Planting a Garden Room on Your Property

Posted on February 17, 2013 by fredgonsowskigardenhome

Plant a Walled Garden like you would see in England

Plant a Walled Garden like you would see in England

The idea of dividing the outdoor space around your home into what the horticultural world is calling rooms has really been around for hundreds, maybe thousands of years; even though it seems to be a trendy and new concept. As a kid my mother and father brought my sister and me to Mount Vernon; the home of George and Martha Washington in Virginia (USA). The Washingtons had two garden rooms there (walled gardens). One was devoted to flowers, the other to vegetables. Martha and George were enthusiastic gardeners of their time, the 1700’s. They probably got many ideas for how they wanted their home and land laid out from books that came from Europe. Those kinds of books, most likely, covered architectural and landscape / gardening principles that were fashionable at the time, inspired by classical Greece and Rome. Continue reading →

Posted in Garden Design Principles, The Autumn(Fall) Garden, The Spring Garden, The Summer Garden, The Winter Garden | 5 Comments

It’s Easy to Decorate a Room with a Tall / High Ceiling

Posted on February 3, 2013 by fredgonsowskigardenhome

Decorating a Room with Vertical Tension in mind

Decorating a Room with Vertical Tension in mind

When most people go to decorate a room with a tall ceiling, they seem to arrange their furniture and decorative accessories around the bottom half of the space. A lot of their choices for decorations seem to be horizontal format (wider than tall). By choosing horizontal format furniture, art works and accessories, those items are not / can not in any way accentuate the most important feature in the space its height. When you pay extra money for taller ceilings, or are lucky enough to have a room(s) with high ones, you don’t want your furniture and decorative choices going against, in a negative way, the asset of height that you have. You want to accentuate height, not diminish it. In this post, my objective is to get you thinking about ways of adding vertical tension to your rooms. Continue reading →

Posted in Arranging Living Room Furniture, Interior Decorating Principles | 37 Comments

Hanging a collection of Plates/Dishes up on the Wall

Posted on January 19, 2013 by fredgonsowskigardenhome
Step-by-step instructions for hanging plates like a pro

Step-by-step instructions for hanging plates like a pro

Diversity of elements adds visual interest in interior decorating. When you hang a collection of plates up on a wall, you have something else to look at other than the often seen paintings, prints, photos and sometimes tapestries. Hanging a collection of plates is not just limited to dining rooms, breakfast rooms or kitchens, Plates can be hung in living rooms, bedrooms, libraries, bathrooms and halls as well.

In this post, I cover (1) stacking plates up a wall and looking at visual weights, (2) directed action of images on plates, (3) looking at different groupings of plates that might inspire you, (4) grouping plates around a center item “focal point”, and (5) composing an arrangement on the floor and getting it up onto the wall. Continue reading →

Posted in Hanging Pictures and Mirrors / Arranging Knickknacks and Collectables, How-to, Interior Decorating Principles | 19 Comments

Some pictures of me, Fred Gonsowski, Writer of this Blog

Posted on January 8, 2013 by fredgonsowskigardenhome

img252 Friends and family have been telling me that with the tens of thousands of people reading my posts monthly, and having had over a half million page views / articles read to date, people are going to want to know who is this Fred Gonsowski who is writing on all the different gardening and interior decorating topics?? So, for the first post to start the 2013 blogging year, I’ve decided to put together a montage of picture of me, taken over the past few years. The photos show me in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Saratoga Springs and Cooperstown, NY, and north-west Connecticut. I tried to put together a mixture of the whimsical–funny and casual, along with a few high-brow for you to look at. My life has always been about the Yin and Yang / simple and fancy, but both aspects are enjoyed equally. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Interior Decorating with BUFFET LAMPS

Posted on December 19, 2012 by fredgonsowskigardenhome

The difference between Accent, Table and Buffet Lamps

The difference between Accent, Table and Buffet Lamps

In the world of surface placed lamps (end table, chest, dresser, etc) there are three categories; they are Accent, Table and Buffet. This is the third in a series of three articles covering the different kinds of lamps. Continue reading →

Posted in Interior Decorating Principles, Lighting | 16 Comments

Interior Decorating with TABLE LAMPS

Posted on December 12, 2012 by fredgonsowskigardenhome
Table Lamps, the most used source of lighting in interior decorating

Table Lamps, the most used source of lighting in interior decorating

In the world of surface placed lamps (end table, chest, dresser, etc) there are three categories; they are Accent, Table and Buffet. This is the second in a series of three articles covering the different kinds of lamps. Continue reading →

Posted in Interior Decorating Principles, Lighting | 15 Comments

Interior Decorating with ACCENT LAMPS

Posted on December 5, 2012 by fredgonsowskigardenhome
Accent Lamps, short in stature, but can emit a lot of light

Accent Lamps, short in stature, but can emit a lot of light

In the world of surface placed lamps (end table, chest, dresser, etc) there are three categories; they are Accent, Table and Buffet. This is the first post in a series of three articles covering the different kinds of lamps. Continue reading →

Posted in Interior Decorating Principles, Lighting | 11 Comments

Christmas Decorating Tips, How-to and Ideas for your Best Holiday Ever

Posted on November 27, 2012 by fredgonsowskigardenhome

Decorating your home for Christmas

Christmas is coming and it’s time to decorate the house. A lot of people dread this activity because their results don’t always turn out as they envisioned. I hope this post, which is a compilation of All my  Christmas decorating articles for you to click on in one place, puts the Joy back into doing the projects and helps to make your holidays Happy and Bright.

If stringing lights on your Christmas tree is a yearly hassle, read my article titled Putting lights on a Christmas Tree..The EASY Way (Click on the title).

Have you always wanted to know the tricks of the trade, when it comes to tree decorating? Christmas tree Decorating…Step by step, like a Pro will hopefully demystify a good part of it. Continue reading →

Posted in CHRISTMAS / Easter, How-to | Leave a comment

A craft project to keep kids amused on Thanksgiving Day

Posted on November 21, 2012 by fredgonsowskigardenhome

Hi there Folks..Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving Day. Eat, Drink and Be Merry, at least for today. Tomorrow, back on the diet and facing everything life has to offer.

If you have youngsters that need something to do on Thanksgiving Day, or over the long weekend, how about learning to cut some paper snowflakes. They are really easy to make. To read my instructions on how to cut a paper snowflake, click here. If you want to go a step further and make a snowflake animal like Tom Turkey, shown above, chick here.

Have a Wonderful Time Everyone, Enjoy the Holiday ;-}

Posted in CHRISTMAS / Easter, How-to | 2 Comments

Some ideas for Repurposing, Reusing, Recycling an old artificial Christmas tree

Posted on November 20, 2012 by fredgonsowskigardenhome

Using an OLD artificial Christmas tree in a NEW way

Over the years I’ve acquired two artificial Christmas trees that I’ve decorated for the holidays; one is a large tree that’s tall and wide, the other is a slim Canadian spruce that’s tall and narrow. Some years I’ve decorated two trees, putting the big wide one up in the living room and the narrow one in my dining room.

Times have changed, and I don’t use the big one anymore in the living room, and the narrow one, instead of putting it in the dining room, now is set up yearly in my TV room, which when lit can be seen from the road. I still use the big tree in the living room, but I separate its parts and use it in different ways, that’s what this post is all about. Continue reading →

Posted in CHRISTMAS / Easter, How-to | 1 Comment