Category: Home & Interiors

With the holidays just around the corner, there’s a lot on everyone’s mind.

What gifts should you buy?

Which of Grandma’s cookie recipes should you make?

What food will you serve at your annual holiday party?

And last, but certainly not least, how should you decorate?

While we can’t help you much with the other questions (except to suggest our brand-new Nixplay Iris frame as a perfect gift for Mom), we can share these great holiday decorating tips. Not only are they all bound to make your home instantly feel more festive, but they’re also all relatively simple to put together.

Christmas ornament centerpiece

Create a sophisticated centerpiece for your holiday table by taking a serving platter or cakestand and arranging traditional Christmas ball ornaments on top. Bring some nature indoors by adding sprigs of evergreen branches or holly or large pinecones.

If you prefer, you can use a glass bowl or vase in place of the platter and tuck a Christmas bow in near the top of the ornaments.

Christmas ornament “chandelier”

Another good use for your extra Christmas ball ornaments is to hang them together from the ceiling to create a false “chandelier.”

This Real Simple tutorial explains in detail how to construct your chandelier using 16 ornaments, a hook mounted to the ceiling, reusable adhesive, and ribbon. Basically, you’re tying ribbons to the hook and tie your ornaments on the ends in layers, cutting your ribbons a few inches shorter for each layer. Make sure the ornaments stay put by using adhesive to stick each one to its neighbor.

Vases and bottles filled with greenery

For simple, easy decorating, take a clear glass vase or bottle and fill it with a sprig or two of greenery. Larger vases can hold pinecones and holly branches as well.

Mix things up by choosing vases in a variety of sizes and shapes. Vintage and oddly-shaped bottles can work well, too.

Glassed-in holiday scenes

If you’ve got any holiday decorating miniatures, like bottlebrush trees, reindeer, birds, etc., you can create an adorable holiday scene inside a glass apothecary jar.

To start, fill the jar about 2-3 inches high with Epsom salt, which makes great fake snow. Then arrange your trees and other miniatures inside. Some fun ideas to make your jarred scenes more stylized include lightly spraying your miniatures with gold spray paint or dusting your trees with glitter.

Holiday playlists on your digital frame

Your digital frame can easily become part of your holiday decor – all you have to do is create a holiday playlist. A silver Nixplay Iris will integrate beautifully into a holiday theme.

You can include candid images of your family and friends during the holidays, portraits that you’ve taken for Christmas cards, and even holiday-themed nature or home photography. Wintry landscapes, cozy fireplaces, and lit-up Christmas trees are great complements to the more personal pictures of you and your loved ones.

Hurricane lamp lights

Create soft, glowing lighting for your mantel or table with Christmas lights and hurricane lamps.

You’ll need a few bottomless hurricane lamps of varying heights and several strands of Christmas lights. Coil the lights inside the hurricane lamp, running the plug and socket ends of each strand out through the bottom of the lamp. Connect the strands together before plugging the last one into your wall or an extension cord.

DIY wreaths

Storebought wreaths can be lovely, but if you’ve got a bit of time on your hands, why not create a wreath that’s totally unique? There are plenty of options ranging from the incredibly easy to the very advanced.

On the incredibly easy side, consider:

• Spray painting a grapevine wreath white, to add a wintry look
• Hot glue faux Granny Smith apples or lemons into an evergreen wreath

If you’re looking for something more involved, try:

• Creating a recycled Christmas card wreath with old Christmas cards, a stencil, and a styrofoam wreath
• Construct a wreath out of Christmas ball ornaments of varying sizes, felt, and Styrofoam

Decorating for the holidays doesn’t have to be complicated. Any of these ideas can instantly take your decor up a notch and make guests feel welcome. For more decorating ideas, read our post “How to Fit Digital Frames Into Your Office.”

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

Aside from your house, your office is where you spend the most time each week – so why not make it as pleasant as possible?

With just a few easy steps, you can take your office from a cold, corporate enclave to a warmer, cozier space where you actually enjoy spending time.

1. Add some color.

One issue many offices have is that their color scheme falls into one of two categories. There’s the cold, futuristic black, chrome, and/or white color scheme, which takes all its cues from the technology in the office rather than the living, breathing human who works there.

