Category: holiday decorating

Our Home For The Holidays

Happy Holidays friends!  We are T-3 to Christmas 2015, and the joy of the season is electric by way of white Christmas lights and treasured traditions.   Welcome to our Home for the Holidays where the theme of comfort and simplicity is well represented.

grape-vine-tree

Our tour is of the dining room and the part of the foyer decked for the holidays. The dining room, a forever work in progress, has seen several design and decor changes in 2015, and will continue to see more in 2016.  The walls are devoid of artwork (the piece you see in this photo is part of the kitchen gallery wall) and the style jury is unable to reach a unanimous decision on accent rug vs. hardwood floors.  The dining room isn’t the only space getting a makeover.  My Mother’s Day gift from our son was paying for the new wallpaper I fell in love with at first sight but took several months to decide if I really had to have it. Turns out I did. Dave the Builder began the project, but real life obligations and unexpected circumstances stepped in and halted the foyer beautification project.  Patience is not only a virtue it is a necessary tool of the trade in design and decorating.

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On the Monday before Christmas, my true love gave to me.  A single Santa leopard-ing

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and a Christmas goose in the foyer displayed in front of the new zebra wallpaper sitting pretty (pronounce it prit-tee and it rhymes with tree.  Get it?  Partridge. Pear Tree).

Christmas-Goose-in-foyer

A  holiday table centerpiece of magnolia leaves and holly is indeed so Southern, so holiday, so easy and so beautiful.

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Bob’s Sweet Stripes as swizzle sticks and crystal finial ornaments as wine charms? You bet!

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I purchased these vintage mini framed Madonna prints for my kitchen gallery wall.

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Inspiration is everywhere.

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The subject matter is holiday appropriate, and the petite size of the framed prints sealed the DIY deal.  Napkin rings it is!

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mother-and-child

I have collected Victorian inspired Santa Claus figurines for years.  Due to the epic move aka the gift that keeps on giving, combining two households into one and the renovation of my childhood home into our new to us home, most of my Santa collection now resides in climate controlled storage.  These inexpensive stand-in Santas have no great provenance or famous artist signature assigned to them, but I do love the colors and facial features of these old world replicas.

Santas

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this perfectly imperfect image serves as a visual reminder of my personal design and decorating philosophy.  Perfection, style and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  The life lived within a home comes alive through personal style and taste, and there is nothing more gorgeous than a home that beautifully illustrates personal style lives here.  Design and decorate it with a sense of you!

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Love your style!

The Holiday Countdown Is On!

At the time of this writing we are 20 days, 7 hours, 59 minutes and 8 seconds from Thanksgiving Day.  The holiday countdown is on.

51bcaddcd9127e25990010ff._w.540_s.fit_Apartment Therapy

I am one busy worker bee and am loving every minute of there’s no place like home for the holidays preparation and decoration.

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It’s the most wonderful and delicious time of the year!

f11b892e3369bb2ceafe92d18dd2f550Pinterest via Linda Lundgren

Mementos from the past mixed with today’s this is how we tradition set a beautiful holiday table.

Thanksgiving-platter

Beginning next week I will be posting refreshed versions of my Places In The Home for the Holidays series.  We’ll talk turkey, holiday side dish and dessert recipes, holiday table decorations, holiday home decor suggestions and deck the halls gift ideas.  And just in case you are interested, at the time of this publishing we are now 20 days, 3 hours, 41 minutes and 6 seconds from Thanksgiving Day.  The holiday countdown is on!

Love your style!

Holiday Open House

From our holiday open house to yours ~ may I present a glimpse into the holiday life lived within at Places In The Home.

holiday open house

The dining room is holiday decked and detailed in the new color. Our one more coat standoff is ongoing- hence the bare walls.  Small steps to big changes.

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greenery

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Love your style!

Patience In Design and Decorating

Want, need, seasonal availability and patience in design and decorating lined up over the weekend.

