Family Heritage And Tradition

Ethnic traditions, customs, and attitudes carry forward our family values. Paying tribute to family heritage and tradition also gives our children a strong sense of family ties. Our roots make us what we are, and showing respect for ancestral traditions gives the interior of your home a special individuality.

Vernacular Heritage

Regional architecture, called the vernacular, designs structures to harmonize and blend with the environment. Designed to reflect the past, using historical influences, vernacular houses complement rather than dominate their settings. These homes recreate the traditional neighborhoods of the past with a strong sense of place.

Many vernacular structures provide friendly zones and foster a relaxed lifestyle. For instance, Santa Fe stucco and adobe block homes often have central courtyards. Friendly porches customarily found on Florida cracker houses invite neighborly chats. Key West’s wood-framed "conch houses" and North Carolina’s "low country" houses feature broad verandahs and large windows to take advantage of the area’s cooling breezes.

Vernacular homes provide sheltering transitional space from the outside to the inside, but homes without such transitional spaces can benefit greatly when structural or landscaping details are added to bring the private interior space of the home into harmony with the outside world. If your home lacks a covered entry, consider adding a wood or iron framework or an awning to create a feeling of protection and shelter.

Ethnic Influence on American Architecture and Furnishings

Since Americans have always constructed houses that mimicked their native homelands, it’s not surprising that Italian and Mediterranean villas, grand English country houses, and simple French farmhouses can be found across the United States. From the earliest days of our nation, Americans have taken design details from all over the world and copied, adapted, and redesigned their ethnic patterns and furnishings.

Patterns originating in Africa, such as animal prints and intricate geometrics, have been duplicated in many ways. Mexican antiques, Danish and Swedish furniture, and Oriental-influenced accessories have intermingled in our homes. From New England Cape Cods to Santa Fe adobes, our diverse heritage has influenced American architecture and interior design, while log cabins, rustic western interiors, and American folk art have suggested distinct American origins.

Style and Emotional Ambience

Style is the end decorating result of the combination of detail characteristics reminiscent of an era, an artistic movement, or a particular region, such as the Victorian era, Art Nouveau period, or Midwestern Prairie style. Mood or emotional ambiance is the personal interpretation of style to evoke feelings, whether they are cleanly slick, elegantly formal, cozily informal, or romantically eclectic.

Architectural Styles: Structure and Furnishings

Rooms all of one period or style are best left for museums or exhibitions. Eclectic rooms mix furnishings from different periods, such as a contemporary sofa, a silver maple Chippendale side table, and a gilded Louis XVI mirror. The beautiful and the bizarre, the exquisite and the commonplace, mixed with frivolity and delight, create joyful homes.

Architectural style may refer to a structure or to a type of furnishing. Mixing period styles with today’s lifestyles is called New Traditionalism. Combinations of styles with a light– hearted flair create elegant, unpretentious rooms. A few grand pieces, interspersed with simple furnishings, will bring informality to an otherwise stodgy home.

Architectural style also influences interior design. Understand the architectural style of your home and use it as a reference point for your decorating. In my own case, our modern furniture looked totally out of place in our 1878 home, so we traded our glass dining table for a traditional wood one, and replaced a modular sofa with a squishy antique one.

Some Victorian homes look magnificent when furnished with contemporary furniture, but this is harder to accomplish than the reverse, which is a contemporary house, furnished with antiques. Grand old houses decorated with modern furnishings look better with plain, simple wall finishes and un-frilled window coverings.

Juxtaposing styles from your heritage with other styles that suit your fancy makes for interesting rooms and homes. Not all rooms in your home need to incorporate the same style, but some blending from room to room ensures harmony. Mixing heritage styles according to those who share your home also creates a harmonizing aura.

Your Personal Style

If you have a strong affinity for a particular architectural style, incorporate it into your total design plan. Encourage respect for your family traditions by surrounding yourself with ethnic furnishings and family heirlooms. Any style can be adapted to your way of living, whether it’s serenely sleek, traditionally formal, or casually informal, by either dressing up or paring down your decorating embellishments.

Culture & Heritage Products

Every time you are invited to a kid's birthday, you get into the dilemma of selecting a perfect gift. A gift,that appeals to the refined sensibilities of modern day kids and also suits the strictly defined parameters of parents regarding the 'right gift' for their precious child. And, then you have your noble wish of presenting a gift that is meaningful and memorable too!! If you find yourself in such a precious condition, Indian culture and heritage product is something you should definitely give a try.

Containing the wisdom of 5,000 years old civilization, our rich Indian culture is full of knowledge and education. There are folklores that entertain, expand the vision and at the same time impart values. Many Indian companies are now bringing up products that incorporate the virtues of Indian tradition and package them in a manner that suits the fantasies of modern day kids exposed to internet, video games and hi-fi electronic gadgets.

Some wonderful gift ideas readily available in the market our VCDs and DVDs on Ramayana, episodes of Mahabharata, Lord Krishna, Jataka Tales and kids' favourite Lord Hanuman. Most of these VCD ROMs depicts Indian folklore through animation and multi-media effects. Language of these animated movies is simple and suitable for today's kids.

For children fond of reading, there are comic series on Tenalirama, Panchatantra, Akbar-Birbal and Vikram-Betal stories. Many of us have grown up reading these fabulous tales but somewhere down the line our kids lost interest in them in preference for more westernized cartoon characters. Thankfully, many companies are re-discovering the inherent virtues in our own traditional kids' stories and converting them in beautiful comics and colorful books.

Jostling for space in the fast expanding video-game market, several companies are now coming up with game CDs revolving around Indian mythological characters. Many indoor games also feature images related to Indian traditional folk stories.

So, now when you look for a meaningful gift idea for little kids in the family on festivals or important occasions you have plethora of options to choose from. So happy gifting!!