I got a couple of rice paper lanterns for Christmas from a friend of mine. I'm not particularly enthusiastic about them, seeing as I live in an apartment with 9 ft ceilings and have no way to hang paper lanterns properly. But I was wondering if they're worth keeping. My BF and I are planning to move in the next year or so to another area in LA, so we will probably be redecorating at that point.
So are these things wholly and entirely tacky? Or are they kitschy-cute?
I love paper lanterns. I am an OCD freak about lighting and it translates into an obsession with soft, diffuse light. I *hate* direct light, especially if it is overhead. Paper lanterns are a really great way to get the soft light and even the tone right, as you can pick out the colours. In my apt. in Montreal I had a bunch of paper lanterns in pink/orange/red tones (not really dark, though, because you need enough light to see) and it is pretty amazing how it made people (including myself) look better. People don't realize how important lighting is - think about how awful everybody looks under direct fluorescent light and then think, for example, about that night-time party scene in Eyes Wide Shut where the light was yellow/soft/diffuse and everybody looked all glowy and beautiful (sorry, that's an obscure reference but as I said: OCD).
Anyway, my personal take on them is that they are not tacky at all if you arrange them properly and get the colours right (or, just use the white/beige ones, which also work). But it's up to everyone's personal taste, obv.
-- Edited by Mia at 22:18, 2004-12-26
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"Don't be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Don't limit yourself in this way." - Bruce Mau
i'm not wholly confident in my decorating ideas, but the ones you posted have a cool, laid back kind of beachy vibe to me. like i'd see them in kind of a clean space but with some bright colors, not a lot of carpeting, simple lines in the furniture.
i've gotten a little OCD with my lighting as well and only use pink light bulbs now -- they're more flattering than regular white ones. speaking of which, i need a new lamp myself.
IMO paper lanterns can work into almost any decor style that isn't very formal. They lend texture and geometry to a room, as well as soft, diffused light. In your new place, you could try hanging them over your bedside tables instead of using table lamps, or hanging them in a corner next to a reading chair. I wouldn't put them over a dining room table or use them as the main fixture in a room though - that's tacky and screams "I can't afford a real light".
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To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment ~ {Ralph Waldo Emerson}
I guess they could be cute in the right circumstances but they would not fit into my decor. Sorry, I tend to think of this as for a younger girl's space.