Posts Tagged ‘design’
Antique Lamps ? Decorative Lamps for Interior Design
I must first admit to being a convinced photophobic, a term defined as “an intense aversion to strong light”. On entering a brightly lit room, I find myself subconsciously groping for the dimmer switch! Bright light is good – in an operating room, an airport or film shoot! but, definitely not in a comfortable room. In fact, a room ceases to be comfortable when lit like a night time tennis tournament!
A successful interior project must have successful lighting, lighting being an integral component. One can have the finest of everything; stunning interior design, fabrics and furniture, but in the end, an interior lives or dies by lighting.
Decorative lighting, as the name suggests, is principally seen as a class of decorative art with the secondary benefit of providing light. If intensive, bright light is required, then decorative lighting will not be effective.
When an antique lamp is being considered, it can be thought of in similar terms to decorating a room with a painting, antique rug, or antique furniture. Firstly, to classify a lamp as antique, the lamp must be a minimum of 100 years old, as this is the age requirement for an antique to be an antique.
If a decorative theme is required, lamps can be selected to compliment a specific interior such as Chinese, or a more eclectic Oriental theme, an English country look, or a formal classic style, in fact, the style of lamp chosen can really match any period of design required.
Table lamps fall into one of two categories:-
The first would classify as accent lamps, which usually have an overall height of no more than 15″ / 38cm when fitted with a lamp shade. As the name suggests, the accent lamp is meant to accentuate a particular object, or, to draw attention to a specific area. This may be a mantelpiece, bookshelf or small side table in an entrance hall or perhaps amongst a group of photo frames or collection of small objects. The careful placement of accent lighting will add a further dimension to the feel & comfort of a room.
The second category being the standard table lamp, usually measured to a total height of up to 35″ / 89cm.
Illustrated is a fine pair of “Purely Decorative” antique accent lamps -:
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A delightful pair of mid19th century, decorative accent lamps as well modelled, Chinese, Sancai figures of two of the Taoist immortals. These spiritual beings, central to religious Taoism number eight in total and perhaps are intended to be allegorical.
These super-humans or perfect persons, came to be worshipped and emulated by Taoists. The Eight Immortals frequently appear in Chinese literature, mythology and art; each carries a symbol, or attribute, and is imbued with a special power.
These perfect eight, dwell far away in an untroubled place, (the isle of the blessed),
where they experience an effortless existence of physical freedom. They are ageless, eat nothing but air, drink nothing but dew, and enjoy the power of flight. They truly exemplify the Taoist virtue of spontaneity and spiritual transcendence.
The male figure illustrated is “Lan Caihe”, who carries his attribute, a basket of flowers. The female figure is a young girl, “He Xiangu”, – the last of the Immortals, She carries with her, her attribute, a magical Lotus flower.
Both immortals dressed in Ming dynasty tunic robes and glazed in the Chinese three-colour combination of manganese, yellow and green, known as “Sancai”.
The immortals shown skimming across the surface of the ocean on their journey to the isle of the blessed,
The two immortals standing on custom made, gilt wood, square shaped, Chinese table stands.
Each lamp fitted with a custom made, rich butter yellow silk, square lamp shade, piped in Spring Grass green silk. Both figures are in original condition.
Circa 1850 Overall height (including shades) 18″ / 46cm
The lamp base, however, is only half of the story. The partnering of the right lamp shade is essential in producing the desired effect. Once selected it should bring the look together by a thoughtful combination of style, size, shape, colour, appropriate fabric and passementerie. Both lamp and shade should be chosen to compliment the existing, or planned interior.
Decorative lamps are purely decorative. They are meant to be decorative, not a principal source of interior lighting. Lamps of this type can also be divided by gender!
Everyone is familiar with the concept of decorative objects considered as feminine or masculine. There are, of course, no fixed rules; however, general observations can be made.
Typically, feminine will be seen as pretty, i.e., flowers, song birds, cupids etc and whilst this is a sweeping statement, it will serve to separate masculine as being, robust, handsome, sculptured, i.e. architectural elements, horses etc.
Traditional attitudes have generally placed interior design in the feminine compartment, but attitudes change and men are now widely accepted as partners in sharing an interest in interior design and decoration.
From a purely male perspective, men will see table lamps as a subject that allows for creative expression. Lamps for the den, for the office, for a library, or simply to add to the pleasure derived from their living space.
Finally, antique decorative lighting is not “novelty lighting” which is another subject altogether! In point of fact, I very recently saw a table lamp as a figure of the Virgin Mary, which, when the lamp was switched on, the Virgins hallo lit up and the lamp base played a tinkly little version of the Ave Maria!
There is a generally acceptable level of comfortable interior lighting, which, of course, will swing wildly from person to person, (except, of course for the photophobic)! From a psychological point of view, interior lighting is a major contributor to well being. Soft interior lighting is sensed as an atmosphere that is calming and relaxing – combined with a favourite chair and a good magazine, it’s positively therapeutic!
The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co specialise in antique lamps with an exclusive on-line range of over 100 unique lamps.
Custom made silk lamp shades can be ordered. Lamps are shipped ready wired to the US, the UK and Australia.
