Do you and your spouse or partner have different design or decorating styles? Does that frustrate you? You are not alone; it is quite common. When it comes to holiday decorating, if you are anything like me, you have plenty of different holiday décor and assorted color schemes from over the years to work with to reinvent new looks to please everyone. Here is what you do …
BLOG POST BY:
Carla Gentle with Design Realign, Inc.
SORT, CATEGORIZE, AND ANALYZE
First, pull out all your boxes of Christmas decorations. If you are good at visualizing, it will save you a lot of time. If you aren’t good at visualizing, actually sort your decorations by color. For example, I have had different color schemes over the years of blue and silver, silver and gold, red and green, etc. Sort through and put all your similar colors together.
Once you have sorted your decorations by color, look for all the items that represent your décor/design style and all the items that represent your partner’s décor/design style. Then, tie together the different styles by coordinating colors to bring cohesion and commonality to your space.
Lastly, make sure to vary the height of your décor as well as having a mixture of materials (metal, glass, wood, etc.). This is the best way to create visual interest, along with the rule of 3, the rule of thirds, and visual triangles. To learn more on the rule of 3, the rule of thirds, and visual triangles, visit a past blog post of mine entitled, “Style Stunning Bookshelves Like a Pro”.
HOW I DESIGNED AND MIXED THIS YEAR’S CHRISTMAS DÉCOR AND COLOR SCHEME
The Differing Styles
To demonstrate how to mix different design/decorating styles, I am using examples from my own home where I mixed modern and rustic design styles together. My personal dominant design style is organic modern and that of my ex-husband is more farmhouse (he is a country boy) which I addressed with rustic decor; therefore, to demonstrate this décor/design mix example, I designed with a nice balance of organic modern and rustic.
The Color Scheme(s)
To be honest with you, I never even planned how I was going to decorate for Christmas this year until I literally actually started to decorate. I am good at visualizing, so I didn’t need to sort through or categorize anything, but I did have to pull out all my decorations to remind myself what all I had to work with. I have A LOT of decorations! I then decided to go with the following color scheme: gold and silver (more modern) and red and green (more rustic) with touches of black to add extra elements of warmth.
The Featured Decorated Room/Space
I decided to highlight my dining room for this blog post. You’ll notice my last blog article highlighted the beautiful Christmas trees I decorated in front of my large living room windows, which consisted of silver and gold (as well as white) ornaments, the (green) trees (one full of snow), and a red cardinal in its nest. The ground covering was full of snow and gold (and clear glass) presents. You can see I used the same color schemes in the living room (from my last post), as the dining room, especially since the rooms join together.
The Table Setting
The beautiful table setting creates a nice balance of modern and rustic elements as well as incorporating all the colors mentioned earlier (including the wreath and tinsel tree). The super sleek, mid-century modern curved bowl/candle holder and modern gold tree and large red tinsel tree play well with the rustic red and black checkered table runner and stunning wood plate chargers (LOVE!).
Even the napkins and napkin holders share a mix of these two styles with the gold modern cloth napkins and rustic wooden napkin ring holders. I just slipped a little evergreen with holly in the napkin rings to finish off the festive look.
By the way, did you notice the wrapped candies I dropped into each glass? Such a fun, yet elegant touch to treat and entertain your guests!
The Buffet
I carried the same color scheme and mixed styles onto the buffet. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my (heavy) black iron centerpiece holder. It is of the highest quality (with rubber padded feet) and only cost me $4.00 at a local Good Will. That would easily cost a minimum of $40-$50 elsewhere and over $100 at Pottery Barn.
I seriously contemplated adding real evergreen from my evergreen trees to the centerpiece (biggest fan of evergreen) but decided to go full-blown modern with the look and only added glass ornaments to match the modern look of the red, sleek Christmas tree. These modern elements created a balance between the rustic and organic wreath and green Christmas trees. I opted to go with the blue/gray sequined runner (instead of my glittery gold netting runner) to tone down the overall look of the buffet décor just a tad.
The Entrance
The entrance to my home is off the dining room divided by a beautiful high-quality teak wood mid-century modern built-in shelving unit. I have fun decorating this shelving unit throughout the year! You can see how I incorporated the coordinating color schemes not just with the shelving unit but also the chest (in the background). I love my glass presents, vintage Santa, and vintage genuine brass reindeer set, which all add a sophisticated modern touch to the antique rustic sled, bird cage, and evergreen garland. Did you notice I have the same red and black checkered design in the table runner, buffet Christmas tree tie, red tinsel tree topper, the entrance sled, glass presents, and picture above the chest? Again, it’s small touches like these that help tie everything together, create cohesion, and helps the eyes easily flow from one space to the next.
CONCLUSION
I have so much fun decorating for the holidays and hope this article helps to guide you on how to better mix holiday decorating styles in your home. Everything coordinates so nicely throughout my dining room space, entrance, and living room space with Christmas trees (from the last blog article) that it looks like I put a lot of thought into my design. But, I really didn’t … at all. It certainly helps to have a lot of decorations to work with, like I have, and the ability to visualize, as I do; but if you stick to what I have outlined in this post, you will have a design and decorations that look well planned and the ability to use differing styles to please both you and your partner for many holidays to come!
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