn’t respond positively when entering a room with tastefully arranged candles that add a warm, special glowing ambience? When setting up candle displays in your home, you can create a wide range of wonderful moods, so that you and your guests feel truly relaxed and at peace. All it takes are some simple, creative accessories, and you can transform the overall feel of your entire home. During the year-end holidays, scented candles make especially opulent Christmas decorations that your family and friends will truly enjoy. In Hong Kong there are many places that sell a wide selection of candles both scented and plain. You can start by visiting one of several Jo Malone boutiques in the Territory or perhaps the Diptyque shop in Lane Crawford. Here are some great ideas you can use to illuminate your home with lovely candles.
Bathroom Brilliance
An obvious place to begin thinking about decorative candles is in the bathroom. Whether you want to revive your spirit after a hard day at work with a warm bath surrounded by tea light candles the way you see it in the movies, or just a simple placement near the sink, candles in the bathroom reveal a true sense of decorative class. It’s easy, just coordinate the candle colors to match the main hue of your bathroom. Or, you may want use complimentary candle colors to match your towels or some other feature in the room. Wonderful candle scents like Alassis verbena and cedar are perfect and call to mind a quaint Tuscan village on the coast overlooking the sea. Candles that give off scents like violet leaves, orange flowers and white roses are also ideal for bathroom arrangements. You can, of course, place candles in hand blown colored glass to emphasis certain colours in your bathroom as well.
Living and Dining Room Illumination
Naturally your living room and dining room will be the center of focus in your home especially during the holidays. Getting together with family and friends over drinks or a dinner feast can be so much more pleasant and memorable with the perfect candle arrangement. While there are indeed many areas to set up decorative candles in the living room, why not consider a soft neutral colored candle in fine cut glass placed at the base of a lamp. It really helps make an otherwise bare table come alive and really catches the eye.
A great and easy-to-make candle arrangement idea for the living room is to take a series of different height scented candles, like sandalwood, cinnamon, pine and vanilla and simply arrange them on a tray with all surrounded at the base by polished earth tone pebbles. This look can work all throughout the Fall and even gives your living room a nice Christmas holiday ambience.
Another creative motif idea for Christmas candles in the living room or dining room is to have them floating in bowls of water. Perhaps add some holly leaves and red berries for the traditional look and then set small candles or tea lights on the water. A truly stylish candle setting!
While bright reds and greens will always shout traditional Christmas, you can also be a bit daring and adopt a black and grey palette festively adorned with bucolic touches. These could include flickering white candles both tall and tea light varieties set against small bowls of walnuts. It creates a more casual mood; maybe even replace your crystal stemware with dark colored mugs or demitasse cups.
Candles for the living and dining room can be also be created perhaps with some help from your kids. Take a normal scented candle, wrap a small piece rough textured fabric like burlap or canvas around it and tie it to the candle, then slip in a small end piece of a fragrant pine branch. Voila! A wonderful holiday candle fast and easy.
The Best for Your Bedroom
After all the entertaining is done, you’ll want to retire to a nice comfortable bedroom, a place for both relaxation and romance. Perhaps more than in any room in the house, bedroom candles set the coziest and most peaceful aura. A bedside table with a jasmine-scented candle or a small candle display dresser really transform the bedroom area. Subdued illumination works best in the bedroom. So, why not try something simple yet exotic like tea lights placed in Himalayan salt holders or set in a translucent cut glass holder that gives off a warm glow on the wall.
Lavish With Luminara
One last thing…while very popular during the Christmas holidays in North America, placing luminaria outside your home as a way to direct guests to your residence or for use just as an outdoor lighting compliment is a real eye-catching way to set a nice contemplative mood. Luminaria are very in -expensive and so easy to create. Just take a brown paper bag add about 2-3 inches or sand or dirt inside on the bottom. Then just place a tea light candle inside.