For further information you are invited to visit their web site at -:
http://www.antiquelampshop.com
© The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co 2010
Maurice Robertson, principal of The Antique and Vintage Table Lamp Co, has had a lifetime’s association with antique porcelain and pottery, with his commercial experience spanning a period of over 45 years,including valuer to the Australian Government’s Incentive to the Arts Scheme. His long experience with antique ceramics and glass also includes dealing with leading museums and numerous international private collections. He has extended his ceramics expertise into the quality table lamps seen on the company’s site and is well known to local and international interior designers who have included many of his table lamps in their projects. He has also supplied items of national interest to the official Sydney residence of the Australian Prime Minister.
Interior Design Style and Colour Use for the Home Office
There are two ways that you can go about selecting the general decor of your home office: either follow the style that prevails in the rest of your home, or treat your office as an individual space. Choosing which way to go is a simple task requiring answers to only a few questions.
> Has your home been decorated in one style that is visible throughout?
> Is your office easily visible from other rooms/areas of your home?
> Does your work suggest a style of its own?
Based on the questions above, here are a few simple ways to help you easily achieve a pleasing decor in your home office.
If you are going to treat your office as a part of your home, using the same decor and style, your job is already half done. But remember, you don’t have to use the exact colour scheme or mood. You can modify what you see outside your office to blend smoothly. For instance, you can reverse the main and accent colours; you can use the same colours but in different proportions; or a different level of formality. Because you are decorating an office, it is likely that you are going to want to treat the style differently than how it appears in other areas of your home, and this is normal. Don’t be afraid to create a variation in the atmosphere — it is only the general style you are aiming to respect.
For a home office that is open within an area of your home, you are going to have to be a little more cautious. In this case, you must respect the style seen around your office, but at the same time you should definitely aim to create a sense of separation between your work space and living space. Visual separation does not mean building a wall; it means creating a new environment within the existing one. Some ways of creating visual separation include changes in ceiling height and/or floor level (a step up or down); a room divider placed to look decorative rather than confining; colour changes such as reversing the main and accent paint colours used on the walls; and furniture placement.
Placing furniture in a way that the layout separates space is fairly simple, but don’t forget to play with your ideas on graph paper first or else you may find yourself still rearranging while you should already be at your desk. Consider using a large bookshelf or storage cabinet as a room divider — the back of it can be decorated with fabric, paint, a collage… or place furniture back-to-back to create the sense of two separate zones. Keep in mind while you are working on the layout that you don’t want to feel that your office is, for instance, in the back of your basement — it is at the back of the basement. Just as words can be played with, so can space.
A home office that is to receive a style of its own is a fun thing to work out. You should aim to have a bit of who you are visible in the decor, while creating a visual sense of what you do. This is not a cubicle in a large office complex — this is your office. If you have a love of bold patterns, classic cars, angels… incorporate them into the decor even if they have nothing to do with what you will be doing in your office. At the same time, your office should say more about whay you do that “I work at a desk.” What do you do at that desk? If you are in the computer business, have things around that suggest that, like an enlarged and framed comic strip that has something to do with computers. If your office is actually more of a workshop and you do clothing alterations, incorporate your supplies into your decor: display spools of thread in a rainbow-like pattern, hand a rod a few inches from a wall and drape some fabrics over it for an ever-changing backdrop. If you work in the travel industry, have a model plane suspended, and display items or pictures symbolic of some of your favorite destinations; if it won’t get in your way, have a beach ball in your office, or make a “sandbox” to hang on the wall by gluing sand to the back of a shadow box and gluing small shells onto the sand.
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When choosing the colours for your office, there are a few basic points to consider. Yellows, reds, and other very warm colours in large quantities can cause you to feel thirsty. Blue is very relaxing, but be careful not to choose a bland grey-blue that can actually lead to feeling tired or restless. The best way to go about selecting the colours for your office is to choose three colours; use one as a main colour (for instance on the walls), another as the main accent colour (visible in a pattern on a rug, drapes, desk accessories…), and the third as an accent colour appearing only in splashes here and there (such as flowers in a vase, a couple of photo frames…). At this point your colour scheme is set, and all you have to do is keep in mind some basic points of colour psychology. A dark ceiling will feel very low; mirrors and reflective materials make a space feel larger; too many colours, especially bold ones, can cause a feeling of clutter even if there is none.
A final point on the topic of colour and style: materials such as woods, stone, and metal can be incorporated into any colour scheme — although they may affect the style, they will not clash. A natural pine desk will certainly give a different look than a mahogany one, but either will match any colour scheme; ditto for stainless steel and brass, and marble and concrete.
Look for the final article from this 4-part series on home offices: Lighting and Window Treatments for the Home Office.
Have a Luxurious Home on a Tight Budget
Luxurious homes, inevitably, evoke one word from every aspirant of a luxurious home. And that is – ‘expensive’. Normally, luxury homes are viewed from the amount of money invested in furnishing these homes. We tend to believe that royalty of luxurious homes come from money. But, very conveniently, forget that some astute thinking and of course, little money can transform our homes into a royal castle. In fact, if we trace the journey of some of the luxury furniture, we can easily find out that the things that were commonplace in ancient homes have been rendered luxurious in the form of antiques. So, present day’s luxury is yesterday’s normalcy. So, why not try to make it a present day’s normalcy?
