10 tips for ‘wow-factor’ holiday decorating
stories by Judy Ross
photography by Derek Trask
staging by Cathy Lane
Looking for inspiration for yuletide decorating? It can be found almost everywhere these days. Neighbourhoods are dazzling with trees ablaze and front porch vignettes that welcome you out of the cold. Stores are awash in glitz and glamour. Even a walk in the woods can trigger ideas for natural piney arrangements. For our inspiration we visited and photographed a home completely decked out in festive finery by local designer Cathy Lane.
We also talked to store owners to get the best thoughts on how to achieve these sparkling outcomes. Here we share some of the latest Christmas looks … and offer tips to inspire you when you deck your own halls for the holidays.
1. THINK OF IT AS STAGING YOUR HOME in the way that professional stagers get homes ready for the real estate market. Start by decluttering, to give yourself a clean slate. Put away any knick-knacks or decorations that don’t suit the season. If artwork clashes with holiday décor, remove it from your walls. Then let the fun begin as you start layering all the cheerful accessories.
When Cathy Lane was hired by a busy family of skiers to create a Christmas ambiance for this vast weekend home at the Georgian Bay Club, she began with a massive 16-foot Fraser fir tree. To warm the industrial-like space she picked her colour scheme of oranges and reds from the red leather furniture in the great room … the only real colour in the whole house. To make the huge tree a dazzling focal point she used 2,500 LED lights in red, orange and white.
2. USE THE STYLE OF YOUR HOME AS A STARTING POINT. Make the festive décor match your home’s year-round style. Traditional Christmas colours may not work if your palette is made up of cooler tones of grey, mauve or pastel blues. For those hues you may want to forego the traditional red and green in favour of shine and sparkle. Add plenty of silver balls, mercury candlesticks and crystal bowls. For example, a traditional home with yellow walls and antique mahogany furniture, might clash with reds but would look amazing decorated with polished silver and gleaming crystal. A table centerpiece can be a simple rectangular glass vase filled with silver and blue balls of various sizes. Sometimes sparkle is better than colour.
3. STICK TO A THEME OR COLOUR SPECTRUM. Red is a traditional colour at Christmas, and for Lane it’s a frequent first choice for country houses like this one full of wood and stone. “You need big scale colour blocks as a counterpoint to the monochromatic space,” explains Lane, “I put some red in every arrangement – and then really punch it up with things like the painted red urns on the hearth.”
4. FIRST IMPRESSIONS START OUTSIDE. There are plenty of options for making an impressive entranceway. The huge layered wreath on the wooden door of this home at the Georgian Bay Club announces both the colour scheme and the scale of what lies inside. Oversized pinecones provide a constant theme throughout the house. Any front porch can be the stage for some wintry vignettes including olden day skis, wooden snowshoes, old fashioned toboggans or twig chairs. An easy solution for sprucing up your front door is to flank it with urns that are filled to overflowing with greenery. In Lane’s vision, every urn has room for more branches, twigs and pinecones … you really can’t overstuff.
5. KEEP IT SIMPLE. Don’t have too many items competing with each other. When you bring those Christmas boxes out of storage, give every little thing a critical look and do a purge. Then you can justify a few new purchases. “A recent trend in Christmas décor is the shabby chic look of creams and whitewash,” says Denise D’Angicco, owner of Georgian Christmas, a store in the Village at Blue that celebrates the season all year round. “Our best sellers are white lanterns, ivory coloured flameless candles and anything in a soft palette with muted colours and just a little glitter.”
6. PAY HOMAGE TO THE SENTIMENTAL. There’s always room on the Christmas tree for ornaments that conjure up good memories. Consider a separate, smaller tree to hang all the children’s or grandchildren’s efforts – they will love it and you can then do the big tree as you like. Tiny hanging picture frames are another nice touch (check out the pewter ones from Restoration Hardware), for example, featuring baby photos of all the family members, young and old.
7. USE ARRANGEMENTS THAT CAN LAST THROUGH WINTER. Choose winter florals that look good at Christmas and can be left up for the winter season. Lane worked with natural ingredients like dried hydrangeas, magnolia leaves, pinecones, berry branches and crabapple sprays when decorating this house for the holidays. For the long horizontal dining room table she made an understated arrangement using pinecones, tiny balls and feathers – nothing too showy. “I didn’t want too many things competing with each other,” says Lane, “so I kept the centrepiece natural.”
