Snow Village Santa

Christmas Interior Decorating: a 3 Simple Step Guide on How to Find Your Inner Creative Inspiration That Will Impress Even Santa Claus!

So Santa Claus will be visiting soon and you have not finished (or started) decorating your home for your guests or for your enjoyment. Or perhaps you look around your home and feel as if there is something missing in your decoration.

Don’t panic!

Don’t hide in the closet!

Don’t try to wrap yourself in a box to avoid decorating!

Don’t grab the scissors and stare at the tangled Christmas lights!

Don’t put an extra something in the eggnog to try to calm your nerves!

Don’t eye the ornaments and imagine your family as targets!

Follow these 3 simple steps, practiced by elves at the North Pole in charge of interior decorating, in order to find your creative inspiration for decorating the interior of your home.

1st step

Remember your goal. The goal is to decorate so you LOVE walking into your home and inviting people to visit. Not just admiring the outside Christmas lights, but the heart of the home (the inside!!) … so you can FEEL that Christmas is near … so people can talk about how wonderful your home looks (hey, there is nothing wrong with having fans admire your creative unique interior decorations). You make your home special every time you decorate because no matter how many ideas an interior decorator may give you; it is ultimately your personality (as an individual or a family) that chooses the ultimate Christmas decorating design. No home can ever be decorated the same because we all have different personalities, styles, and tastes that inspire our creative heart to reach our desired goal.

2nd step

Narrow down a mood. The second step to finding your inner Christmas decorating inspiration is to narrow down a mood that you want to feel in the room. What emotion do you want to portray in the room? Do you prefer informal or formal. March of the Wooden Soldiers with Laurel & Hardy movie or White Christmas with Bing Crosby & Rosemary Clooney movie. Making your own gingerbread house or buying one already made.

Now remember, there is nothing wrong with combining two moods and styles as long as there is harmony. How do you go about doing that? Simple: pick your primary mood preference then throw “decor sprinkles” of your secondary preference. You prevent two moods from clashing when the secondary preference is introduced into the room in small amounts – which I call “decor sprinkles”. For example, say you want to decorate your home to reflect an elegant white Christmas look (the main mood preference is relaxed elegance) but you don’t want it to look too fancy (the second preference is a decor sprinkle of fun!).

You can:

Decorate your home with wreaths sprayed with snow and have white elegant fabric bows, with silver bells.  Place white felt fabric on all tables to resemble snow. Decorate your tree with clear Christmas lights, different shades of white & silver round ornaments, fresh cut white roses, beautiful soft doll angels with white feathered wings; and place under your tree presents wrapped in silver with white ribbons and bows. These are all primary mood preferences of elegance.

Then, add your décor sprinkles of fun! Add to your Christmas tree adorable snowmen figurine ornaments with red scarves and red roses that pick up the color of the red scarf on the snowmen; add mistletoe and red berry branches to the center of doorways; and insert small red & white stripped candy canes within your snow covered wreaths.  The red color is your little SPLASH of fun! Be careful not to overwhelm the sprinkle of your secondary preference – the holiday magic word is “subtle”. These are all secondary mood preferences of fun.

Remember, narrowing down what mood you and your family prefer for the current Christmas will inspire you and your family to start visualizing designs in your imagination that bring comfort and joy.

3rd STEP

Organize a decorating plan. Knowing the first two steps gives you a guide (a design blueprint!). So now you know your goal (1st step), and you know the direction of the mood you wish to use for your interior decoration (2nd step). The next step is to organize a decorating plan (3rd step).

How?

Look within yourself … or much easier (less meditation!) ... look within the boxes that contain last year’s Christmas decorations in order to organize your decorating plan. If you have a limited amount of decorations, then go window-shopping to sort through store decorations.

Take out all the decorations you have and sort out what you like and what you do not like.  As soon as you start to sort, you will receive inspirational decorating thoughts that will guide you to pick this year’s Christmas decoration   design plan that will impress even Santa Claus.

Search and sort by:

Mood. Sort the decorations by moods (which are fancy, elegant, relaxing, whimsical, funky, playful, etc).

Theme. Organize by theme (nutcrackers, snowmen, a Christmas village, indoor animations, reindeers, etc.)

Color. Separate each ornament or decoration with the color that stands out the most. This goes for Christmas lights as well – separate the multicolor Christmas lights from the single color Christmas lights.

Taking the time to search and sort through your Christmas decorations will:

• keep you from wanting to use every single décor you own and inspire you to save them for other Christmases to come.

• help you pick out what matches or doesn’t for your (a)  comfort (1st step - goal) and (b) preference (2nd step – mood).

• help you plan a design that harmonizes with your personality and furniture. Just because you have a red bow does not mean you have to use it. A red bow attached to a red lampshade will not stand out; whereas a white bow would be a noticeable contrast.

• make planning future Christmas decorating easy since you already went through the process of sorting and stored decorations by mood/theme/color.

• save you money since now you purchase with a plan in mind that match your goal and the mood that you want to portray in your current Christmas theme, instead of just grabbing any (or all) adorable Christmas decorations.

Perhaps you do not like an ornament that was given to you by a relative, but you feel obligated to have it as part of your Christmas interior décor. REMEMBER, it is your home … your comfort ... your creative Christmas décor. Do not let past gifts bully you into feeling that you “have to” display the item(s). Choose decorations that “YOU” want to represent in your home.

Extra Tip: if you have a guest that gave you a unique décor and he/she is planning to stay over for the holiday, then surprise them by decorating the guest room with the unique gift. They will wholeheartedly appreciate the thought you gave into displaying the gift, and feel happier during the happy holidays.

For additional Christmas interior decorating tips check out Christmas Interior Decorating Guide with Ideas that Will Impress Even Santa Claus!, visit: http://www.adasdecoratingsolutions.com/foryou.html

© 2007 Ada’s Interior Design, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Website: www.adasdecoratingsolutions.com

About the Author

Ada Gonzalez is the creative director of Ada's Interior Design, Inc. in New York. She designs solutions that provide comfort & function with a BIG SPLASH of style without having to spend hi-end prices on furniture & furnishings. Her designs have appeared in the Life & Style section of The Journal News and the Lohub Blog of Westchester County. In April 2007 she won a design competition called "Interior Motives". She was an Interior Decorating subject specialist for DETC (Distant Education Training Council) spring 2007. Her weekly newsletter called “Smart Decorating! E-News” is her way of reaching out and sharing decorating tips to people across the United States. To get more information go to www.adasdecoratingsolutions.com