It was hard to contain my excitement when Dave the Builder emailed me the picture below of this display live and in person from our local Lowe’s garden center.

couleur-pumpkins-lowes

One white pumpkin, one greenish blue pumpkin, one ornamental cabbage and one vintage dough bowl later…  well this isn’t exactly the look I had in mind.

The build up to perceived pumpkin perfection may have been better than the actual great white pumpkin purchase.

As it sometimes goes in the world of design and decorating, what we initially envision doesn’t necessarily translate well to space, palette, placement or in this case, pumpkin.

patience in design and decorating

If at first you don’t succeed, design and decorate again, and again, and again.

I think it is safe to assume all great, beautiful and stylish design and decorating does not come straight out of the box that way.

I’ve lost count of the projects I have started over at the beginning, in the middle of, and heavily tweaked at the end.  If it doesn’t feel right how can it look right?

I know.  The client knows.  The client knows I know.

You know?

Adding to, taking away from, switching up or a simple re-positioning is often the missing piece of the puzzle that brings forth the “that’s it!” look you were going for in the first place.

Tenacity, coupled with patience in design and decorating, is the power tool of the trade.

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You’ve got to roll with the punches when it comes to the creative process. It’s a work in progress- an exercise in patience and pumpkin.

coffee table decor

What presently doesn’t work will eventually come together for the next phase of the extravaganza aka Thanksgiving decorating.

I am gingerly practicing pumpkin caution with these fall decorating beauties of the moment.

Here’s hoping they will at least look presentable for an upcoming Thanksgiving staging session.

It’s not looking too good for the one in the above image, but hope is on the table.

I always take out a decorating insurance policy in the form of classic core pieces, accents and accessories.

ff-go-greenPumpkin Centerpiece How-to Guide from POPSUGAR

That’s what I love about working with a good foundation and why I preach classic pieces.

Strong lines, good bones, great pieces and patience in design and decorating are the tried and true hallmarks of great and lasting design and decorating.

Love your style!

Seasonal Updating and Holiday Decorating: When Is Early Too Early?

Seasonal updating and holiday decorating season came on like gang busters this year.  From weather to color, fall is hands down my favorite time of year.  Fall is the one holiday you can get a lot of traction out of, decoratively speaking.  Seasonal statement pieces as well as fun pops of color become investment pieces, and nature is the ultimate and most affordable arts and crafts store there is.

A high-end luxury throw can be as important to seasonal updating as a bowl of acorns, nuts,  leaves or pine cones is to holiday decorating.

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Planning and playing with design boards is part of my daily routine. Getting ideas down on a board puts collected inspiration in front of you and answers the “now, where did I see that _______?” question in the click of the mouse. Spending the weekend planning and playing with design boards gave way to observations colliding with inspiration, or the lack thereof.  I was satisfied with the interior decorating seasonal updates I came up with, but felt rushed to push the pieces of the fall decorating puzzle together like I was on a hurry up-everyone else is already through-and you haven’t even begun hard and fast deadline.

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The blogsophere is in full-on fall decorating mode.  For those of us who love to seasonally update and decorate our humble abodes inside and out, searching and sourcing ideas for inspiration begins many weeks out from the official start of the season.  Getting the jump on seasonal updating and decorating in order to get the most out of the beauty of a season is hard to resist,  but when is early too early?

calendar-HC

Holiday season at Hopefully Classic came earrrrrrrrly on the calendar.  Retail is a whole other beast when it comes to holiday decorating, merchandising and sales. I was Easter hopping in February and decking the halls decked out in shorts and flip flops in August.  By the time the actual holiday rolled around if I wasn’t careful I would be completely over it.  Staying one step out in front made me feel I was chasing my tail, and frankly, it took a huge hunk out of the holiday fun and celebration.

David Nettovia

I totally agree with David Netto’s observation.  Hate the chop, but that’s not the point.  In both my professional and personal experience I’ve learned to proceed with caution on the road of everybody else is doing it. Don’t let that be the driving force of your updating and decorating decisions.

Love your style!