The other is the blandly neutral color scheme, which conveys that while a person does indeed work there, it’s not any person in particular. While they do usually use warmer hues and feel a bit more welcoming, there’s still nothing personal about them.

If your office fits into one of these two categories, you can change that very quickly. All you have to do is add some color into your space. A bright red pencil cup, a pretty green blanket thrown over your chair, a glossy blue vase – any and all of these small accessories can make a big difference.

For a real pop of color, try adding brightly hued flowers to your office. Whether they’re fresh or faux, flowers instantly make a space feel more alive.

2. Throw down a rug.

Patterned or solid rugs can make a huge difference in your office space. Not only do they cover up ugly institutional carpet or cold tiles, but they make the space feel instantly warmer and more welcoming.

Use a rug to establish your office design at large. If you have room, arrange a settee and small coffee table on top of a larger area rug. If your office is smaller, you can use a runner to highlight a walkway, or place an area rug underneath your desk.

3. Display personal photos.

Photos of your family, friends, or travels will make you feel more connected to your life outside of work, and serve as a reminder to prioritize your work-life balance.

But since you don’t want to plaster your entire office with framed photographs – that will look busy and distract you from your work – a digital frame is a great option.

With a WiFi Cloud Frame like the Nixplay Iris, you can create photo playlists, which let you display the photos you want, when you want. Family and friends can also send their images directly from a smartphone to the frame, which can give you a nice connection to the ones you love on those days when you have to work late.

For a warmer feel, choose the Nixplay Iris in Peach Copper or Burnished Bronze.

4. Adopt some plants.

If you’ve got any natural light in your office and calendar reminders on your phone, you can take care of a plant – even if you don’t exactly have a green thumb.

Pick a low-maintenance variety like English ivy, aloe, or pothos, and set a reminder on your phone for when to water. That way, you won’t come back over the weekend to a sad-looking, brown version of your formerly beautiful plant.

Another option is to grow some herbs in small pots on your windowsill, if you have one. So many herbs are lovely to look at, and produce pretty flowers if left to grow on their own. Pick colorful, decorative pots to add a pretty design element to your space.

5. Invest in real art, or at least real frames, for your office walls.

Prints are all well and good, but if you really want to take your decor farther, hang some original artwork on your walls. That doesn’t have to mean spending thousands for a piece – you can often find beautiful works, especially smaller-sized ones, at local galleries or estate sales.

If you have prints or photographs that you love, buy some real frames to hang them in. It will give your artwork a more polished, finished look.

Spending time making your office feel a bit more like your home away from home can make your working hours both more pleasant and more productive. For more decor ideas, check out our post “Gorgeous Home Accents to Spruce Up Your Home for Fall.”

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

Now that fall is officially here, it’s time to break out the burnt orange throw pillows, the cinnamon scented candles, and the pumpkin spice flavored … well, everything.

Sprucing up your home for the changing season is one of the many joys that come with fall’s cooler days, beautiful foliage, and bright blue skies. The only challenge is picking which, of the thousands of lovely home accents out there, to display. To help you on your quest for the beautifully decorated, warm and welcoming home, we’ve picked a few of our favorite home accents.

Home by Carson Ellis

This sweet, intricately illustrated picture book is purportedly for the kids – but the artwork is so eye-catching that it makes a perfect coffee table book for guests to thumb through. Ellis is an illustrator living in Portland, Ore. who’s illustrated a number of popular children’s books – you might recognize her work from The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart.

Via Amazon

Wooden acorn and hemp garland

If you can’t wait to hang Christmas garland around your home, then this unique piece of home decor is for you. This twist on traditional garland will have your home fall-ready in no time. Try hanging it outdoors on your porch, or festoon a picture window with it.

Via Terrain

Decorative throw pillows from Anthropologie

Throw pillows are an easy, effective way to change up your room’s look without much time or effort. If you’re going for solid patterns, try dark reds, oranges, and golds; if you’re choosing patterns, look for an anchor color in that group. These pillows from Anthropologie combine an autumnal color scheme with wheat sheaf patterning, making them a perfect fall choice.

The Nixplay Iris

Family photos make a room feel instantly warmer – especially when they’re incorporated into your decor with style and elegance.

The Nixplay Iris Wi-Fi cloud frame is a perfect way to display your family’s favorite fall moments, from jumping in leaf piles, to hikes in the woods. The frame’s design and stunning silk-metal finish make it look more like a traditional picture frame than any other digital frame on the market. And, since you can connect to the frame via the Nixplay app, you can send photos of your autumnal adventures to the frame from wherever you might be.

