From My House To Yours — Diane Howard

From My House To Yours — Diane Howard

As we enter into a month full of fam­i­ly, joy and togeth­er­ness, we are also begin­ning a new seg­ment called, “From Our House To Yours”. We hope that dur­ing this month, you will get to know our train­ers bet­ter, and ulti­mate­ly con­sid­er them not only men­tors but close friends. Our first fea­tured train­er is Diane Howard with InStyle Home Inte­ri­ors! Here are a few of her hol­i­day tips.

Christ­mas Lights, Mer­ry and Bright!

No Christ­mas tree would be com­plete with­out lights. Col­ored lights add a bit of flair, while white lights give the tree a clas­sic look. If you real­ly want to be fan­cy, opt for strings of hol­i­day lights that slow­ly change color.

I grew up with col­or­ful lights on the tree, but as I trav­eled and met with oth­ers in the dec­o­rat­ing indus­try and worked on var­i­ous projects, I became inspired by the mag­ic cre­at­ed with white lights. A light­ing dis­play with­in a home or com­mer­cial space can be like liv­ing in or walk­ing through an enchant­ed gar­den. There is some­thing mag­i­cal about the sparkle of white lights dur­ing the hol­i­days. While there is noth­ing wrong with col­or, espe­cial­ly for the hol­i­days, I real­ly love tiny sparkling lights on a tree, in gar­land in the house or in unusu­al places. 

Here’s why:  They’re the per­fect start­ing point for a hol­i­day col­or palette. “My favorite scheme is white lights with metal­lic and glass dec­o­ra­tions. Gold, sil­ver, bronze and mer­cury glass are a per­fect com­bi­na­tion. The light reflects off of the met­al pro­vid­ing beau­ti­ful reflec­tive light­ing in a room.

Also, it’s fun to cre­ate small acces­sories to use in small or unusu­al places like thread­ing them inside a glass block or bot­tle. These acces­sories can be used in a pow­er room, to add ambi­ence to a serv­ing table, as a cen­ter­piece for an event (using LED lights) or on a back patio table if you’re in a warm cli­mate.  White lights com­pli­ment any room décor and even the peo­ple in it!”

Col­or­ful lights can inspire a play­ful palette. “When using col­or­ful lights you can go from classy — by choos­ing one or two spe­cif­ic col­ors — to more play­ful and fes­tive by using mul­ti-col­ors. I am a woman who loves to have options so I encour­age every­one to play with col­ors, con­sid­er your dec­o­rat­ing style to cre­ate a mag­ic back­drop for your hol­i­day events.”

And don’t for­get about the out­side of your house. Wow your neigh­bors with daz­zling fairy lights hung from the trees or eaves, or (the lat­est thing) install a pro­jec­tor lamp that shines mov­ing images like falling snowflakes onto the front of your home.

There are no rules for dec­o­rat­ing with col­or­ful lights. There are no down­sides to either light­ing option. It is all a mat­ter of pref­er­ence, and you can’t go wrong either way.  You set the stage for hol­i­day enjoy­ment, con­sid­er cre­at­ing a mag­ic place to enjoy this spe­cial time of year!