The first thing to take care of is to avoid buying fakes. If antiques are your choice to bring in luxury to your home, never settle for cheap furniture or look-alikes. For instance, an exclusive Amish made furniture could be your ideal choice but never get duped by unscrupulous dealers, who make a quick buck out of the ignorant buyers. Always opt for a reputed dealer of Amish furniture who provides adequate guarantees and warranties on your purchase. Similarly, if dealing with Antique furniture dealers, always choose the one who has a good reputation both online as well as offline.
The next thing to plan is the art works. While expensive paintings by renowned painters may be out of your budget range, you certainly need not lose heart. A beautiful oil painting or water-colored painting can be an impressive alternative. The artwork need not be a “branded” one. The important things are that the painting should (a) gel with the overall scheme of the room; and (b) not look like a poor replica of some original artwork. As long as these two conditions are met, the “brand” won’t matter much.
Flooring comes next. A decent priced wool carpet or stone tiles can provide the look and feel of luxury to your home. A carefully crafted handmade carpet is any day better than artificially created custom-made flooring.
You must be extra careful while spending on furniture requirements. One thing about luxury furniture is that it acts like a seductive temptress. You have to be extra careful to resist the temptation of spending too much on luxury furniture items. A better option is to look for the reproduction pieces manufactured by furniture makers, like Baker Furniture or Century Furniture. Kitchen with granite finish can be inexpensively royal.
Affordable luxuries also come at a price but this should not daunt you, as the satisfaction of having a luxurious home is much more valuable than affordable luxuries. Apart from buying new items, you can also mould your existing furniture into a luxurious outlook. Silk pillows and tapestry finish are good options for affordable luxury. Decorative and inexpensive plants could lend the oomph factor in the drawing room. And most importantly, never clutter your home with excessive furniture. Always allow some breathing space in your rooms.
Smith Chen is an author and internet marketing consultant .
Find more about Antique Home Furniture and Modern Outdoor Furniture
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Certain images of our childhood never fade. In primero the green grass field/carpet surrounded by brown, antique furniture brings forth a picture of a playground for children, a living room of memories. Lisi Estaras and the five performers revisit the country of first times, from trying to walk and fall for the first time to the first games played and lost, the first excitement and the first disappointments. Having Jewish roots, for Lisi Estaras Klezmer music is very strongly connected to childhood memories. Based on this musical tradition, composer and clarinettist Yom composes a new score for primero.
The never-ending story of an house: the interior design
However, this problem might be overcome easily: why don’t we have fun dreaming our perfect house, searching everything we need to fill it? Catching it off balance, we can turn the problem into an opportunity, into the main character of this never-ending story. The great difference among styles concerns practical and aesthetic issues, because everybody is attracted by a different type of furniture, whose design conveys different feelings to each one of us. After all, the concept of interior design is similar to the concept of clothing style: we choose the style that suits us best, whether it concerns clothing or furnishing. We have to understand which one makes us feel at ease, which one makes a place become our home.
Once we understand this, we just will need to indulge ourselves a bit, dream and imagine, and the house of our dreams will appear: a fairy tale’s house, such as a castle. Consider antique furniture: it is a style we want not only because is it beautiful, but also because it is elegant, welcoming and dresses up our home. In addition, if you agree that “the eyes want their part” and you are willing to sacrifice a bit of modern technology in the name of classicism, your home will be easily turned into fairy tale’s castle. Even in fairy tale’s castles, however, modernity has nowadays arrived: “classic” does not mean “old” and antique pieces of furniture – unless they are not really antique – can hide the same technological features of modern styles. The purpose of the antique furniture is, after all, to highlight the past, the abundance of details and a studied, but never simple, beauty, usually desired by who feels nostalgic for past times and is attracted not only by the look, but also the idea of antique.
For example, a classic design for a bedroom, with baldachins, draperies, carpets and commodes, decorates and personalizes the room, rich in harmoniously distributed details and filled with items giving pleasure to our sight. The most utilized color is natural wood: fine woods like cherry, walnut, mahogany, brier gives life to our furniture, with elegant and natural grains as an essential part of the decoration, not covered with paint, but, on the contrary, valued.
In addition, the interior design for studios will give us the same joy: not only desks and bookshelves, but also chairs, arm-chairs, carpets. All of them decorated and made of wood, filling our eyes with a sense of non casual beauty. It is true that beauty is never casual: in certain cases it is more hidden, in others it is showed off. However, it is certainly not a simple beauty, the one of antique furniture: simplicity is not a word that suits this kind of interior design; beauty and preciousness, instead, surely are.
If the interior design problem of your house can become a game, then…have fun!
By Lia Contesso with support from soggiorno moderno. Used with permission.
For information visit camere moderno or arredamento camerette bambini.
Article from articlesbase.com
Pasadena Antique Center 480 S. Fair Oaks Ave Pasadena, California 91105 Mina or Tony may be contacted on: (310) 721-3037