HOME IMPROVEMENT & CAR CARE
PAGE 2 • HERMISTON HERALD/EAST OREGONIAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015
Tips for brightening a home during winter
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
Shorter days and colder
weather can put a damp-
er on anyone’s mood, but
brightening your living
space can help counteract
that gloomy feeling.
Debbie Westwood, own-
er of the Hermiston home
decor shop Indulge, said
she always adjusts the dec-
orations in her own home to
reÀect the time of year.
“With the change of sea-
son, if you change things up
in your house it will make
you feel better,” she said.
During the fall months
she said she uses warm col-
ors, like gold and orange, as
she puts up new curtains and
pictures around her home,
then switches to Christmas
decorations as the holiday
season approaches.
She said colorful throw
pillows and blankets in your
living room that comple-
ment the decor can brighten
the room, make it feel cozi-
er and help keep you warm
and comfortable.
The important thing, she
said, is to make your living
space feel “homier” during
the months you spend more
time inside.
One thing that helps with
that is using scented candles
and other items to make
your home smell “like fall.”
“How a house smells
STAFF PHOTO BY JADE McDOWELL
Decorative candles and lanterns can add extra light to a room during short winter days.
affects how you feel,” she
said.
Increased lighting to
make up for a decrease of
natural light can also help.
That includes decorative
candles and lanterns, and
Westwood said she has her
lights in her home on dim-
mers so that she can add
just a little extra light to
supplement the natural light
coming through her win-
dows on cloudy days.
Other tips to brighten
your home during the win-
ter can include:
1) If the view outside
isn’t very cheery, add some
colorful curtains to help
brighten the view. Then
keep those curtains open
whenever there is any nat-
ural light to be had.
2) Add house plants
around your home. Not
only will they provide a bit
of that greenery you miss
about spring, they have also
been shown to increase air
quality inside a building
and help counteract the dry-
ing-out effect of running a
heater.
3) Add mirrors to your
walls. They amplify light
and make a room appear
more spacious, helping
counteract the “cooped up”
feeling from spending more
time indoors during the
winter.
4) Do some fall clean-
ing. A layer of dust and
grime on windows and
light ¿xtures can dull the
light shining through, dim-
ming the room. Make sure
those surfaces, as well as
hard surfaces that might
reÀect light, are clean and
shiny going into the winter
months.
5) Rearrange your furni-
ture to optimize the amount
of natural light you’re ex-
posed to. That might mean
moving a couch so it faces
a window, or moving an
entertainment center from
where it is blocking light
from reaching the rest of
the room.
Fall leaves can be fun, even for adults
G
rowing up. I often was
excused from home
and garden tasks.
I conveniently used the ex-
cuse of my allergies and asth-
ma to get out of doing things
I didn’t enjoy. However, as
I’ve gotten older I’ve learned
that fall leaves can be fun.
So, before you get set to
rake ’em and bag ’em, have
some fun with the color-
ful and crisp leaves that are
blowing across your lawn like
a snowdrift.
A number of years ago,
Suzanne Tosten and I felt bad
for Terri Dorran because she
didn’t have any trees in her
yard. Terri was missing out
on the joys that fall leaves ul-
timately bring.
Dressed incognito for a
Halloween party as Wayne
and Garth of Saturday Night
Live, Suzy and I set out to en-
rich Terri’s life with a bless-
ing of leaves. Oh sure, we
could have gone across the
street to the park and raked
and gathered leaves, but that
would have taken too much
effort. Instead, we went to
then Hermiston Mayor Frank
Harkenrider’s house and re-
moved several of his large
decorative lawn leaf bags.
Back at Terri’s house we
emptied the bags, creating a
blizzard of leaves. It was awe-
some fun.
Terri’s son, Mitch, was
thrilled with the colorful blan-
ket in their front lawn.
“Look mom, look at all
the leaves,” he exclaimed
with the innocence of youth.
“They must have blown over
from the park.”
Of course,
we couldn’t just
steal Harkie’s
leaves and call
it good. So, a
few nights lat-
er, we collected
Tammy
the leaves from
Malgesini Terri’s place.
INSIDE MY
Then, on the
SHOES
way to Hark-
ie’s house, we
had another bright idea —
let’s collect additional lawn
leaf bags and set them up in
a football formation. (Note:
I’m sure the statute of limita-
tions has passed regarding the
theft of said leaves, but just
in case I want to remind you
about something called cre-
ative license.)
Anyway, along with the
three bags we had snagged
from Harkie’s lawn earlier,
we gathered an additional
eight bags between Hermis-
ton and Highland avenues.
Back at Harkie’s place, we set
up a basic T formation.
With my husband’s gimpy
foot and fall in full swing with
the leaves starting to ¿ll our
yard, I’m likely going to be
the one raking and bagging
this year. By the way, can
someone tell me where May-
or Dave Drotzmann lives?
(Many area cities provide
its residents with a card or cou-
pon to dispose of yard debris,
including fall leaves, free of
charge at local land¿lls. Con-
tact your city hall for details).
Tammy Malgesini is the
community editor. Her col-
umn, Inside my Shoes, runs
every other week in the Herm-
iston Herald. Contact her at
tmalgesini@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4539.
STAFF PHOTO BY TAMMY MALGESINI
Carol Greene and Deana Cordell play among the leaves
during a fall golf game.
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