Welcome to My Rich and Colorful Holiday Home Tour

holiday home tour with the design twins: how to create holiday magic in your home

Create a welcoming and inspired holiday home with the The Design Twins’ fabulous budget-friendly decorating tips and advice.

Welcome to my Holiday Home Tour. Julie and I look forward to decorating our homes for Christmas all year long. If you’re anything like us, you love to decorate your home for family and friends to enjoy throughout the Holiday Season. The beauty you create in your home sets the stage for all your festivities.

Whether you are just starting your own family traditions or are following generations-old customs, your home is the all-important backdrop to memory-making events that happen throughout the season. From caroling, cooking baking, tree decorating, wrapping, gift giving, party throwing, we know that the ambiance you provide plays an integral part.

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Welcome to My Holiday Home

No pressure and no worries. Come along with us and take a tour. We want to show you our best decorating ideas to help make your holiday home beautiful and inviting. Our budget-friendly, easy tips will have you ready for guests in no time at all.

This post contains some of our favorite products and vendors for your shopping convenience. We truly appreciate when you help us support our blog by choosing to shop with us.

Want to see more of Julie’s and my best Christmas decorating? Enjoy Julie’s Christmas Home Tour, our Holiday Home tours from last year here, Julie’s Christmas Home Tour 2016 and Jodie’s Christmas Home Tour 2016.

Fun Side Note: My Holiday Home Tour from last year is currently featured on a 12-page spread in the holiday edition of Cottages and Bungalows magazine. Grab a copy this December and enjoy.

 

Make a Festive Entrance to Your Holiday Home

The keys to creating an inviting holiday front door are simple:

1. Choose your color scheme and stick to it.
2. You can’t go wrong with the colors of the season.
3. Bring the space to life with faux or real plants.
4. Frame the door like I did here.
5. Add some lights so it looks good greeting guests day or night.

See? It really is simple when you break it down.

Budget-Friendly Holiday Home Decor

I know I’ve told you this before but stick to a tight budget. And I know many of you do too. Whether you are frugal by choice or necessity it doesn’t matter. Regardless of my circumstances I never like to go overboard on spending.

With that said, I love to show how with a few key accessories and creativity you can create magic.

The Importance of Pillows in your Holiday Home Decor

You have heard me say this before too, but I’ll just say it again to make sure.

PILLOWS ARE EVERYTHING.

You’ve seen me completely change the look of my rooms over and over again just by swapping out my pillows, so the proof is in the pictures. Pillows are powerful, relatively inexpensive and easy (they’re called throw pillows for a reason).

Have storage issues? Save space and money by getting in the habit of buying seasonal covers only. An entire stack of pillow covers takes up less room than one extra pillow.

Holiday Home: Use What You Have Creatively

In order to create the Christmas display above I spent very little. I reused items that I already owned and use all year long, but in new and creative ways:

• Filled my glass canisters with inexpensive snow and little twinkle lights
• Framed the entire cart with lights
• Repurposed an old wreath that had seen better days but looks great here
• Bought an inexpensive felt pom-pom garland for a few dollars that packs a wow
• Used my tin Christmas banner from last year

Easy as pie. And by reusing what I already owned and employing my creative juices I kept it well within budget. High five (insert appropriate emoji here).

 

Turn Everyday Areas into Festive Displays

This family gallery wall and decorative seating area sits proudly in the center of our home. I love swapping items out seasonally to reflect the mood of the moment and to keep things interesting. Once again, I achieved fresh appeal without spending a lot.

I created a festive “frame” with some retro globe lights (I specifically chose a dark cord so it would contrast with the light walls). I used what I owned except for the two new trees. The two little basket-held trees are Julie’s and my favorite new décor of the year. A staple like these are a great investment as we know they will get reemployed year after year. Shop the trees and lights conveniently below.

Festive Holiday Vignettes

Truth be told, this sweet vignette is a personal favorite. We’re allowed our favorites. My heart beats just a little bit faster each time I look at it, whether in pictures or real life. Happens every once in a while, when I become smitten by my own décor. Shop some of our favorites below.

 

For this vignette, it all started with this beautiful wreath from Jessica @the.accidental.farmgirl. Wreaths are a huge part of my Christmas decor every year, and when I saw this pompom wreath I knew exactly where it would go. The wreath is linked in our shop. Once I had the wreath the rest of the decor just flowed. I chose creams and neutrals with gray accents. And just a touch of red. Done and done.

Have Fun Decorating Your Holiday Home

Julie and I are surprised how often people contact us with decorating questions, and we can hear the sheer panic in their messages. Our best advice is this:

• Worry less
• Follow your heart
• Trust your instincts
• There really are no rules, at least none that matter.
• Express yourself and care less about what others think. It’s you that matters.
• If you’re not having fun decorating, start the list again.

When you let go of the fear of “breaking rules” and the worry of pleasing others, you free yourself to start enjoying the process. Allow yourself to develop. Decorators aren’t born overnight, but they grow from practice, patience and a passion for decorating (the three P’s).

Holiday Home Tree and My Inspiration

I’ll be very honest with you: I’m not much of a planner. I live and decorate organically. In other words, my life is a free for all. But before the holidays I actually did a fair amount of brainstorming. I wanted to have at least a guiding inspiration before I began decorating. Plus, I had to gather my supplies.

Click Below to shop my King of Christmas tree.

