Christmas decorating and entertaining ideas

From decorating to entertaining ideas, we're your one-stop online holiday resource. Get into the spirit now!

By 

styleathome.com

Need ideas for decorating and entertaining this holiday season? Look no further than this collection of seasonal articles, covering everything from decorating to gift-wrapping to entertaining.

Decorating
• A Christmas tree guide
Learn how to choose and care for the perfect tree.

• 10 steps to a meaningful Christmas
Design diva Kimberley Seldon shares the two lists she has made for the holidays -- one from the heart and one for the home.

• Decorating: A cosy, country Christmas
Add rustic charm to your holiday setting.

• Inspirational holiday decorating
Get a stylist's advice for making your festive creations and decorations beautiful.

• Festive flowers
Follow our guide to holiday decorating with amaryllis and paperwhites.

• 10 tips for seasonal style on a budget
Stylist, decorator and TV personality Stephen Fermoyle shares his tips on getting the look for less.

• Holiday decorating: Beauty on a budget
With a spark of imagination, holiday decorating can be inspired yet inexpensive.

• Design lesson: Decorating the fireplace
Tips for styling your holiday mantel.

• Simple inspirations
Deck your halls with these easy and elegant decorating ideas.

• 20 festive fix-ups
Make your home its holiday best with simple but sensational holiday hints.

• Design lesson: A festive entrance
Inspired ideas that will leave your foyer brimming with holiday cheer.


• Design lesson: A festive entrance
Inspired ideas that will leave your foyer brimming with holiday cheer.

Shopping and gift giving

• Project: Peppermint candy stick
This easy craft adds a beautiful touch to gift-wrapped packages.

• 8 Christmas gifts for under $50
Keep your holiday budget under control with these 8 chic gifts for under $50.

• 10 great gifts from Canadian artisans
Give the gift of originality this Christmas with these 10 great gifts made by Canadian artisans.

• 10 gifts for food lovers
Treat the foodies on your list to fabulous gifts they're sure to love this Christmas season.

• Wine & spirits: Gifts for the host
Show your hosts how much you appreciate them with one of these thoughtful gifts.

Organizing
• Organizing 101: Countdown to Christmas
Make your holiday preparations as pleasurable as possible with our helpful checklist.

• Organizing 101: Holiday hot spots
Get your home (and yourself) ready for Christmas in no time at all with this efficient approach.

• Organizing 101: 30 holiday clutter busters
Get organized for the holidays (and throughout the year) with our clutter-busting, time-saving, space-maximizing tips.

Entertaining
• Surviving the holidays
Get through the holidays without losing your cool.

• How do you handle being a holiday hostess?
Real Canadian women share their tips for hosting a holiday soiree with elegance and ease.

• Nice and easy -- and nonalcoholic
A great holiday drink can be both appealing and alcohol-free.

• Winning wines
The authors of Have a Glass debunk some wine myths and help simplify your selection at the liquor store.

• How to welcome guests in styleThe author of A Gracious Welcome shares some ideas for making houseguests feel right at home.

Tradition and Function: The Plantation Shutter

by Matt Goering

If you're looking for a classic combination of traditional interior design and effective, functional window coverings, look no further. The plantation shutter is one of the most proven window coverings you're ever going to find. It provides privacy, protection, great looks, and convenient use, all rolled up into one. For rock solid performance and reliability, you can't beat the shutter that inspired them all: the plantation shutter.

What Is a Plantation Shutter? 

Conjure up visions of interior window shutters, and in all likelihood, that's a plantation shutter you're looking at. Their standard makeup consists of multiple rows of horizontal wood slats with a single vertical bar running down the center. The center bar is attached to the slats so that moving it up or down allows you to open or close the shutters for privacy, and adjust the amount of light you let into the room.

Benefits of the Plantation Shutter

Most homeowners choose to install these interior shutters because of their classic, traditional appearance. Plantation shutters offer a number of other benefits, however, that are often overlooked by homeowners shopping for quality window coverings.

Interior Design— Contrary to window shades, blinds, and other window coverings, window shutters can be painted to perfectly match, or contrast, your interior design scheme. Few other window coverings offer that versatility when it comes to enhancing the interior aesthetics of your home.

Insulation— There's a reason Victorian homes incorporated both window shutters and curtains when it came to window coverings. While curtains set the tone for the room, window shutters provided an extra layer of insulation against what were often leaky and inefficient panes of glass. While today's windows are much more energy efficient and leak free, a plantation shutter still provides an extra layer of insulation. That's a big plus in a time when energy efficiency is a top homeowner concern.

Light Control— Besides design considerations and insulation, a plantation window shutter also provides a level of light control that few window coverings offer. By adjusting your slats to the proper position, you can let in as much, or as little, light as you want. When you add to that the attractive, traditional looks of plantation style window shutters, there's really no better alternative than these timeless window coverings.

Read more: http://www.homeadvisor.com/article.show.Tradition-and-Function-The-Plantation-Shutter.14659.html#ixzz2mRONaagw

Treat your windows right

http://www.styleathome.com/decorating-and-design/window-treatments/treat-your-windows-right/a/658

By 

Heather Camlot

Beautiful window treatments can make all the difference 

to any room.

Window treatments are essential for blocking out light, maintaining privacy and, for interior decorator Candice Olson, hiding her pregnancy. “Thank God for blinds,” says the host of Divine Design on W. “It's my way of protecting my neighbours from me!”

Window treatments come in a variety of styles, colours and materials to help you achieve the look you want and the coverage you need. But with so many options, narrowing them down can get a little tricky.

