Christmas styling
Christmas officially begins for me when the decorations go up in the city of Melbourne. I always get a buzz seeing the 15 foot trees filled with shiny baubles and decorations hanging from the ceilings. Every shop front decorated. This beautiful transformation seems to happen in just one weekend, signalling the Christmas season is here (yeah!).
At home, hubby is sent up to the roof to dust off the Christmas boxes. Ready for our own family ritual of putting up the decorations aka hubby battling the tree and Christmas lights, the kids running around the house with tinsel, leaving a trail of glittery aftermath and me moving and re-arranging things until they are just so.
When it comes to Christmas styling I like to mix things up each year. Using the majority of what I have but adding a few special items to the mix. With Christmas decorations hitting the stores in abundance, now is the time to look for any new pieces to incorporate into your home.
Here are my Christmas styling tips for creating a cohesive and stylish look this Christmas.
//ONE Theme
Choose a theme or style for your Christmas look. Think traditional, modern, country, Scandinavian etc.
Get ideas through magazines, blogs or websites like Pinterest. Seen any images you would like to re-create? Take a photo or tear out the pages from magazines and create a visual mood board.
//TWO Colour palette + textures
Choose 2-3 colours and 1-2 textures to use consistently throughout your styling. Consider the different hues and opacity ie. bold, metallic, pastel and the type of materials ie. wood, glass, feathers, glitter, fabric.
Example of colour and texture combinations;
- Red, green, gold
- White, gold, wood
- Silver, blue, glitter
- White, silver, feathers
- Green, purple, gold
- White, red, silver
//THREE Inventory
Review what pieces you have, what you need and what you would like. Throw out anything that didn’t last the year of storage. Invest in new pieces that can be used in years to come ie. a wreath that you can change the colour of or add accessories to.
//FOUR Visual focal points
Group decorations together and have visual focal points when you enter a room. The Christmas tree is obviously one focal point, the dining table can be another, part of a bookshelf or side table another, a wall or window for wall decals or garlands another and so on. Decorations should flow from one focal point to the next and not look like a mismatch of things being placed wherever there is a blank spot.
//FIVE Edit
Just because Christmas only comes around once a year doesn’t mean you have to use every decoration you have each year. Stay within your theme and colour palette as much as possible. Remember less can be more. For instance, I have a big cylinder of baubles that contains four colour’s and only use two of the colour’s on our tree each year.
//SIX Christmas spirit
Have fun decorating. Christmas is about joy and peace and family. Surround yourself with the things that make you happy. If you do that, generally a theme/pattern will present itself. Style doesn’t have to be restrictive. With children things need to be functional and fun. Make your Christmas sparkle!
Need some decoration inspiration? Here are some affordable decorations on my wish list.
