Mark On Call

Holiday Cheer is Alive and Well on the Next Corner

As the holiday season gets off to a sputtering start…and yes, I say sputtering after a year of financial ruin, real estate melt downs and corporate greed like we’ve never seen before…you can still find the holiday spirit…I promise. It’s found in our local merchants and on the next corner.

I was watching television the other night and a commercial came on touting the beginning of the “Shopping Season”. Mind you, not the “Family Season” or “Be with Friends Season” or the “Give Something to the Needy Season” or “Slow Down and Say Hello to Someone Season” …but… “The Shopping Season”.

So, in deciding to shop and buy from local merchants, which I did beginning last year, I have found something that we have lost. Personal connection and a return to small town interaction with people.

Also, I have found warmth, friendliness, and far less impersonal holiday advertising designed to make you feel less than human if you don’t join the hoards on “Black Friday”. And best of all…I actually enjoy shopping again!!!!

You may be asking what this has to do with Interior Design. Well, considering that a paint color can add a perceived warmth or coolness to a room, so goes accessories and artwork.

Personality that has been added to a room with locally made artisan objects, antiques and/or items that you have made or collected yourself over the years, non-mass produced accessories, and at this time of the year, Holiday Decorations, can have a profound effect on the perceived temperature and tone of a space. People have asked me time and time again as to why their homes feel cold. After looking around their space, I inevitably find a bowl, frame, tray or roomfuls of furnishings that I’ve seen in every store, showroom or neighboring house for miles around…and we’re not talking about cost here.

A “Found” object can be as trivial as an old costume jewelry necklace from a flea market, draped across a tray that is actually the top of an old box.

Hint: Think like a kid when you are accessorizing your space…yes, matchbox cars can look great on a shelf in any room…that is as long as they mean something to you AND they are arranged artfully like on piles of books or with other like items to form a “Collection”. A great “personality” accessory for your room can be found in the most unlikely of places such as an old drawer, your parents attic or a second hand store.

Be Creative and think Smaller…Shop Locally,

-Mark

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“What Would You Do With This Room? My 10 Foolproof Commandments to Great Interior Design” by Mark Lewison