Is your home decor style feeling too traditional? Would you like to make your home a little more modern using your existing furniture and décor? Do you want to change the design scheme of your current space; a traditional contemporary look can add the color and furniture pieces you need. The eclectic use of more traditional décor with contemporary or modern styles has been one of the biggest decorating trends in recent years. Actually mixing the two styles can be very creative by using simplicity, cleanliness and appearance of organized modern design combined with the sophistication of the traditional detail. Many of us live in a traditional home and are willing to add modern pieces to make it more modern and fresh.  (more…)

Spring can be a welcome time of year after a long, cold winter. Many of us feel bored afterlooking at the same old traditional way of decorating our rooms so spring is the right time to look for a change. It is all about color, fresh design and rebirth. Welcome spring into your home and bring out the hues that signify the new season green, yellow, pink, purple and blue using freshly cut flowers, potted plants, found objects and furniture recovered in lightweight fabrics.  It is the right time and a wonderful chance to refresh your home

If spring is your favorite season, you may want your home to reflect the refreshing colors that are associated with this time of year. From painting to bringing in fresh light, there are many simple things you can do to bring spring into your home. Choose pastels and floral prints to reflect nature in your home. Throws, pillows, vases and window treatments reflecting these spring themes can be incorporated into your home with little effort or expense. Keep a similar theme throughout your accent pieces and they will work together to make your room seem unified and comfortable. Freshen up an entire room with a new coat of paint. Colors that are light and airy are often suggestive of spring.

Spring hosts a number of flowers for the purpose of decorating.  You can complement your spring decor with a centerpiece of fresh flowers for the dining room or coffee table. Blooms like tulips or daisies are ideal and can either contrast or complement the other decor colors in the room In addition to the floral selections above, don’t forget to include such springtime blooms as sweet peas, lilies, amaryllis, anemones, birds of paradise and cherry blossoms too. Let the sunlight in and enjoy the spring season indoors and out.

Photo by:  Arielle  http://www.flickr.com/photos/arielle_kristina/

Traditional home office decor is elegant and refined. It should have an overall cohesive look, but you can include eclectic elements as long as they reflect the room’s overall look and feel in their shape or color. The refined look of traditional decorating calls for rich, warm colors, especially on walls. Deep red and marigold yellow have long been popular color choices; for an updated traditional color palette, consider taupe, cream or a tint of lavender. Decorative paint techniques, including stippling and combing, can add texture and visual appeal to the room. In today’s home office traditional often describes a combination of sophisticated furniture pieces from various periods and countries, as well as luxurious accessories and trimmings. (more…)

What style of Cuckoo Clock do you have? There are two main styles of Cuckoo Clocks the Chalet and the traditionally carved. The Chalet currently has three basic styles, according to the different traditional houses depicted: Black Forest chalet, Swiss chalet (with two types the “Brienz” and the “Emmental”) and finally the Bavarian chalet.  This normally depicts a scene of everyday life. Many have handmade and hand laid shingles on the roofs and feature details such as dancers, beer drinkers and wood choppers as well as beautifully carved animals and turning water wheels. On the other hand the traditionally carved Cuckoo Clocks usually have very detailed carvings of birds, deer, eagles, leaves or owls in a nature or hunting scene.  Almost all of the Clocks have  an automaton of the bird that appears through a small trap door while the clock is striking. The bird is often made to move while the clock strikes, typically by means of an arm that lifts the back of the carving.

There are three different types of movements the One Day, the Eight Day and Quartz movements.  All “1-day” Cuckoo Clocks have a mechanical movement that requires winding every 24 hours. At the top of the hour a little door opens to reveal the cuckoo bird on a perch which calls the number of hours. The cuckoo bird also calls once on the half-hour. This is the least expensive Cuckoo Clock.

The “8-day” Cuckoo Clock has a mechanical movement that requires winding every 8 days. It also has a little door that opens as the top of the hour to reveal the cuckoo bird on a perch which calls the number of hours and once on the half-hour. The visible difference between the two clocks is the s

ize of the weights. The 8-Day clock weights are bigger and heavy than the 1 day clock weights.

The last type of movement is the Quartz movement Cuckoo clock. The Quartz Cuckoo clocks uses a regular clock mechanism, which draws power from batteries. Depending on what type of battery used these cuckoo clocks will run for approximately for one year on one set of batteries. Because of the use of batteries the Quartz Cuckoo Clock is not an authentic. On the hour the cuckoo bird pops out, and even flaps its wings, but in the Quartz clock the call of a real cuckoo is recorded along with other sounds from the woods such as a running stream. At that time other animated figures will also move. A volume control is added to the Quartz Clock to increase or diminish the sound along with a shut off switch. Some Quartz Cuckoo Clocks have an added advantage of having a photo-cell light sensor inserted. When the light is turned off in the evening the cuckoo call is also turned off.

Cuckoo Clocks are one of the most unique clocks that you can use to decorate your home. You are just a click away at www.thelcocksshop.com from finding the highest quality and most unique Cuckoo Clocks available.

Thanksgiving is an important time of year that many of us celebrate. It is all about giving thanks for your blessings and is traditionally tied in with the fall harvest. Autumn foliage gives a lot of inspiration for Holiday Decor and is a natural starting place for ideas. Utilizing fall colors will transform your home into a Thanksgiving decorated living area. The goal is to make the home look homey and bring it to life.

Decorating for this holiday does not have to be elaborate to have an impact. It is one of the easiest holidays to decorate around by just using traditional fall colors.  Fall colors include burnt orange, mustard yellow, olive green and rust red. Browns and other earthy and harvest hued colors all have their place in fall’s color palette. . Think of the beautiful falling leaves, orange pumpkins, vibrant cornucopias and colorful apples. Creative table designs, Thanksgiving centerpieces and homemade wreaths are a great way to bring the outdoor beauty inside.

A few ideas’s for the holiday décor are:  creating a wreath woven out of grapevines or thin oak branches and decorated with wooden beads, sunflowers, Feathers, leaves, small pumpkins and other items from the fall season. There are also great fall scents –several bulbs and bloomers are available during the fall months combined these with a wide variety of candles to create the perfect scent for your Thanksgiving décor. Examples include rosemary, cinnamon, pine needles, apples and rose. Another is to decorate with baskets. Baskets come in so many different sizes it is easy to place them in just the right location to accent the décor you are creating. Baskets such as fruit baskets, flower baskets and flower baskets are good things to start with.

However you decide to decorate our home for Thanksgiving remember the meaning of the season and let the meaning of thanksgiving reflect in the way we decorate our home. Allowing our Thanksgiving décor to reflect our gratitude will bring a reflection of the season into our homes and allow the spirit of thanksgiving to be present throughout the month. Thanksgiving décor should not only reflect the colors of the harvest season and the things we are most grateful for, but it should ultimately reflect the Thanksgiving in our hearts.