I asked myself what I truly love in decor, and thought, well, besides pillows (and we’ve already been through that) flowers. I am all about flowers. Why not infuse Christmas with florals? In my imagination I could see my beautiful floral tree taking shape.

I went straight to Afloral.com to shop. They have an incredible selection of silk flowers that are the most beautiful and most life-like I have ever seen. I selected an assortment of roses, cottage roses, peonies, and dahlias. For my color palette I began to picture rich, bold colors that would create lots of pretty contrasts. I started gathering flowers in deep burgundy, rich plum and mixing different hues of white, cream and soft pinks.

 

 

The Best Tree Accessory: Presents

Want to know how to give your tree that extra “je ne sais quoi?” Just add a pile or two of beautifully wrapped presents underneath for the perfect touch. I used a combination of white, traditional red and green plaid, and black & white plaid. I added burgundy velvet ribbon and real & faux greens. Et voila.

 

 

 

My Holiday Home: Basket Tree Collar

Do you see my natural woven basket tree collar peeking out from under the tree? When Julie visited last year for Christmas, she surprised me with it. Not only does it look great, but it reminds me of Julie and her sweet generosity. Shop the same one below.

Puppies Make Great ‘Tree Accessories’ Too

 

What do you do when your brother brings over his new little pug puppy and she decides to curl up under your Christmas tree? You take pictures, of course. Fifi is actually my sister-in-law’s cute little pug. It only took Fifi a few minutes after getting the lay of the land to find the absolutely softest spot in the whole house. When I found her curled up on my new hand knit chunky knit tree skirt from Becozi I just about died from the cuteness.

Everyone knows that these 100% Merino wool hand knit blankets are super soft and luxurious, but now I understand why they make the best dog beds too. You can shop Becozi’s entire line of chunky knit blankets, throws and products and don’t forget to use our coupon code TWINS10 for 10% off your whole order. And if you are interested in learning how to arm-knit your own be sure to read my Arm-Knitting blog post. I share everything you need to know to arm-knit your first blanket.

I added little sprigs of greenery to the simple ribbons to complete the package detail. You can use faux or real sprigs, whatever you have on hand. I’ve always loved the look of pine added to Christmas presents. Not only do they look festive, but they smell good too.

Our Best Tips for Creating a Magical Tree

(Julie helped me with these)

1. Think outside the box. You don’t have to stick to “ornaments”
   • Ornaments can be anything
   • The more original the more fun
2. What do you love? To truly make your tree speak your language make it personal.
   • Is your family musical? Roll up sheets of music tied with bows.
   • Are you a vintage lover? Cover the tree with antique items, not just antique ornaments but your favorite items from around the house. Items too big and heavy for the tree itself you can arrange underneath in fun ways.
3. Balance the tree, place items in overlapping diamond-shape patterns all over the tree.
4. When is it enough? It’s a very personal decision, but we recommend taking your time to decide.
   • Build your tree over the span of a few days
   • Allow time for your eye to adjust and time to play
5. There are no rules, pretty soon we’ll be known as “The No-Rules Twins” and we won’t mind. Seriously, have fun and make it your own (those are the only rules).

The Kitchen Eating Nook Gets All Dolled Up for the Holidays

As you can see, I carried my theme of rich colors like burgundy and fuchsia into the kitchen eating nook. These colors create such a bold statement when paired with white. Flowers and velvet ribbon give everything a rich elegant twist to my otherwise casual modern black kitchen table and chairs. To make these fun festive pine cone ribbon chair decorations take a look at my blog post. And those cut crystal trees add the perfect wow factor, don’t you think? When the sun comes in it reflects off the cut glass and literally sparkles sending light bouncing off the ceiling and all over the room. Talk about magical. Shop them right here.

 

Holiday Fun in My Master Bedroom

A Few of My Favorite Things in My Holiday Home

Center stage is this fabulous hand-made pom-pom banner that Julie & I picked up in the most wonderful in Notting Hill, London, England called Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillipsinteriors. On a side note, I just have to take a moment to say how absolutely lovely Katrina is. By the time we left the store not only were we simply stunned by her talent, but we had made a dear friend. If you ever find yourselves in London Katrina Phillips is a “must see” and please tell Katrina Jodie and Julie say, “We miss you!”

I carried the floral theme into the bedroom using extra flowers I had from my Afloral stash. I love how my beautiful handmade gray linen shams from Rhonda @hallstromhome look good no matter what I have going on in here (a feature not lost on this practical girl’s heart). Find her amazing collection of linens and handmade decor on her website, www.hallstromhome.com.

Use our coupon code to save 10% at Hallstrom Home:  THEDESIGNTWINS

Hoping to Inspire Your Holiday Home

What do I love almost as much as creating fun & festive decor? Sharing it with all of you, in hopes that it inspires you to create holiday magic in your own homes.

For the next stop on our tour we hope you will have fun visiting our friend Karan at Designs by Karan. Enjoy.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Buon Natale!

Whatever your language may the true spirit of love, thankfulness,

and giving be alive in your hearts this season and throughout the year.

With love and blessings for a Wonderful New Year!

Magical & Merry Holiday Home Tour

Brought to you by:

The Belmont Ranch | The Design Twins | Designs by Karan | Grace In My Space | Happy Happy Nester | Jor Decor | The Little White Farmhouse | My Vintage Porch | So Much Better With Age