Small twig trees (made of resin) with twinkle lights come in various sizes and are great for adding sparkle to dark corners all winter long. Lining a mantel with mini cypress trees in silver buckets is another simple but elegant look. “It doesn’t have to be Santas and reindeers,” says Jacquie Furtner, a designer who owns Bare Birch, a home décor store in Owen Sound. Her store features mostly neutrals and her Christmas items tend to be natural and subtle. “Burlap is the big thing this year,” she adds. “It’s being used everywhere instead of ribbon for wrapping around candles and gifts, and for the base of the tree.”
8. DON’T BE AFRAID TO USE FAKE GREENS (but get the ‘good’ stuff – the kind that looks amazingly real). Designers use fake swags for mantels and banisters because they bend and flow more easily, then stuff them with real sprigs of cedar. That way your garland will look real … and have that great scent. In this family weekend house some of the garland may be artificial, but the roses are real. Lane bought real red roses, put them into water picks (available from florists) and stuffed them into cedar swags draped on the railings. The roses need to be replaced every few days, but it’s worth it for the incredible scent. If left to dry they lose their scent but will still look nice.
9. ADD INTEREST TO THE BASE OF THE TREE. Instead of store-bought tree skirts, use burlap, a faux fur wrap or a drape of velvet. And then arrange wrapped gifts (keeping to the colour scheme) around the base. For example, if the theme is natural, use plain newsprint, chocolate-coloured satin ribbons and accents like cinnamon sticks, dried orange slices and sprigs of cedar for a truly yummy look.
10. USE RIBBON FOR IMPACT. This is one of the simplest and least expensive ways to amp up your look for the holidays. For Lane, ribbon is a favourite festive accent. “Ribbon lets me fill in the holes when I’m decorating a tree,” she says. “If the tree isn’t symmetrical then ribbon wrapped appropriately can correct that. Wide, shiny ribbon (reflective, not matte) looped back and forth across a tree makes a great statement.”
Now that the countdown to Christmas has begun, you can use these ideas to add a little something special to your home décor. With your home all aglow, you’ll be able to relax and celebrate the season in style. ❧
Makeover Magic
How to transform a dining room from ho-hum to ho-ho-ho!
story by Judy Ross
photography by Richard Galloway
I have to admit that my holiday decorating had become a little tired. For years I had been hauling out the same old ornaments, half-burnt-out light strings and dusty swags. It was also time to overcome some emotional attachments. For example, the ornaments made by my children who are now grown up and have children of their own (it will be hard, though … they were so clever with those popsicle sticks and cotton balls). I needed help.
Enter Cathy Lane – the wizard of design makeovers. We agreed that she would show me how to transform my dining room for Christmas. She sweeps in with her two helpers Rachel and Nicole and a mass of plastic bins filled with stuff. I have no idea where she finds all these things – and she keeps her sources a secret. In an earlier visit to my house she had already settled on a colour theme with lots of red because my log house needs colour.
Cathy and her elves start by hanging bright red berry wreaths on all the windows. They cover the wire with red ribbon (trimmed in sequins for a little glitter) and then shape more of the ribbon into chunky bows for the top of the wreath. Next, Cathy zeroes in on the iron chandelier hanging over my pine harvest table. In years past I had wrapped a cedar swag on the fixture … but I realize watching the girls work that mine had been far too skimpy. Cathy is an advocate of “more-is-more” and the final look of the chandelier with thick masses of greenery, pinecones and red cardinals proves that she is right.
For the table she starts by laying down a red and black plaid blanket diagonally across the centre and topping it with a basket chockfull of pinecones and strings of red beads. On either side of the basket she places black lanterns with red pillar candles. To get more light she stuffs several strands of battery-operated led lights in amongst the pinecones. “I like the look of an underglow coming up from beneath the pinecones”, she offers as she adds even more lights to the basket.
There’s a lot of trial and error involved when Cathy’s team is working. They discard, rearrange and discuss until they are satisfied they have it right. For the top of my pine cabinet they arrange gifts wrapped in brown paper with copper-coloured ribbon, and a wooden bowl filled with red balls and pinecones. “It’s still missing something,” muses Cathy, standing back like an artist examining a canvas. Then she finds some fresh cedar branches and drapes them down the sides of the mirror. The final pièce de résistance was a pair of cardinals nestled in the greenery. “That’s got it!” she whoops.
The sideboard is the final piece of furniture to get the full design treatment. This surface is where normally, for dinner parties, I put out the serving dishes. Now it holds a stunning display of artificial red amaryllis bulbs, red pillar candles, swags of greenery, and red silk poinsettia flowers. There isn’t an inch of uncovered surface. Oh well, maybe we can forget about food.
All in all, Cathy’s team from Panache DesignWorks did work wonders. In two-and-a-half hours they turned my unembellished dining room from ordinary to spectacularly festive. But it’s not over yet. I still have to deal with decorating the tree … and those popsicle stick ornaments. ❧
