How To Use Candles Around The Home

Candles are a great accessory to have around the home, even if they aren't lit. Seen as old fashioned and 'girly', candles have come back onto the design scene since the successful revival of its scented variety. And lets face it, their characteristic charm is unavoidable. Personally, I am a huge fan of birthday candles, with their signature coloured wax and white spiral stripe. Even if it doesn't happen to be someones birthday, whenever I smell it being blown out, it automatically puts me in a celebratory mood.Having them placed on a mantelpiece, in the bathroom whilst pampering yourself with a bath, or in a candelabra on the dining table for decoration purposes (or having having them on stand-by in the unlikely event that there is a power cut), there are many ways to use candles around the home.Designers have been setting the pace of candles in fashion, placing the wax and wick in practically anything they can find, with amazing results. Recycling unloved items and pumping a new function into the object, has been a hot thing to do around households as the reduce, reuse, recycle motto has been taken into effect. Egg shells to tea cups have been transformed into unique looking candles. Berlin designer David Mallion has taken it a step further by taking advantage of geometrically etched whisky glasses and turning them into candle holders, thus creating beautiful light reflections. A very chic version rendition of upcycling.If you are looking to incorporate candles into your decor, a great idea is to place them underneath your unused fireplace (assuming you have one first of all). For those that do, it is a space that is commonly boarded up and forgotten about. Maybe the mantelpiece is used as an additional shelf but other than that, it is ignored. If you don't have an assortment of large candles around the home, you can easily buy them at a decent price from online auctions or flea markets. Place them around your fireplace and light them all up to make the space glow once again, giving the impression of a real fire place. If they are all in different sizes and shapes, this will also give a lovely effect.But lets not forget that candles do not need to be limited to being indoors. Add natural light to your backyard during warm summer nights by putting tea light candles in outdoor lanterns, for a beautiful, romantic effect. Many retailers stock outdoor lanternsthat hang or are placed on tables. Or as an alternative, have them placed on outdoor steps for as a safety measure. On the topic of safety keep in mind, like any candle, that it is not next to anything flammable and the flame extinguished once you are out of sight from its vicinity.Candles have stretched out a lot further than just being stationed on a candlestick. They have served a variety of aesthetic and functional design uses. There is something about its charismatic calmness a lit candle brings to a room, which could be why they are always used during romantic dinner scenes in cliche movies. Even if romance isn't the effect you are going for, they are hot little thing to have in the house (pun intended).