Transforming Your Home for the Holidays: Creative Interior Design Ideas for Festive Décor

Are you looking to surround yourself with the holiday spirit? One of the most impactful ways to do that is to incorporate some festive interior design for the holiday season. Green River Builders looked to our interior design experts for a few helpful holiday décor ideas and Christmas decorating tips to make your home merry and bright in time for Santa to shimmy down your chimney…

Deck the Halls: A Traditional Christmas

While the tune dates back to the 16^th century, Scottish songwriter Thomas Oliphant contributed the English lyrics for Deck the Halls in 1862. As the song suggests, “Deck the Halls with boughs of holly,” you can lean into natural materials to decorate your home’s interior. Apart from boughs of holly, you can visit your local live Christmas tree lot to curate your tree, pine branches for your mantle and dining room table centerpieces, and live wreaths for your front and interior doors. You can also go on a pine cone hunt and trim holly branches to augment your wreaths and centerpieces. To enhance the historic feel of your Christmas décor, consider using Edison bulbs on your tree alongside garlands of popcorn and cranberries (a fun craft with the kiddos). You can’t go wrong with poinsettias set about your home for even more visual appeal. Aromas are another powerful tool for setting a mood. Create your own simmering holiday potpourri in a crock pot loaded with apple cider, cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice berries, orange slices, fresh cranberries, and rosemary sprigs to fill your home with the heavenly scents of the season.

Winter Wonderland Elegance

If you prefer a more sophisticated feel to your holiday décor, you can create the feel of a winter wonderland by using a key color palette, velvet throws and pillows, and snowflake-themed decorations. Consider incorporating a color story of white or off-white and Tiffany blue with metallic punches of silver or gold to suggest snow on a moonlit night. Velvet throws and pillows lend a cozy yet cultured feel to your living spaces. Our designers love these white snowflake tree ornaments and snowflake ceramic lighted decorative sets for your mantle from Crate & Barrel. You can tastefully carry the snowflake theme throughout your home, in shower curtains, comforters, and even tableware. Pine branches and wreaths will enhance the feel of a moonlit snowy forest while adding the aroma of freshly cut pine to your home.

Rustic and Cozy

For a more homey feel, look to rustic yet classic lodge décor for inspiration. Incorporate red and black buffalo check and traditional plaid flannels in your textiles, use rough-hewn wood accents and ornaments for the tree, set lanterns with an antique feel about your living spaces, and hang burlap or knitted stockings from the mantle. Remember that when creating a cozy feel, there is no such thing as too many throw pillows and blankets. Once again, natural greenery plays an influential role when setting a tone. Acorns and pinecones – whether natural or manufactured – make excellent additions to your tree, wreaths, and garlands. Load up those bedrooms with holiday-themed blankets and quilts or ones that match your color story. Add vintage pieces like an antique sled and rustic signs to lend a kitschy yet tasteful touch.

Modern Minimalism

With the explosion of the minimalist movement in interior design, simplified seasonal décor choices have become more plentiful in recent years. If this design style appeals to you, chances are you’re already starting with the ideal foundation – a neutral backdrop. Stripped-down Christmas trees that hearken back to Charlie Brown’s famed Christmas tree, adorned simply in white lights and metallic ornaments – gold against an ivory backdrop, silver against a pale gray backdrop, or either against a white backdrop – is the way to go for this unpretentious, yet elegant holiday design style. Natural pine branches on the dining room table and fireplace mantle will go a long way in further enhancing your décor. A well-placed throw and pillow in colors that make sense with your décor can lend an undeniable cozy factor. Traditional Christmas colors like a holly berry red or hunter green will really POP against your neutral backdrop if the festive season leaves you feeling open to adding a little color. While in the spirit of keeping it simple, you should endeavor to place little touches of Christmas throughout your home – like a pine bough hung above the windows in secondary bedrooms.

Holiday Lighting Magic

Since the creation of the candle, lighting has played an important role in Christmas décor. In the 18^th century, Williamsburg residents placed candles in every window to light during the night. And when Edward H. Johnson invented the first electric Christmas lights in 1882, he really changed the game. Flameless candles can enhance the warm and welcoming feel of your home’s interior, particularly when placed inside an antique lantern or mason jar. Of course, one of the best lighting sources this time of year is the glow from your family room fireplace. Holiday lighting magic isn’t limited to the twinkling lights and candles you add to each space or display in each window. Take your existing lighting – like the chandelier over your dining room table or pendant lamps over your kitchen island – and give them a festive holiday makeover by adding greenery, colored ribbons, and ornaments that make sense with the rest of your décor to draw everyone’s eyes to those beautiful design accents.

If you use any of the Christmas design ideas above, we’d love for you to snap some photos, post them to your Facebook page, and tag us @GreenRiverBuilder. Green River Builders encourages you to bookmark our blog at www.GreenRiverBuilder.com for even more interior design tips. If you’re hoping to be in a beautiful new home in time for NEXT Christmas, contact our sales team at info@platinumkeyteam.com to learn more about our communities throughout metro Atlanta and schedule a tour of one or more of our model homes!

From all of us here at Green River Builders and Platinum Key Realty, we wish you and yours a Happy Holiday Season!

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