For some reason, I really wanted to decorate for Christmas this year. I rarely do it because it seems like a lot of money to spend for ambience you only keep around for a month or so. This year, I wanted to at least have a full tree (I’ve only had tabletop ones on the past). Since it would’ve cost more than I wanted to spend, I figured I’d just wait until after the holiday to score some clearance deals and then go at it next year.
But then someone loaned me a tree and I was as happy as a little girl. I did my Sprockets dance, planned my decor theme, went shopping for ornaments, and cued the 90s Christmas station on Pandora. A Christmas without Mariah Carey just cannot be done.
Staying true to form, I decided not to go all out. I prefer holiday decor that coordinates with your normal decor, so I chose black, white, silver, and gold. This palette allows the decor to flow seamlessly with the rest of my living room and dining room, which is done in neutrals. For the style, I chose modern and geometric–mid-century modern and Scandinavian influences. Nothing too flashy but still sparkly enough to be festive. Also, since it’s a small guy, I stood it on an end table. It just didn’t look proportionate with the rest of the room on the floor.
All the gold and silver ornaments came from the Dollar Store and were a major score. They’re plastic but you can’t really tell unless you inspect them up close. Apparently the trend is “shatterproof” ornaments, which are really just plastic. Since the tree is small, the ornaments couldn’t be too large. Scale is important– no big balls here. The gold ornaments are actually a light shade of gold, not brassy at all. This pleased me, since I’ve used this champagne color often in my regular decor.
I couldn’t find any black and white ornaments, not even plain ones, except for snowmen or penguins. So I scoured Pinterest and found a tutorial for these DIY color-blocked wood ornaments from Tara Victoria that suited my decor. They were very easy to do, even without painters tape. I’ll probably paint some more next year since they aren’t as prominent as I’d like.
Next, I created a makeshift tree skirt from a throw blanket, scored for $5 at Walmart. Originally, I was going to sew one up with some fabric, but wasn’t very impressed with the choices at the store. So I bought the this instead, spending much less and saving much time. This geometric print fits right in and bonus: I can use this bad boy any time of the year.
To complete the tree’s look, I needed a tree topper. I found a tutorial to make these Sputnik decorations from Martha Stewart, tweaked it a bit and made black and white versions for my tree and wall pass-through (see below). The topper isn’t not formally secured on there, but I don’t own cats or live in earthquake country, so it should stay put pretty well.
After getting the tree together, I wanted to do more Christmas decorating. It is contagious, no? I continued the MCM theme into my kitchen/living room with the wall pass-through. Here, I laid a fake pine garland, added some lights, milk glass vases, and the glitter Sputniks. It’s subtle, but has the perfect amount of glitz for my liking.
The Sputnik decorations took more time to make than the wood ornaments, but they were still fun… even with all the glitter going viral. I started wondering what my hysterectomy scar would look like covered in glitter. I had to take a breath and accept that not everything can be coated in this sparkly wonder. I may need a 12-step program after this.
I added a few more steps to Martha’s tutorial because it just wasn’t cutting it—my extra fine glitter didn’t cover everything 100%. Plus, once they were dry, some of the glitter rubbed off the toothpicks. To resolve this, I painted each toothpick the matching color after gluing into the styrofoam ball, let them dry, applied Mod Podge and glitter, and then a final coat of Mod Podge to seal. Also, instead of using craft glue to add the beads, I used a smidge of hot glue. This allowed the beads to set securely and instantly. Just be careful not to overdo the hot glue.
That’s it for this year, but I’m sure I’ll extend my holiday stash for 2017–and start much earlier in the season. What style holiday decor do you like? What colors did you decorate with? Do you love glitter as much as I do?
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Filed under: Dining Room, DIY, holidays, Living Room, Tutorials
