The first photo shows the stair rail before.  Be sure to move anything that can be damaged during the decorating process before you start.  We moved a pair of chairs that flank the draped table, as well as the lamp and other accessories that sit on the table to prevent breakage.  Our stair presents a wonderful challenge because of the curve.  Curves are a little more difficult because the drape of the swags can’t always be measured before putting up the greenery.  You have to look at it after each swag to make sure everything is in the right position.  Our secret is to make the swags between four and five feet wide.  We count the pickets on the railing, and divide out how many we need have between each drape to get them all about even.

The second photo shows the stairs after we have draped the garland.  I prefer having the garland in swags like this rather than running straight across the top of the banister.  When the garland completely covers the hand rail, there is no place to hold on when you are climbing the stairs; and if you do hold on, you mess up the decoration.  Placing the garland on top of a banister is not a practical solution. It is best to have the swags on the outside of the stair rail for two reasons:  (1) typically the most visible part of the stair rail is the outside, and (2) the garlands will be less likely to be rubbed against on the outside.  I prefer a nice deep swag with the greenery.  This always gives a luxurious look, and provides a lot of surface area that will hold other types of decorations like ribbon, ornaments, and berries.  Be sure to make “tails” out of the greenery that go from the top of the hand rail to the floor when you are doing the stairs.  Again, this always has a full and luxurious look, but it provides a practical solution for getting the light cords down to the floor if you want to light the garland.  We put the lights on the garland after it is hung on the stairs.  We run plain clear lights first, and then use a more decorative type light bulb as well after that is complete.  We chose the large clear pinecone shaped lights which give a nice bright look, and the glass bulbs add a dressed up element to the garland.  We keep our garland in one piece when we take it down, so if you can get the lights to work out so they fit the garland in one piece, it will make putting the decoration up the following year a breeze.  Be sure to keep the ties you use to hang the swags on the garland in the correct position.  Label which end goes at the top of the stairs and which at the bottom, and putting up the garland the following year will be a snap.

After the swags are up and the lights on, bows and ribbon should be put on.  We used five different ribbons for our stairs this year.  All of the ribbons have wired edges, which makes tying the bow very easy.  To learn how to tie the bow, watch my bow tying video further down in the blog.  Position the bows at the top, and work the streamers into the garland.

We have a pair of antique Italian cherubs that we use at the top of the stairs.  These add a playful element to the garland in that they look as if they are the ones putting up the decoration.  I love this sort of playful character in Christmas decorations.  You could use any sort of sculptural piece like this and get a similar effect.  The ribbons are worked in around the angels so that all of the angel is visible.

The next photo shows how the tails of the bows can be worked into the garland.  This serves the purpose of helping to keep them in place so they don’t get messed up during the season, and really adds a sense of movement to the garland.  We used multi colored ornaments in the same colors as our foyer on this garland, and hung them throughout the garland.  They are somewhat evenly spaced, but don’t get them too perfect or you will loose the artistic quality this garland has.  You can also tuck in sprigs of a different type of greenery and some berries if you want to add a little more color.  One year we placed the ornaments just around the bows in clusters.  This was a great look also, but this year, we decided to make it fresh and use the ornaments throughout.

The last photo shows our completed stair rail.  Notice how we added a bow to the lamp on the foyer table to tie that into the overall design of the decoration.  The nice deep green swags, the full bows, and the layers of ornaments on this garland really make a statement when you enter the foyer.  What a great place to say Merry Christmas and Welcome.

To decorate for Christmas, I prefer to not put the everyday decorations of a house away.  I often see people take a beautiful picture down over their fireplace for Christmas so they can put up a wreath.  Typically the wreath is not as pretty as the picture was, and all of a sudden, the focal point in the room becomes less spectacular instead of more interesting.  To avoid this problem, I often decorate the wall sconces over a fireplace.  If you don’t have sconces, you could use a garland over the mantle.

