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The Latest Thing, which is in these days in the Capital, is that People are busy in giving an ethnic look to their houses. You can also do it without spending a lot of time and money and without any expert's help
If your bedroom lacks brightness and you do not have time to get it repainted before Diwali, put a bright painting, throw in some bright colored cushions, wrap a cotton decorative sari to your curtain and there you are, the room will look different and brighter without much time spent.
Bells can be creative by using conventional and unconventional bells and diyas to decorate one corner of the house. An assortment of bells and diyas of different sizes hanged and placed at different heights will give an interesting effect.
Diwali being a festival of lights, add a personal touch to your lighting; be different. You can design or modify your wall lights by doing simple things. Simple rice paper lanterns can be made. You can even pick a glass globe from the lighting Fixture Company and get a carpenter to make a wooden bracket to accommodate the globe, and put it on the wall.
You could buy inexpensive earthenware pots and urns from the market and give them an exclusive touch by decorating them yourself. You can dye a thick rope of any color you want and apply fevicol and wrap it around the clay earthen pot the way you want & decorate any corner of your house. A combination of pots of various sizes would make it more dramatic. Shallow terracotta vessels could be filled with water, flower petals strewn in them and candles/diyas be made to float in them for that special Diwali feel
For your cushion covers mirror work material and artifacts are readily available in the market. Round or square mirrors can be stitched onto the cloth to make cushion covers, bedspreads, wall hangings and table covers.
RANGOLI...
For welcoming goddess Lakshmi people draw Rangoli Patterns on the floor of the entrance of the house. The term RANGOLI is derived from 'Rang' (colour)+avalli (coloured creepers) or 'Rang' + 'aavalli' (row of colours). Rangoli is Maharashtrain in origin although today it is practiced everywhere. A Rangoli is a sign of welcome. Hindus draw one daily as a way of welcoming guests, The patterns are made with fingers using flour, rice grains or coloured chalk. The shape of the pattern can be a square, rectangle or a circle. Sometimes they can be a mix of all three shapes and may also have drawings of lotus flowers. The motifs in Rangoli are usually taken from Nature - peacocks, swans, mango, flowers, creepers, etc. The colours traditionally were derived from natural dyes - from barks of trees, leaves, indigo, etc. However, today, synthetic dyes are used in a range of bright colours. The materials used for Rangoli take on either a flat appearance, when coloured powder such as rice, brick, chilly, turmeric, etc is used or a 3-D effect when dhanyas, cereals, pulses, dhals, either in their natural colouring or tinted with natural dyes are used. Some artists use the 3-D effect for borders alone while others create beautiful designs using grains and beads entirely. Originally Rangoli was done in small patterns - 2 ' by 2' but now entire floor areas of rooms are covered in intricate detailed designs. Grid lines may be drawn in light chalk first and then the designs copied carefully on them. In the deep South and South West of India is Kerala - where flowers are used to create floor art. Not all flowers are suitable as some may fade very quickly. For example, the bougainville which comes in such beautiful shades of red, pink and white cannot be used because they wilt soon after they are removed from the plant. The most popular flowers are of course indegenous to the area - marigolds, chrysanthemums, daisies, roses, jasmine, besides leaves. Usually, women create the beautiful Rangoli patterns, using skills passed down through the generations. In the West, some Hindu communities have competitions for children to design Rangoli patterns and prizes are given for the best designs during Diwali celebrations.
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