The difference between a good event and a great one is in the details. This may be the delicious handmade chocolates in the goody bag that you scarf on the way home after a long night of drinking and dancing at a gala. Perhaps a split of champagne handed to you upon your arrival at a wedding. As an interior designer, I notice how the same space I’ve been in for a dozen events was transformed on a particular night. Lately, I viewed these spaces with an imagination powered exclusively by kaarskoker. I envisioned the large chandeliers with dozens of arms trimmed in I Heart Pink for a Bat Mitzvah, Navy Gold Y-Knot for an evening wedding, or Black White Houndstooth for The Black and White Ball. The good news is that kaarsKoker won’t wilt after the party. If you’re an event planner perhaps, you can collect an arsenal of these for clients to rent for their event. If you are a bride-to-be you can use the kokers to not only mystify your wedding guests, but use your kaarsKoker from your wedding day to adorn your dining room chandelier forever more: a daily reminder of the special day.

There are certain things we inherit that only surgery and psychoanalysis can correct. For everything else, there is refinishing, re-upholstery and recycling. A client with a Georgian home filled with a newly inherited Carrara Saarinen Tulip Table agreed to see how kaarsKoker could bridge the age gap of the house and the table. I dusted off my knowledge bank and explained to her that the Fretwork pattern is a Chinese motif, which was interpreted by Thomas Chippendale in the 18th century and found on the carved details of Georgian furniture. The heavy, polished-brass Georgian chandelier in my client’s dining room looks outstanding with the kaarsKoker Fretwork pattern in blue. The sharp blue updates the classic pattern and serves as the perfect bridge between the old chandeliers and the new, which in this case is a Carrara topped Saarinen Tulip Table.

A quick note that is peppered with exclamation marks! Just purchased no less than three copies of British Homes & Gardens, which features kaarsKoker on page 22, “Insider Secrets.” kaarsKoker is a natural fit in the UK. The light fixtures with cracked and yellowed candle covers are screaming for new life. I have no doubt there are a few on this side of the pond as well.

As part of my initial research for kaarsKoker, I went through every website filed under ‘Lighting’ in my bookmarks. I was having a bit of fun browsing Baccarat’s catalogue. Baccarat’s Crystal Helios Long 48 Light Chandelier retails for $110,000 and comes with white plastic sleeves- STANDARD. One of my favorite sites for lighting is Circa Lighting. This site has a large and diverse online catalogue, which consists primarily of Visual Comfort. Easily over half of the sconces and chandeliers accommodate candle sleeves. While many are white plastic many are ivory plastic. To me this is a nod that white plastic does compromise a fixture’s design and alternatives are necessary even if it is just ivory plastic candle sleeve. My clients aren’t dropping $110,000 for chandeliers and neither are most of you. The light fixtures offered by Circa Lighting suit the design criteria and budget of most and kaarsKoker makes any fixture look like a million bucks.

Over the last week, kaarsKoker packaging has been my primary focus. When I have purchased candle sleeves, they are packaged individually and bundled in a plastic bag, stapled at the top in an unnecessarily large box with hundreds of Styrofoam peanuts. A well-known company with a better-known blue box is also a terrible offender of over packaging for shipping. My goal with kaarsKoker is to deliver the unique lighting fixture candle sleeves in tact with minimal recyclable materials. The first step is to work on the packaging of the candle sleeves.

The most efficient way to package our candle sleeves and merchandise our chandelier candle covers in a retail environment was to leave them as exposed as possible so the color, pattern and finish are easily viewed. What other object with a similar shape was presented in this way? A cigar! True, some were wrapped in cellophane to preserve the contents, but the very best are left naked with only a band so a connoisseur can appreciate through touch and smell. I immediately began studying cigar bands, which were true works of art: the colors, the fonts and, oh, the shapes! While the more elaborate shapes worked on the uniform cigars, simplicity was necessary to wrap around the multi-color kokers.

As much as I wanted the band to be uncomplicated, the designer in me took over. After all, it was the kaarsKoker brand. It had to represent my taste, my style and the collection. My love of marble papers stood out so I looked at these first. Fancy Feather was a favorite but too closely resembled the flame patterns of Missoni so I felt this was unoriginal to aPa. The blue marble was not only unique, it is a complex pattern that translated well as a koker [link to sleeve page] and became aPa’s signature pattern. The kaarsKoker logo is a contemporary adaptation of Old English- a fresh twist on traditional just as the product is itself. The back of the label was also the perfect place for my Ikea-like instructions. Viola! It was literally coming together.

With the label complete, the shipping materials were my next focus. I assumed the average order size to be 3 pair of kokers making shipment in a box excessive. An expandable envelope was more appropriate but how would I protect my paper product with paper and stay green? Kristin, my right-hand gal, worked for Crate-and-Barrel where they used a product called Geami, which is a perforated paper that expands as it is wrapped around an object. After a few trial shipments back and forth across the country and no damaged goods, I was sold on Geami. The flexibility of the expandable envelope and the efficiency of material provided by Geami allow the envelopes to receive dozens of sleeves before use of a box is necessary. After careful research, I also omitted any plastic laminate on the envelope because this negates any hopes of recycling this product in most municipalities.