Featured at OwnHomeStyle.com
By Lisa M Smith

Holidays celebrate tradition. Tradition can give our busy lives continuity and the comfort of familiarity. However holiday decorating doesn’t mean ignore all the standard interior design rules and haphazardly decorate. Holidays are a time for extended hospitality. A home is welcoming, warm, inviting, livable, festive and special.

Make your home unique. Stop using the same holiday decorations year after year, placed in the same spot or used in the same way. You can still embrace tradition but decorate your home in a new and exciting way that isn’t a carbon copy of last year. Now is the time to mix it up a little.

Change color scheme – This is one of the easiest ways to freshen up your holiday décor. Instead of the same old red and green try something new. Here are some suggestions:

Turquoise and lime

Black, white and gold or silver

Pink and green

Green, purple and gold

Red and silver

White and gold

You can also try using just one color as in all white ornaments or one color for all the bows on wreaths, packages, etc. The point is to have a color scheme. Good design requires some sort of color scheme in your everyday interior. This concept applies to holiday decorating too. Make it festive but fresh.

Create a theme. In 2001, I decorated our tree and wrapped all presents in red, white and blue in honor of those who left us and took care of us on 9/11. Maybe there is a wedding or new baby in your home and you want to honor that. For more of a holiday tone pick one or two elements of the holiday or from your existing collection and go for it. Use only items that support your theme whether it is on the tree, mantel or table. Coordinate your entire theme around using only items that support it.

• Angels

• Gingerbread men

• Candy canes – your color scheme could be all red and white

• Snow globes

• Back to nature – only use and make ornaments and decorations from what you can find outdoors.

• Mercury glass

• Old fashioned

• Seashells or tropical

• Homemade

These are only a few suggestions. Maybe you already have a wonderful collection of tabletop snowmen you could use as your theme. From this create a color scheme and let it “snowball”…to snowmen and show flake tree ornaments, white lights, a tree skirt that mimics the pattern in one of your snowmen’s scarf, lots of white, etc. The repetition of similar items is a successful design formula that is used by designers in everyday interior design. Take this concept and apply it to your holiday. Kids can have a lot of fun with this. Give them a theme and they will takeover. You’ll have snowmen everywhere. This is what brings excitement to your holiday interiors.

Once you have created a theme and color scheme, edit your holiday decorations. You don’t have to throw things away just put them away for another year. Maybe next year your theme will be toy soldiers and nutcrackers. The snowmen can come out again in a couple of years. The point is once you go to all the work to create a great scheme it doesn’t mean you can never do it again. After a couple of years you will have a nice rotation of decorations.

Good design requires choosing a theme and color scheme. If you apply this concept to holiday decorating you will be amazed at the results. Whatever theme and color scheme you decide on make sure everything coordinates. Yes this means putting away some of your everyday accessories. If you take the time to plan a holiday color scheme and theme your home will be transformed in to a happy and festive environment your guests and family will talk about for seasons to come.

About the Author

Lisa M. Smith is an interior designer and owner of Interior Design Factory, Ltd. She specializes in creating beautiful and inviting residential interiors that are timeless and look collected, not like a showroom. Real design for real people. She produces individualized results using creative solutions that are liveable and tell a story. Good design is for everyone and available in every budget.

Hire an Interior Designer Now for only $4.95. Click on website to ask your personal design question. You can even send pictures. Get design advice and answers just for you!

www.InteriorDesignFactory.com

Source: EzineArticles.com