Editor's Note: Dr. Deana, your favorite motivational columnist, is also a gifted and sought-after certified Interior Designer. In this week's column, to help get you ready for Christmas, she's sharing some lovely decorating tips to give you inspiration to spice up your home for the holidays. Enjoy!
One of the highlights of the season is decorating your home for the holidays. I still get excited about holiday decorating even more now than I did as a child. That’s probably because today I am an interior designer and get to explore and experiment with the different themes that bubble up in my heart. You probably have begun your decorations already for the holidays, yet regardless of how you decorate, the best part of holiday decorating is keeping it personal and making it a family project. Whether you’ve started already or have yet a few finishing touches to add, I offer tips for you just in time to prepare your home for the holiday celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Before you begin decorating, it’s a good idea to take inventory of what you already have and decide what you love, hate, need to repair or need to get rid of. This clears tangible space in the home and intangible space in the mind to buy some new, fun holiday decorations, or at least establish a feel for what you’d like to do this year. I am sort of an “out-of-the-box” thinker when it comes to decorating. What I mean is I take the decor an extra step or two just to keep away from tradition and conventional style. Here’s what I mean:
Themes
You will have more fun if you take a leap of faith and stop playing it safe. Now beginning with themes, just about anything can go based on your interest. You can include your collections and turn the entire decor into a corresponding theme. If you are a doll collector, decorate your tree and home with them. If you’re a lover of jewelry, drape your tree with faux beads and pearls instead of traditional garland. If you can’t decide, create a theme with color. Gold fits any home.
Matching Sentimentals
If you have a family heirloom or a trinket that you have a sentimental attachment to and want to display it during the holidays, it doesn’t have to match the decor of your home. Too often people are hung up on what matches and what doesn’t. If it flows well with the decor and speaks to your heart, that’s what matters.
Colors
I am convinced if you walk into ten different homes during the holidays, you will see red and green combinations. But there are other combination options available to you, but you’ll have to stretch your imagination and dare to be different. Ivory and gold; burgundy and lime green; copper, gold and citron; copper and red, or my favorite, gold and silver. Choose one of these combinations and run the color theme in different shades throughout the home on the tree, mantel, throw pillows, ornaments, beads and ribbons. Don’t over-do it. Less is always best.
Lights
Never skimp on lights. The proper way to add lights to your tree is to weave lights in and out of each branch and work in sections. I’ve seen trees wrapped in lights leaving inside the tree dark and boring. How many lights? The general rule of thumb is one hundred lights per foot of tree height, but it also depends on your personal preference. Make sure all the end tips have a light on it. Add some flare to the colors. Creatively mix soft pink, purple or blue lights to the traditional white lights. This will add more depth to the tree and make the colors in your ornaments more noticeable. You can also alternate miniature lights and larger lights. If you like a whimsy decor, try alternating bubble lights with the miniatures. Keep an extra string of lights on hand in case a string goes out. Don’t try to remove a blown string, instead gently weave another string of lights into the same spot.
Ornaments
You want a variety of larger to smaller ornaments for different sections of your tree. Hang larger ornaments first to fill in the inner spaces. Work around them to create focal points. Bring the smaller ornaments to the front on the tips of the tree. Remember, you are working with one color combination. Multiple colors of ornaments and decorations can make the decor look heavy and tired. Your eyes will be running in circles because there are so many colors pulling for your attention.
Ribbons and Beads
Ribbons and beads should be draped loosely on the tree to give it a balanced look. Buy plenty of them. Choose ribbons and beads to complement your ornaments and home decor. Larger trees can use wide ribbons while smaller trees look best with thin ribbons.
Mantel
Do something different this year. Pick up finials in different styles and heights from your home supply store. Sit them on candle holders and display them across the mantel. Spray cones in different shades of gold and silver and lay them randomly across the mantel. Instead of garland, drape beads across the mantel hanging at different lengths on a row of fresh holly. At your craft store, pick up stand alone alphabets that spell “Happy Birthday Jesus.” Spray the letters in different shades of gold, silver and red. Add this across your mantel between the cones. If you do not have a mantel, you can dress a side table.
Foyer
It is a cute idea to decorate the light fixture with greenery. Take the greenery to the stairs adding miniature lights to the stair rail for a soft elegant look. If your foyer is large enough for a center table, decorate it with a miniature tree or large poinsettia.
Nowadays it is not unusual to have multiple trees in the home for the holidays; in the basement, family room and dining room. You can add a tree almost anywhere you like. But be sure to use common sense. Use electric cords made especially for Christmas trees that allow you to plug up to three strings of lights into each of three locations along the cord, and put the main plug into a surge protector on the floor where one flip of the switch turns on all the lights. Tree lights shouldn’t be on 24 hours a day, and be sure to turn them off when no one is home.
God says he gives us richly all things to enjoy. Enjoy your holiday decor, but don’t overdo it and tire yourself. Your home decorations shouldn’t look like you’ve been up all night working. Involve your family and make it family time together and be sure that everyone pitches in with their ideas and desires. I know you’ll make it glamorous and inviting. Have an extraordinary Christmas!
Dr. Deana Murphy is a speaker, educator, blogger, award winning author and founder and CEO of the LivingDesigns360 brand. She specializes in showing over-shadowed women how to renovate their lives and break-free of self-imposed barriers so they can own their power, reclaim their identity and live a blessed life. She helps women confidently change their lives and grow to master the habits of self-esteem, self-confidence and well-being functional in four core areas of life including life improvement, spiritual growth, professional achievement and home and family management. Her holistic methodology to life-improvement engages the unique approach of designing your internal self as one would design their house; room to room meaning from the attic to basement; head to toe. She’s your go-to resource for empowering life makeovers, whether you seek one-on-one consulting, group trainings, workshops or lifestyle makeover events.
Visit Dr. Deana at deanamurphyglobal.com
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dmurphy@eewmagazine.com
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