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Looking for bright, vivid colors? Well, you'll love these Chinese lanterns and the way we're
using them. You watched us design and build this house in 150 days, but the work is far
from over. We're about to jump into my favorite part of the process of bringing all this together.
Join me for an exclusive look right here on eHow Home. You know, I really enjoy using
natural things in the house. It's a great way to connect to nature. Plus, there are
just some things that are so beautiful and you want them around you. Take, for instance,
these Chinese lanterns -- a really unique plant. Each one of these blooms, if you will,
looks like a Chinese lantern. And if you open up the inside of them, you can see there's
a cherry-like little fruit in there, and that's where the seed is. It's really quite beautiful.
Now, last year, my aunt actually grew all of these Chinese lanterns in her garden. It's
a perennial plant, and if you ever grow it, you know this plant can be a little on the
weedy side. So plant it where it won't invade your other flowerbeds. But, as you can see,
it can produce impressive results. These are so beautiful to use in decorating, particularly
in the autumn. Now, since these were grown last year, you can see that some of them have
actually faded just a little bit here. What you can do to freshen them up is to, well,
you can add some that were grown this year, which I'll add two to them. Or you can take
a floral tint like this and just add a little color -- it just brightens them up. And I
like to use two colors of orange. And see, even on the faded ones, you get a little bit
of that color and it really brings them to life. Now what I'm doing here is bundling
all of these together right up here at the top with a wire. And you see, they're all
hanging like this. And I want to use this as a wall hanging in one of the rooms here
in the house. It'll be perfect in the master bathroom. And what I'm going to do to finish
it off here at the top is actually take this burlap ribbon, which is actually wired. And
you see, the edges of it our actually frayed so it goes really well with our farmhouse
chic look. And what I'm gonna do is pull this around to the back of it like this. And what
that does is just hides those wires which bind the stems together. So I'll tie it there
-- a nice bow to finish this off. Now, you can use any kind of ribbon -- a beautiful
dark chocolate brown velvet ribbon would be beautiful here. But, anyway, you can use your
own imagination -- even something with a pattern on it. I just wanted to go with something
plain and simple. So, now, with this floral display arranged, if you will, it's time to
hang it. Come on, let's go to the bathroom. Since the dominant color in the master bedroom
is orange, well, these Chinese lanterns are perfect. You see, I'm going to hang them on
a nail right here above the commode. I'm just going to hook it onto the nail. And you can
see how the burlap ribbon works very well in this room. I just don't wanna distract
from the beautiful orange color. These can last for a long time, and it will be a beautiful
addition in this room as long as we wanna keep them here -- we can change it out. That's
the beauty of some of these seasonal things. Hey, if you've ever grown Chinese lanterns
and used them in a fun way, I'd love to hear about it. And if you're using some natural
things in your home, let me know. And make sure you subscribe to eHow Home.