White Christmas: Cool decor brings outside in
Use cool neutral as base for endless variations
A home in the Glenora neighbourhood took its cues for holiday decorating from the snowy magic of an Edmonton winter.
The house, on a quiet street overlooking a ravine, drew on tones of silver, crystal and white to bring the natural beauty of the outdoors in.
Glass reindeer posed like miniature ice sculptures on table tops, clear lights glimmered from behind a room divider fashioned from imitation branches, and a cluster of plump wintry toy owls nestled in a big crystal bowl.
A feather wreath — the colour of a swan’s wing — hung on one wall of a double-sided fireplace, while the other side was festooned with plush, ivory stockings, large enough to handle whatever Santa brings.
Even the dining room table was laid out in finery fit for a winter feast. Snow-white china rested on silver charger plates, crystal goblets glinted in the light of white pillar candles and sparkly stars hung on the backs of chairs.
The house was one of five opened to the public in November on the Homes for the Holidays tour, a fundraising event for the Junior League of Edmonton and the Kids Help Phone.
Its winter wonderland decor was the work of Maureen Wright and Johanne Lewis, owners of Mojo Design. Items were loaned by retailers, including Signature Lane Interiors. Flowers were provided by Wallish Greenhouse, Greenland Garden Centre and Kensington Flowers.
The home was not only a hit with tour-goers. Valerie, who owns it with her husband, Peter, saw the winter-white theme as a delightful departure from her own traditional holiday decor.
“This is more modern, more hip, more contemporary,” Valerie says. “But absolutely stunning.
“The designers came in here and knew immediately that they wanted to do a white Christmas.”
With large windows looking east toward a ravine where ice-capped trees sway in the wind, the decorating theme chose itself, Lewis says.
“It was our inspiration,” she says of the outdoor setting.
For many people, holiday decor is an eclectic mix of the old and new, gaudy and sophisticated: Pine cones the kids painted hang on the tree next to Great Aunt Em’s delicate, glass baubles. Evergreen wreaths wrapped in merry bands of gold and silver welcome people at the door and red and green candles cast a festive glow. It’s a happy free-for-all of colour and style.
There’s no right or wrong way to decorate for the holidays, Wright says.
“It’s just a time to celebrate and have fun,” she says.
But the designers were happy to share some of their tips on how to reinvent Christmas decorating from one year to the next. “Pick a theme,” says Wright. “We picked white, but you could pick snowmen, you could pick a colour, you could pick an animal, and just run with it.”
The white backdrop the designers used in the Glenora house gave them a blank slate on which to work their magic. “With the white you could always add purple, you could always add green, you could always add a different colour,” Lewis says.
That gives you the option of changing the look if you tire of it, they say.
“Next year, if we took all the same decorations that we had and we decided we want to do hot pink as our colour, we could tie hot pink ribbons around the owls’ necks, around the reindeers’ necks, around the wreaths,” Wright says.
“Then we’ve changed the whole scheme and the whole look but we really didn’t spend a lot more money.”
Use white lights on the tree, advises Wright. “It’s something that is going to cost you as an investment in the beginning but it’s something that you will use year after year and if you keep your lights clear, you can always add whatever colour you want,” she says.
Incorporating a few current holiday trends into your decor updates the look, too, says Lewis, who points to the designers’ use of some of this year’s more popular items such as owls, reindeer and feathers. The designers crafted large feather wreaths, which hung on the fireplace and doors, and saved money in the process, Wright says.
“We just took a wire frame from a craft store and feather boas from a dollar store and wrapped them,” she says.
“Those big wreaths, if you were out to buy one, they would probably cost you about $100, but we were able to do them for probably about $25. If you did a smaller one, it would just be a fraction of the cost.”
Even those on a limited budget can enjoy the season, Wright says. “String popcorn, cranberries, candy canes on the tree and make cookies and hang cookies on string.
“It will look gorgeous and it would bring an old-fashioned feel, but it would be something that most people could afford.”
And don’t forget the sparkle. “You know, anything that you add lights to, just gives you that twinkle and that Christmasy feel,” Wright says.