Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

If you’re looking for fun Halloween decorations, these pumpkin-on-a-stick candles are kind of cute. The sticks are designed to be plunked into your lawn or garden soil, so they’ll stand up on their own. There’s room for a little tea candle inside, and the recycled metal walls of the mini jack o’ lanterns should protect the flame from the wind. The pumpkin sticks are hand-painted and stand 22 inches tall, so they’d probably work well lining the walkway up to the front porch or some such. It’ll cost you $30 for a set of two from Uncommon Goods:

Pumpkin-on-a-stick Candles

Is someone always making off with your wine? Need a fierce bulldog to protect it? Or maybe you’re just looking for a whimsical way to display your latest find on the table or counter. This bulldog wine holder is made entirely from recycled materials. The bare metal creation is one of several “Junkyard Dogs & Cats” wine caddies (there’s even a moose and a horse in case cats and dogs aren’t your style). If you prefer a wine holder that’s lying down, there are wiry metal animals doing that too. This little fellow is available from the DecorativeHardwareStore for about $60.

If you’re looking for a unique room divider, this wood and iron screen panel from India could give you some ideas. It’s obviously not completely solid, so if privacy is your primary concern, it might not work, but if you’re just looking for a way to delineate different areas in a loft-style setting, it’s a little more handsome than some of the paper room dividers out there. If you’ve got a knack for do-it-yourself projects, you could even turn a couple of these panels into sliding closet doors for the bedroom. This particular panel is on sale over at Pier 1 Imports, a notoriously fun place to shop for furniture and knick knacks.

Pier 1

If you like to line up the carved pumpkins outside the door at Halloween, you’ve doubtlessly had trouble with the candles blowing out. This is a case when the real thing can be a pain in the butt, and going fake might save you some time. Realistic-looking LED candles are increasingly popular–they flicker just like the real thing, and if it’s tucked into a pumpkin, nobody’s going to be able to tell the difference anyway (except that your candle actually stays lit when the wind kicks up). It’s an easy way to make your jack o’ lanterns maintenance-free this Halloween. This particular LED candle is from Grandin Road and costs $50 for a set of four.

Grandin Road

Looking for some fall decorating ideas? Leaves aren’t the only things that fall from the trees in autumn, and if you’re from an area where evergreens are common, you’ve surely stepped on a few pine cones. You might not have considered using them in your decorating scheme though. Well, these scented pine cones are not only bright with autumn colors but they bring the “rustic fragrance of the forest floor indoors.” The “sustainably harvested cones dipped in cedar- and sage-infused wax,” so the scent will last for quite a while. The cost is $99 from Smith and Hawkens, which includes the handsome hand-carved pine tray for holding them.

Smith and Hawkens

If you enjoy decorating your fireplace with andirons, firebacks, mantel scarves, and the like, you might want to add a decorative firescreen. I caught this one at Bellacor–a home and garden store with lots of accessories–and liked the canoe-and-trees theme designed into the wrought iron (I’m a sucker for nature stuff). I imagine it’d go nicely in a log home or rustic-styled house. Of course, fireplace screens have a utilitarian function too: they’re designed to keep sparks from flying off the logs and landing on a carpet, a stack of kindling, a passing cat, etc. This one can be purchased for just under $300.

Bellacor

Oh, yes, it’s that time of year again: halloween decoration shopping time. If you’re going to get your supplies online, it’s good to start early so as to factor in shipping time. But what kind of decorations can you find online? Everything from the tasteless and tacky to the… well, more tasteless and tacky. That’s what this holiday is about. These lighted pumpkins fit in nicely, don’t you think? Suitable for indoor and outdoor use, the three-pumpkin set is available for $15 from Smarthome. It comes with all the wiring you need (suitable for all weather conditions) and 11.5″ stakes so you can mount the Halloween lamps alongside your walkway or driveway. It looks like a fun way to greet trick-or-treaters (or at least make sure nobody stumbles over a loose flagstone on their way up to the door).

Pumpkin Walkway Lights

Well, the Christmas decorations are starting to show up in the stores, so it can’t be too early to blog about Christmas Trees. I found this set of 12 mini trees, which are designed to line your driveway or walkway in order to welcome visitors. Don’t worry–they come “prelit” so there’s no need to wrap strings around them from your hands and knees. The 2-foot tall walkway trees are made from “fade-and-crush-proof” polyvinyl (I guess this means you don’t have to worry about stepping on them if you come home a bit tipsy after all those Christmas parties). The 12-tree set will cost you $250.

Walkway Trees

With October heading our way, it’s not too early to start thinking of what kind of Halloween decorations* you’re going to put up around the house this year. I like this Witch Lantern from the Online Discount Mart myself. You can hang it from the eaves of your porch or inside your door to impress trick-or-treaters when they stop by. No wiring is needed since the lantern burns a candle (included), which is protected by the painted metal and glass exterior. The hanging candle holder will run you $19 and is one of several Halloween-themed decorations available.

Witch Halloween Lantern

*Sponsored link

Candles are one of my favorite home accessories, maybe because they’re interactive. You don’t just hang them on a wall and forget about them (well, you can… but half the fun is lighting them now and then). You can change the whole mood of a room just by turning off the switch and lighting a candle. Working or resting by candlelight, even for a while, reminds us of our past, of less hectic times where human beings lived a little closer to nature.

When you’re shopping for candles to decorate with, scented candles go even further than their unscented counterparts in adding warmth to a room. Any interior designer will tell you, decorating isn’t just about appealing to the eyes but invoking the other senses as well. Scented candles can soothe you (one of the latest trends is, of course, “aromatherapy”) or they can simply remind you of something pleasant, such as your favorite flower or warm apple pie (when I was living in Arizona, I always burned pine-scented candles to remind me of the Pacific Northwest, where I grew up).

Scented Candles