Category: Christmas

Favorite things tend to come up a lot at holiday time.  Gift givers and gift receivers alike have favorite things in mind and on their lists.  If that’s not enough to do it, the post production social media hullabaloo over NBC’s The Sound Of Music Live will. Yes, the hills were alive with The Sound of Music at Places In The Home complete with Sound of Music sing-along. I’ll leave the technical reviews to the experts, but I will give a big thumbs up to the  exceptional set lighting.  Good lighting is a vital factor in the art of achieving design success.  Design success comes in many forms, is subject to personal interpretation, and can be achieved by accident.

Our dining room continues to experiencing technical difficulty in the good lighting or lack of it department.

Once again this antique crystal chandelier is in repair mode, more specifically, rewire and repair mode.  Dave the Builder assures me all is well with the wiring, but my insistence to rewire the antique fixture prevailed.  I told Dave to consider the rewire a Christmas present from him to me. ‘Tis the season of giving and electrical safety.  Here’s my Christmas gift caveat- be careful what you ask for because you may just get it.  In the pursuit of perfect lighting the fixture was taken down.  Next came an ill-timed and unforeseen scheduling conflict, and thus a blanket of darkness fell upon the space. How’s that for a Victorian twist?  We’re not in total darkness, but losing the main source of light made me work a little harder to capture decent photos of my holiday on parade.

When I am in design and decorating mode I stand in the middle of the space and study- study the flow, light direction, purpose and position. Decorating for the holidays is no different. Walls and window will speak to you, the trick is to listen.  The intent was to decorate the dining room in traditional Christmas red and green, but as I stood face to face with the grapevine Christmas tree on the sideboard I knew traditional wasn’t the direction to go.  Time for a few of my favorite things to come together.

The original concept was not even remotely close to what came to be.  My favorite things took a turn at traditional and headed straight towards the ooh la la factor with a non-traditional color palette thrown in for good measure.

An afternoon spent on an  in-house treasure hunt resulted in holiday decorative object and ornament happenstance. Opening a drawer led to a closet which led to a bookcase which led to a… you get the idea.

The grapevine tree and celadon tulle date back to Hopefully Classic holiday open house days.  Gold and glittery object and ornaments , crystal garlands and prisms from chandeliers past, stands of pearls and vintage beads, ornamental grapes, flowers and tassels, angels and a gold crown came together to create my idea of Holiday 2013.

Diverting from traditional or go-to tastes keeps the favorite things in design and decor fresh and visually exciting.

Decorating, singing, sharing , holiday happenings and the anticipation of it all coming to a colossal Christmas crescendo with family, friends, neighbors and my readers – these are a few of my favorite things.