The photo above, and the ones following show three different rooms in the same home.  The home is a Colonial Williamsburg style home in which the owner wanted to maintain the original house trim colors of red, blue, and green.  We colored the decorations to compliment these tones.

The first photo is in the library.  There is an early print of Times Square over the fireplace, and two authentic Williamsburg sconces.  For Christmas, we added a branch of greenery to each sconce to act as our base.  We simply cut about a 24″ section of garland to use as this piece and wrapped it around the arms of the sconce.  The greenery will hold everything you use to decorate it with in place.  We then tucked in gold icy twigs and red glittery berries.  Voila!  A beautiful Christmas mantle.

The next four photos show wall sconces in the kitchen.  Again, these are associated with a fireplace, but this same type of application would work on bathroom sconces, a bedroom, or hallway. 

The first photo shows a sconce with greenery only on it.  We used garland to create the greenery base.  This is a piece about 48″ long that we wrapped around the arm of the sconce.  Make sure you fluff out the garland.  You can not get this look and not fluff the garland.  You have to pull each branch and straighten it out to make it really full.  This rule applies to any artificial greenery you use.  The next photo shows the sconce after we applied the ribbons.  This is a kitchen, with colors inspired by the antique French poster.  We used a red velvet ribbon with a fuzzy white edge, a red grosgrain ribbon with white polka dots, a red and green plaid, and a red and white stripe ribbon.  Don’t be afraid to put multiple ribbons together.  Play with it and have fun with the colors.  It will look festive.  I only did one loop per side on this bow, but when it is fluffed out, it appears to have four loops per side because of using multiple ribbons, so it is really full.  I used tails that were about 24″ long each, and worked them into the falls of the greenery.  The next photo shows the sconce after we put on the ornaments.  We used all sorts of kitchen inspired ornaments such as gingerbread men, cupcakes, and candy.  These look like you could eat them, so they are perfect for this setting.  The final photo in this group shows the pair of sconces with the antique poster that inspired the colors.  What fun!

The last photo in this post is of sconces in a living room.  We did a similar treatment to the first photo you saw of the library, but used less greenery, and instead of making the greenery be horizontal, we applied it in a more vertical fashion.  The small piece of greenery is attached to the arms of the sconces.  This holds all the other decorative pieces in place.  We added red hydrangea blossoms with glittery stems, and gold icy twigs.  It is very simple, but really adds a festive touch to the room.  We completed this mantle grouping by adding colorful ornaments to an antique bowl on the mantle.  The bowl was first filled with greenery to act as a base, and then the ornaments laid on top.  Be sure not to overfill the bowl.  A little less will look just as good.  You don’t want the ornaments to fall out if the bowl is moved.  The final details in this photo show that we added some sprigs of greenery, berries, and ribbon to the bookshelves.  It doesn’t take much of this to create a great look.  Just tuck a sprig of greenery behind some books or a figure or vase on the shelf, and do that two or three times in each shelving unit.  It creates the look of Christmas decorations without removing anything from the shelves. 

Remember to have fun while doing your Christmas decorations.  We always play Christmas music to get us in the spirit.  Have fun with your family and friends, and create something beautiful in the process.

 This post will show you one way to decorate a mantle for Christmas.  To help you understand the spirit of the design, I want to tell you a little about the house.  This is a Colonial Williamsburg style home that is less than 10 years old.  My client purchased it about five years ago, and we completely renovated and expanded it.  They loved the original character of the home, including the painted moldings, and wanted to maintain all of those features.  Blue would not be my first choice for dining room trim, but it is historically accurate here, and honestly, I think the room would not be nearly as exciting without it.  My client loves color.  The more and brighter the better.  You will see in another post a different room where more color is apparent.  The dining room became the most sedate room in the house. 

The Christmas decorations I do for clients are typically reflective of both them and the home where they live.  I like to do things that at least hint at the color palette of the home, but at the same time add enough traditional Christmas colors that it reads “holiday.”  This post shows a series of five photos progressing through the process.  Photos are at the bottom of the post.

