Romantic Homes HOLIDAY DECORATING GUIDE

Love decorating for the holidays? I do, although I generally don’t come up with a plan for the current year’s decorations til, say, after Halloween. This year, sometime in June or so, I was asked to create a Holiday Home for Romantic Homes Magazine, and I had so much fun! {I’ve never, ever had that much time to plan for the holidays} Here is a small peek, there are more pages of our feature in the magazine, as well as lots of pretty holiday homes, so be sure to get a copy.

I wanted to showcase antique and vintage pieces, and some great tableware and accessories I chose for FrenchGardenHouse with your holidays in mind! For our mantel at home, I layered several antique mirrors on the mantel, then cut out little birds from sheet music which I dangled from ribbons on the smallest ribbon. Votives, some of my antique candlesticks and a garland I made from juniper which grows on in our front yard complete this very easy look!

For our kitchen hutch, I covered the shelves with burlap, and covered the bottom shelves which display my cookbooks with burlap too, using pushpins to attach lengths of burlap on the side of the shelf. Our ironstone collection, antique towels and urns make a great display with just a few sprigs of green, and little faux apple wreath for color. {ps. I just closed the doors after the shoot so that’s one area of the house I won’t have to redo for the holidays when they really come!}

Some close up shots of what’s inside the hutch. The paper wreath is one I made three or four years ago from a disbound French book, super easy and a fun project!

I stacked my plates on a cakestand, and covered them with a large glass dome to keep them clean, so that when I want to use them, I can, without washing first!

Little lavender bags made of French newspapers, and metal tart pans used for tealights.

Every day items with just a touch of holiday red, I filled another urn with juniper cuttings.

Antique Victorian Silverware with Mother of Pearl Handles ready to bring to the table in an ironstone English pitcher.

I set the table in the kitchen for a Holiday breakfast, using our Grainsack Runners, vintage Red and White Plates and these great Red Metal Basket Vases., and French Towels used as napkins.

A kitchen shot, again, the red color tells the holiday story with just a few simple greens and roses, as well as these gorgeous Red Mercury Glass Votives.

I will share some of the gift wrapping packages I made for this feature later on nearer to the Holidays, two are shown in the magazine. I wish I could have just had a Christmas party on the day of the shoot, since our home was ready! Thanks so much, editors of RH, for making this such a fun and beautiful feature.