A Home for the Holidays

A Home for the Holidays -

It's holiday time again. OH JOY!!! I have been scouting the stores since the Halloween decorations went up. This is by far my favorite decorating season. A reason to go above and beyond expectation when it comes to adorning your castle. A lot of times I am asked how to choose a color scheme for a Christmas decor. And my answer is that anything goes. As in your every day home decor try to keep one color thread throughout and then have fun. My tree this year is red and gold. I have kept red in every room but have alternated the color of green in every room and added brown, gold and burgundy to my stairwell garland. As to what you will use to adorn the garland, the tree, and the wreathes??? You are only limited by your imagination. Small framed photos, the kids silver sippy cups, baby spoons, etc. are not out of my decorating realm.

The key to have full thick garland is to put two strands together and add plenty of lights. Use the branches to affix them to the banister like a twist tie. If you run out of ideas, just Google "decorate Christmas garland, tree, wreathe" and you will get more links for more ideas than you know what to do with. The internet is an incredible resource for the DIY decorator. Show houses, I.D. stores, craft stores and the like are full of decorating ideas that you can augment and even improve upon for your holiday home.

For holiday bargains check out www.ballarddesigns.com and www.horchow.com, I have discovered the Horchow outlet in Plano and miss dearly the Ballard outlet stores in Atlanta, but you can still get good bargains from their "Estate Sale". And as always use your T.J.Maxx, Ross, and Marshall's stores to your advantage. I still get a little angry at these department stores, especially Tuesday Morning because as a decorator I have access to so much product, that at times it gets to your head, you begin feeling special, you know...church lady special (am I dating myself here?). Then you go to one of these stores and see exclusive items, albeit in small quantity, but they are there! Kind of takes the "special" out of it, but hey that's ok. Just keep your eyes peeled for these "special" finds. They are out there, you just have to look. And even if there is only one of them, go ahead and buy it. With enough of these one of a kind finds, your tree, wreathe or garland will look spectacularly collected and will be intriguing to even the slightest glance.

Happy Shopping!

Email me with your decorating questions.