DIY & Decor

If you’re after a few Christmas decorating ideas for 2007, we are happy to help you with a few suggestions to inspire. In 2007 Christmas decoration is all about nostalgic reminiscence with a modern twist, or back to nature..

Over the last couple of years the Christmas decorating trend was chic and elegant  – using lot’s of glass, crystal, feather and fur. Black was the dominant color – paired with white, silver, pink or red. The decoration was in the spirit of trad-modern, or new-old, i.e. classic forms using modern materials. 

Yes, it’s that time of the year again - Christmas is just around the corner. You may  love or loath this period but, either way, you’d better get prepared.
Before you get seduced into buying presents or decorations read our articles about decorating ideas, making your own Christmas gifts and DIY decorations.

We’ve put together some tips and ideas about how to create white, elegant, natural, trendy and traditional Christmas themes.These are just inspirations  – instead of buying new décor elements, just recycle your old ones by redecorating them or updating them. Also, try to be a bit different – make your own decorations and gifts! Not only will you create unique thing but you’ll save a lot of money too. Read tips on making wreaths and garlands, how to wrap your presents, how to decorate the Christmas table and how to be green at Christmas time.

Today is Valentines’ day. You could surprise your loved one with a quick home makeover. You don’t need to spend much money or time on this project – just use your imagination.

We have already published a couple of articles about decorating your home for Valentine’s day – in a traditional or in a trendy theme..

However, if you’ve run out of time or just don’t have enough time to prepare everything, you can always use your credit card to buy a few essential items. These you can get in a bigger supermarket and/or a Home Store. These are:

Apparently DIY stores are in trouble – their sales have been going down for a year now. It seems that more and more people are getting tradesmen in to do their home improvement rather than doing it themselves. Done For You is now replacing DIY, so much so, that even the large home improvement stores have started to offer installation and handyman services.

If you want to remodel or redecorate your home this year, it’s time to start thinking about what you want, what you like and what you dislike. If you go to your local home stores, you might find it overwhelming because almost every interior style is catered for – so which one to choose?

First of all, decide whether you want a timeless or a trendy home. Timeless means that it is unaffected by the latest design trends, or it’s an ideal canvas for updating a space when needed. You should only remodel your home to the latest trend, if you want to move soon or are prepared to redecorate in five years or so. It is much more sensible to create a neutral or natural canvas and use trendy accessories and details.

Firstly, all of us at DIY Together would like to wish all our readers and members a very Happy New Year!

Secondly, we’d like to remind you that today is the day to remove your Christmas decorations – according to tradition anyway. Some people like to leave the colourful lights up for another couple weeks in order to brighten up their evenings. As long as your lights are not obviously Christmassy, this should be fine. Alternatively just add a few shiny or metallic objects to your interior and light a few candles to create a cosy mood in dull evenings.

If you need ideas for Traditional Christmas Decorating, we have put a few images together to help you. First read our earlier article about Traditional Christmas decoration, which explains this theme and how to get the right look.

Here are a couple of Christmas trees that are decorated in this style..
   

Note the harmony of the color-scheme and balance of the ornaments! 

This is a close up of a traditional Christmas tree:

Details

Choose baubles in red, green and gold such as these:

We are living in smaller homes than we used to, yet we need to accommodate more stuff than ever before. In our previous article on decorating small spaces, we wrote about some of the basic rules of designing small rooms. If you’ve just moved into a smallish apartment or house read that article first – and here we have also put together some more tips about decorating small rooms..

Paint the walls with white or natural colors – use eggshell or satin paint on the walls, these bounce light back into the room.