Deck Your Halls With Sparkle Aplenty

Janet Ramin - It’s that time of the season to create a holiday wonderland in the home. Here are a few suggestions to brighten up your rooms and your table. 

In our first décor setting, we have what I call the Golden Door – the entrance to a fabulous, luxe-filled ambiance. Gracing our holiday table is the Gold Nest runner and placemats from Z Gallerie. The dinnerware is the very chic black and gold Metropolitan set, also from Z Gallerie. Instead of the usual evergreens, we have the aromatic Golden Clove tree from Horchow, coming in a variety of heights. For pure luxury, we have the Snow Lynx pillow (faux, of course) and the Sparkle pillow, both from West Elm.

For our second décor setting, the Silver Peacock, we turn to the blues and silvers of the winter landscape. To provide instant color and drama to the room, we used several branches of the Ice Spray – made of rough cut crystals - and Peacock feathers from Z Gallerie. All the branches are held in the elegantly curvaceous porcelain Artura Vase from Crate and Barrel.

For our table setting, we have a lacey bowl, the Aqua Nest, designed by Heather Palmer and available from Artful Home. To match the silver décor, we've chosen the hammered Savoy pitcher and shaker from Crate and Barrel. Candlelight is provided in the iridescent Coastal Mosaic hurricane lamps from Pier 1 Imports. And for that something unusual, we have the Aqua Finial from Kirklands, a ceramic sculpture for your holiday table. 

Thanks to the Sheffield School in NYC for permission to reprint this article. Are you interested in learning more about decorating and accessories?  Take a look at Sheffield School's Complete Course in Interior Design.  At Sheffield, you'll learn how to transform a space, create color schemes, and select furniture, lighting, and accessories. 

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Wish List: Practical Pieces from Arco Contemporary Furniture

Irwin Weiner ASID - Here's the recipe for what makes the best furniture: a piece must be functional, well constructed of fine materials, and beautifully designed. Period.

So applying these three simple, but hard-to-come-by rules, I'd like to turn your attention to Arco Contemporary Furniture. Their practical furniture line exhibits exceptional utility, the finest materials and construction techniques, and innovative design. Here are some of my favorite pieces from their impressive lineup; click on each photo for more information.

Jolly Jubilee Chair with carved leaf pattern designed by Ineke Hans

FAT Table, made from sustainable materials in super-chunk simplicity by designer Bertjan Pot

Shay Alkalay's fab Pivot Console (also available in desk and vanity form)

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Wish List: Italian Style Home Goods from Promemoria

Irwin Weiner ASID - If you've ever had a decorating experience with a vendor, you know that some of the items they carry are grand and you'd use them for any client. Some things are so-so, and you hold your nose a bit and bear with it when a client falls in love with something not quite so wonderful ... but you go ahead with the purchase regardless because it's a client must-have. And then there are dreadful items where you ardently talk your client out of their infatuation with something akin to design drek. But a year ago, a ray of sunlight burst onto the New York City showroom scene, and while I've never shopped at Promemoria for a client - yet - I have a powerful hunger to buy out their store, so to speak. These Italian home goods are stylish and beautifully tailored, like items you'd see at the finest Italian 5-star hotel. I've included some of my favorites below, and for more information you can visit the Promemoria website. (And if any of my clients are reading this post, let's go shopping at Promemoria in 2012!)

Stretch Velvet Rainbow: Bilou Bilou Large Chairs

Perfect Tailoring: Mogador Sofa

Light Fantastic: Misultin Table Lamp

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Wish List: Amazing Porcelain from Nymphenburg

Irwin Weiner ASID - Precious heirlooms, fine workmanship, translucent designs, and dazzling beauty - these all describe the fine porcelain vases, gifts, and tabletop service pieces manufactured by Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg, the fine German porcelain manufacturer started and still continued today by the royal family of Bavaria who still live in part of the beautiful Nymphenburg Palace (below).

Each piece of fine porcelain is still made and painted by hand at Nymphenburg, an over 260-year tradition, and the paste is also made onsite making it a unique manufacturer. Click on each photo below to see some of my favorite pieces from this exquisite company.

Bonbonniere (smooth) designed in 2009 by Ted Muehling

Belle Epoque Fish Service designed in 1900 by Hermann Gradl for the Paris World Exhibition

Lightscape Collection bowl designed by Ruth Gurvich

Porcelain Dog Miniatures

Porcelain Christmas Ornament Assortment

Lotos Dinnerware - Flowers of Life update in 2011 by designer Sebastian MenschhornVase with Lid designed in 1908 by Munich art nouveau master Adelbert NiemeyerEnchanted Forest Dinnerware Service

Small Skull (black, biscuit) designed in 1756 by Ignaz Gunther

Majolica Parrot with Mask designed in 1915 by Josef WackerleIvory Glazed Mirror designed in 1770 by Conrad Linck

Lotos Dinnerware designed in the early 1930s by master "new objective" stylist Wolfgang von Wersin

CLICK HERE to see Design2Share's Favorite Holiday Decorating Trends for this year.

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