Jeanette Joy Fisher
Choosing a gift for someone to display in their home can be frustrating. On the other hand, if you're shopping for a friend or family member, you can give a present that will be appreciated.
When to Not Give Home Décor Presents
If you've never been to your friend's home, I would definitely not give a household item unless it's for a recent bride with a gift registry. Even if you're gift shopping with your friend and she points out a darling framed picture or frilly pillow, that doesn't mean the item will fit in her personal interior décor.
Perhaps you know your friend collects figurines like I do. Because of my last name, I started collecting fish years ago. However, I collect tiny glass antique fish, about one inch tall. The large wooden fish my mother gave me just doesn't fit my interior décor.
How to Give Home Décor Presents
There is a close tie of affection between sovereigns and their subjects; and as chaste wives should have no eyes but for their husbands, so faithful liegemen should keep their regards at home and not look after foreign crowns. For my part I like not for my sheep to wear a stranger’s mark nor to dance after a foreigner’s whistle.
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
If you have been to your friend's home and know she needs to complete her home decorating with accessories, here are some gift ideas:
1. Double check your friend's color scheme. Your gift doesn't have to match perfectly to blend in.
2. Make sure her home isn't too crowded with many small decorating items. Many small accessories make a home feel cluttered.
3. Make something yourself that has meaning to you both. For instance, make a stained glass icon to reflect light in her bathroom window.
4. Find an old snapshot of you two from the past. Get the picture touched up professionally and frame it in a frame that blends in with her home decorations.
5. Give your friend a huge candle dressed up with pearls, sequins, or seashells with a base that matches her style. For instance, if she loves silver, crystal, ceramics, or brass, choose that material.
After your baby is born, guilt can grow into a monster that sits on your shoulder and whispers into your ear, “Mirror, mirror on the wall—who’s the guiltiest of them all?” The answer is working mothers. Every time you can’t calm your screaming baby, the guilt monster will tell you that if you were a true mom, an at- home mom, you would know what to do. . . . Everytime something goes wrong at work, it will tell you that it’s your fault for trying to be a “supermom.”
—Jean Marzollo (20th century)
If you give thought to your gift with these interior decorating tips, you will make your friend happy.
Copyright © Jeanette J. Fisher.
About the author:
Free holiday decorating ideas teleclass, "Interior Design Secrets to Glorious Holiday Decorating" and more holiday decorating tips Joy Holidays Decorating http://JoyHolidays.com