Specific Decorating Tips

From new generation track lighting to bringing nature indoors to your home there are numerous trends in decorating right now for the amateur decorator.

Jewel-toned glass pendants, suspended by a slender, graceful cable from a sinuous silver track are now the fad in track lighting according to one article.

"When you say 'track lighting,' some people still think of those clunky plastic fixtures with the giant light bulbs that they remember from their high school gym," said Norm Brown, regional manager for Norburn Lighting & Bath Center in Vancouver, in the article.

Track lighting has always been a great way to direct light to a precise point in your home.

Modern track lighting offers more visual appeal with slender, monorail design straight tracks, flexible track systems, cable systems, and ribbon-type systems, says Tom DeCicco, marketing manager of track and surface products for Cooper Lighting of Peachtree City, GA.

The development of low-voltage systems has allowed manufacturers to create smaller, more visually appealing tracks and fixtures, reports Joe Rey-Barreau, consulting director of education for the American Lighting Association and a professor.

Fixture styles range from glass pendant lights and metal domes, which are very popular in modern designs, to classic cylinders in a variety of colors, according to research.

The advent of monorail track and wire cable systems has revolutionized track lighting, Brown said in a recent interview.

Builders always offset the fixtures, according to 365gay.com.

"Track lighting is a very viable product to solve lighting problems in existing homes," said Brown.

Updating your interior design with new track lighting can be easy, states the website.

For more information on the new generation of track lighting or to find a lighting showroom near you call the American Lighting Association toll free at 800-BRIGHT-IDEAS or go to americanlighting.com, advises one writer.

The American Lighting Association is a not-for-profit association of leading manufacturers, retail lighting showrooms, and sales representatives in the country and Canada dedicated to expanding public knowledge about lighting, according to their website.

Just when the ultra-sleek, minimalist stuff being pushed by design stores and makeover shows starts looking tired, a new trend emerges: sophisticated yet handmade-looking furniture in rough-hewn woods and stone.

If you want to bring a little nature home for rustic walls stick to eggshell and flat paint finishes.

For those having a high tea for a special occasion use flower-filled hatboxes.

Pull out some of your favorite nostalgic hatboxes and old millineries to create a themed high tea, advises one article.

"You needn't be a collector though to make a hatbox-themed party work," said Clare Miers, a writer and photo stylist. "You can make the boxes come alive with color."

Miers advises that the box on top will be the one to fill with flowers.

She cuts pieces of floral foam to fit into a round shortbread cookie tin which she places inside the box and she removes the leaves of the flowers and cuts the stems so that the roses are somewhat uniform at the top. She says this is something you can play with until you like the way it looks.

For party favors Miers writes that she found miniature shantung silk hatboxes at a Michaels craft store for $1 each and on the same bargain rack found bath beads in pastel colors for $1 per pouch.