Via Nixplay

Pendleton blankets

These iconic woolen blankets are incredibly versatile, and can change the look of any room. In the bedroom, try using one as a bedspread or an accent blanket (and you can of course get matching pillowcases, but they’re not necessary). In your living space, throw one over the couch for when the evenings get chilly. You can even hang a few over your porch railings for a casual, but eye-catching display.

Via Pinterest

Gallery wall

While you’re working photos into your space with a Nixplay Iris, why not spruce up your wall displays by creating a gallery wall? Whether you’re working with photos, paintings, or other artwork, follow a few simple guidelines:

• Choose a larger piece to place near the center, serving as an anchor for the display.
• Because they can look cluttered or busy, keep your gallery wall to a manageable size or hang it in an alcove, hallway, or other private space.
• Put real thought into which pictures to include. Some images lend themselves to this kind of display; others, however, do not. Particularly large or bold pieces, for example, tend to look better on their own.

Via HGTV

DIY candle décor

Candles can make any home feel more festive, especially if you give them a decorative upgrade. There are all kinds of easy ways to make your candles into a unique home accent.

• Tie raffia around them and add a feather (pictured above)
• Place candles in votives filled with popcorn kernels, colored stones, or other seasonal material
• Fill a vase with twigs and water and place a floating candle inside

Happy decorating!

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.

Your office says a lot about you. If clients come in and get a friendly vibe, they’re more likely to do business with you–stuffy, impersonal office spaces or cubicles rarely make a good first impression. One way to make your office appealing is by adding pictures. The key is finding a way to display the right amount of photos without overdoing it and looking unprofessional.

With a NIX Digital Photo Frame or a Nixplay WiFi Digital Photo Frame, you get the best of both worlds. Display all of your favorite photos, without cluttering up your shelves with frames. NIX and Nixplay Frames offer the latest in photo technology, allowing you to show off your high-tech savviness and crystal clear, high resolution images at the same time. Here are a few ideas as to how a Digital Photo Frame can fit into your office:

1. Decide on the right type of Digital Frame for Your Office Space

The first step in choosing between a traditional Digital Photo Frame and a WiFi Digital Photo Frame is understanding which Frame suits your needs.

NIX Digital Photo Frames allow you to display photos from a USB drive or a SD/SDHC Memory card, while the Nixplay WiFi Digital Photo Frames come with WiFi connectivity, mobile convenience and cloud storage. You and your loved ones can snap photos from your smartphone and send them to your Nixplay Frame instantly with our free mobile app. With the Nixplay Frames, you also get 10GBs worth of cloud storage and the ability to connect, select and display photos from your Facebook, Dropbox and Instagram accounts to your frame.

If you prefer to upload photos from your USB drive or memory cards, the NIX Digital Photo Frames is ideal but if you want to enjoy a new way to share and view family photos, the Nixplay WiFi Frames would be your best bet.

2. Decide on the right size Frame for your office space

When it comes to Frame Sizes, take a look at your office desk or cubicle to determine which one fits best. The last thing you want is a giant frame that takes up too much of your work space – Bigger doesn’t always mean better!

The NIX Frames come in 8, 12, 15 and 18 Inch displays, while Nixplay Frames offer more options through different product ranges. Choose from the Nixplay Seed Frames which come in 7, 8 and 10 inch displays, or, opt for the Nixplay Edge Frames which come in 8 and 13 inch displays instead.

Either way, you’ll be sure to find a photo frame that is a perfect fit for your work space.

3. Get Creative With Color for Your Office

When you select the Nixplay Seed WiFi Cloud Frame, not only can you pick the right size for your office, but it is available in a variety of colors to suit your personal taste – or go along with the theme of your company. Choose from classic black, vibrant mango, subtle blue, or sophisticated mulberry.

Who says an office can’t have fun? NIX and Nixplay Digital Frames are the perfect office companions when you’re away from loved ones! Have you thought of getting one of your own yet?

Beatrice Bisais

Bea is Nixplay’s Social Media Manager. She enjoys drinking coffee, reading about wars, and writing stories. Send her a message at beatrice.bisais@nixplay.com.