Selecting window treatments 
Function should be your first consideration, says Kimberley Seldon, host of Design for Living on HGTV Canada and STYLE AT HOME decorating editor. That includes the desired amount of sunlight and privacy, as well framing or distracting attention from a view. “Look at the room architecturally,” adds Candice. “If it's a beautiful window, sheers are the answer. If it's a problem window, drapery can hide a lot of flaws.”

Next, think about the look you want. “Any style of treatment can be used in any type of room – it's the decor that dictates the style,” says Kimberley. “An elaborately pleated drapery and valance look perfectly fine in a formal, traditional room, but absolutely out of place in a modern interior.” Still, some rooms have issues that need to be addressed. In a kitchen, for example, Candice prefers to keep things simple, taking into account airborne grease and food particles. For the bathroom, a soft sheer and simple valance work to soften hard surfaces. And don't forget about the humidity. “Anything with body will just sag, so it needs to be on the simpler side,” she says. Bedrooms are tricky with both softness and light-blocking priorities. “Typically, we'd do multiple layers, like a decorative side panel, a sheer behind that and then a blackout roller blind,” says Candice.

Budget is always an important factor. “It's amazing how much drapery fabric costs,” says Candice. “And wood shutters are a nice, clean, simple treatment, but they're super-expensive.”

And finally there are the trends. Trim is all the rage for fall, with traditional flat braids, cords, gimp and ribbons taking on a new life in tone-on-tone modern window coverings, says Kimberley. “It's like adding a beautiful necklace to a simple dress – it makes all the difference.” Going natural is also turning heads. “Anything that has a natural texture just takes the edge off of modern interiors,” says Candice. “It's a way to balance everything else that's so sleek and streamlined.”

Weighing the pros and cons
Window treatments fall into three major categories.

Blinds are screens typically on a roller or have vanes or slats and come in an enormous variety of materials, from fabric to wood. Keep in mind that many also come with poles and cords, which could be hazardous if you have children.

• Venetians offer flexible light control and can be inexpensive.
• Cellular shades are coveted for their honeycomb shape: two layers of pleated fabric connected to produce air pockets, which increase insulation.
• Verticals, usually made of PVC or fabric, also offer high light control and extra insulation.
• Roman blinds, which fold together when up and lie flat when down are well-suited to modern interiors and offer a tailored look.
• Motorized blinds are a boon to loft living and two-storey windows, but are very pricey.
• Shadings, another expensive alternative, have fabric vanes held together by sheer fabric on either side. Light always penetrates to a certain degree, but vanes allow for privacy.

Curtains are fabric that hangs from a rod or valance and can be tied back. Curtains refer to treatments that don't reach the floor – those that do are drapes. While curtains add elegance, natural materials such as silk fade in sunlight, while sheers allow sun to penetrate and fade your upholstery and carpeting. Therefore it's best to add a blackout liner placed between two layers of fabric or behind single curtains in your choice of material and colour. For natural materials, Candice suggests opting for a synthetic mix – polyester and linen, for example – to help the coverings last a little longer. If you have children, be wary of any hazardous trim or accents.

Shutters are often wooden hinged or solid panels that cover a window for privacy and light control. Popular right now are plantation shutters, which have thick, wide slats. Wood offers great insulation and a clean look, but shouldn't be used in high-humidity areas like kitchens and bathrooms. In some instances, shutters can also come across as stark, says Candice. “If windows are small in scale relative to the overall wall they're on, or if there aren't numerous shutters to create a rhythm of repetition throughout the space, shutters can sometimes look quite cold or bare on their own."

Kids' Rooms on a Budget: Our 10 Favorites From Rate My Space

Ready to transform your kids' rooms, but don't want to spend a fortune? Check out these stylish, yet inexpensive spaces from fellow members of Rate My Space. 

http://www.hgtv.com/kids-rooms/kids-rooms-on-a-budget-our-10-favorites-from-rate-my-space/pictures/index.html

How to Clean Blinds

Make quick and easy work of it with these 9 tips.

http://www.hgtv.com/organizing/how-to-clean-blinds/index.html

No matter what kind of blinds you have—wooden, fabric and vertical are the three basic types—these tips will make their cleaning and maintenance easy:

1. Vacuum blinds often with the brush attachment. Vacuum across the slats, not up and down.
2. Use a lamb's-wool duster, again working across the slats and starting at the top. Do not use plastic dusters.

3. When dusting or vacuuming vertical blinds, brush downward only, as the slats often become unhooked if you brush upward.

4. Use a rubber sponge, also known as a dry sponge (found at hardware and paint stores), to remove dust and residue from both fabric and vinyl blinds. Simply wipe the dry sponge firmly across the blinds.
5. For spot cleaning, spray an all-purpose cleaner onto a clean dry cloth and wipe the soiled area of the blind. Never spray the cleaner directly onto the blind.

6. You can wet wooden blinds when cleaning, but don't soak them. Clean them in place instead of removing them as you would for other types of blinds.

7. If fabric blinds become very dirty, take them to a dry cleaner.

8. Do not try cleaning blinds by spraying them with a car-wash hose, dunking them in the tub or one slat at a time.

9. To clean metal and vinyl blinds, follow this method: Take the blinds outside to your patio or driveway and lay them on a small rug or piece of carpet. Put a few drops of dishwashing soap in a bucket of water. Wet a car-washing brush and brush the blinds from side to side, and then turn them over and brush the other side. Rinse the blinds gently with a garden hose while tilting them so that the water runs off. To prevent water spots from forming, quickly run your finger down the slats a couple of times to remove excess water. When done, drape the blinds over a fence or a couch to dry.