I admit I love candles. Lit candles, singly or in groups, offer an ambience that electrical lighting simply cannot simulate. Candles are a boon for both budget-conscious home-makers and luxury-level interior designers alike.
Country Living's "Decorating with Candles: Accents Throughout the Home" is a pleasure to page through. Written by Maria Ricapito and lavishly photographed by Keith Scott Morton, hundreds of candle decorating ideas are presented.
Some of the book's candle decorating ideas that I especially enjoyed:
- Pouring wax, with a wick, into large seashells, and lighting in the bathroom, for a seaside theme.
- Lighting treasured artwork and unique pieces on the mantle with tiny tea lights.
- Lighting small candles inside milkglass vases and placing them high on shelves for ambient lighting.
- Placing lighted candles in hurricane lanterns on each step of foyer staircases, to provide architectural height and interest. Alternatively, small votives can light the path from an entry hall into the rest of the house.
- Found objects can make great candle holders - mis-matched china cups and saucers, terra-cotta flower pots from the shed, old candy and tart tins - whatever you have squirreled away, or whatever you dig up at garage sales.
- Filling the fireplace with lit candles of all sizes and shapes to enhance your hearth.
- Mixing floating candles with tiny, lovely wildflowers in clear glass vases. They even suggest floating a few lemons in vases, with the candles and yellow flowers, for a kitchen citrus theme that delights the nose as well as the eyes.
- Filling Mason jars with sand and inserting tapers, and placing around outdoor porches for a nighttime glow.
I enjoyed the text in this book as well. The author reminds us that not too long ago, candles were the main source of household illumination. She carries the reader through each room in the house, providing interesting candle uses, and suggesting the best kinds of candles to use for each purpose. There are also sidebars full of "secrets" - How to Make Ice Lanterns and Snowball Lanterns, Citronella Secrets, Giving Candles as Gifts, Removing Wax, Uses for Aromatherapy Scents in Candles and much more.
The last part of the book showcases fabulous holiday candle decorating, starting with Halloween and ending with New Years. This section is well worth a look for those collecting new and unusual decorating ideas for the extended winter and Christmas holiday season.
Living Simply Book Review Archive
Living Simply Holidays
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