The first photo shows the mantle before decoration.  I have removed the two porcelain figures and the antique porcelain that usually reside on the mantle for safekeeping during the decorating process. 

The next photo shows the mantle after garland and ribbons have been applied.  The first step is to determine how you want the garland to look.  I prefer a luxurious look with the garland, which usually means it should have a nice swag to the center section and the tails should meet the floor and be just a tad bit longer than necessary.  This gives a lush, full look.  This garland is a nice quality artificial garland that is very believable.  We decorate this house before Thanksgiving, so there is no way a fresh garland would survive until Christmas.  You could do this same design with fresh if you prefer…just wait until about two weeks before Christmas to put it up.  The garland is a mixture of several different types of greenery and has large pine cones mixed in it which really add to the natural look.  You could easily take this garland to a rustic setting, but the natural feeling of it performs beautifully in this formal setting.  The garland is hung with two small nails with large heads at the back corners of the mantle shelf, near the wall.  Always put the nails in the top side of the mantle so the nail holes won’t show after Christmas.

Ribbon is the next step.  I used five different ribbons here.  There is a sheer yellow to tie in the yellow from the room, a blue and yellow silk check, a solid soft pinky red, gold metallic, and a rosy red that has a velvet damask pattern on it.  Don’t be afraid to mix different ribbons together.  It is a great way to get the colors of your home into the decorations.  I would recommend always using at least three different ribbons, and have used up to seven at a time.  My bow is made of only two loops per side.  When you have all the different ribbons, two loops per side equals 10 loops per side when it is fluffed out.  I use only ribbon that is French wired which means that the wire edge is actually woven into the ribbon.  These hold up so much better than ribbon that is not wired.  They can be packed away flat, and easily fluffed up the following year.  We have used these ribbons for three years, and they still look new.  You will want to include a tail on the bow that goes down the garland toward the floor.  I use the “branches” of the garland to bend around the ribbon to hold it in those bishop sleeve type loops that go down toward the floor.  The other tail can follow along side that one, but in this case, I used the same technique of folding a branch over the ribbon to drape it toward the center of the garland.  This gives an even distribution of color all around the fireplace.

The third photo is a detail of the ribbon and ornaments on the garland.  We used bright yellow solid glass balls, gold metallic balls, rosy red solid balls, glitter stars with mirrored centers, and a collection of White glass egg ornaments with blue decoration hand painted on them.  We used a lot of each ornament.  My client requested a “full look”, so this is heavily laden.  This could be effective with only a few ornaments scattered throught the garland.  There are about 10 of the gold balls, 15 of the rosy red, 15 gold metallic, 25 glitter stars, and 20 white eggs.

The fourth photo shows the mantle finished in the room.  You can see how the decoration blends beautifully with the room’s decor, and how the addition of the red makes it look holiday festive.  Notice how I added ribbon to the top of the mirror.  This is a great way to bring the decoration up and create an entire wall look without taking the actual greenery up and around the mirror.  It just ties everything together as a unit.

The last photo shows a closeup of the antique porcelain figures my client uses on the mantle, as well as the antique bowl.  We added ribbon to the figures to “animate” them.  All of a sudden, they feel like they are the ones who have decorated the mantle.  In the bowl, we tucked a few springs of greenery, and some of all the ornaments we used on the mantle.  I am a fan of using your everyday items during Christmas, and this is a great way to do that.  By adding ribbon to the figures, and putting ornaments in the bowl, you have “created” Christmas arrangements.

When you are decorating for the holidays, don’t be afraid to experiment.  Remember, it is only up a short time, so if it doesn’t turn out exactly perfect, it is ok.  Each time you try, you will get better at it, and before you know it, you will be the talk of the neighborhood.  Keep it fun, and something that is manageable for you.  It should also be something you like, and you should have fun doing it.