Matthew Mead offers inspiration for transitioning your holiday decor to welcome winter.
Convert your holiday decor into attractive winter vignettes with the help of natural goods and your country collections.
After the hustle and bustle of the holidays winds down, it’s typically
time to strip your home of its festive trimmings and pack them away until the following year. This transition often leaves your space feeling empty and cold while snow season has just begun to set in. But, you can chase away the chill by infusing some warmth into your winter rooms with decorative vignettes that will carry your home well into the new year.
Take your cues from what is happening outdoors, and consider a light, textural look where natural elements, including twigs, pinecones and bark, become focal points and styling elements. Add some faux snow or whitewash to select pieces for a “frosty” winter glow.
If you’re tightening your purse strings after holiday spending, don’t worry. Most of these ideas can be adapted to incorporate items you already own, and the add-ons can be picked up at your local supermarket or crafts store. It’s often surprising how pieces you’ve had for years can look revived once relocated and restyled. Many country collectibles benefit from being combined, so search your home for items that may have never been displayed together. Gather what you have, pick a tabletop or shelf, and then create a spot of cheer in your post-holiday home.
Under Glass
For Christmas, a glass garden cloche might host a wee bottle-brush tree and greens. Simply swap that out for a little log cabin and faux snow for a cozy lodge look. Don’t forget to change up the trim on the cloche top to a more rustic ribbon. For additional winter appeal, you might use the cloche to showcase some pinecones or a pretty vintage book with a winter theme.
Woodland Wonderland
Open shelving decked in red and white for Christmas makes a seasonal shift to focus on birch bark. Gather your own fallen pieces of bark or purchase some at a crafts or floral store. Cover a foam cone to fashion a rustic topiary or wrap pillar candles for an outdoorsy look. Replace greens with faux snow and keep some of the same containers on view—just pair them with materials that play up the rough-hewn textures.
Serene Scene
Create calm within a step-back cupboard by switching the golden tones of yellowware for creamy ironstone. Take out the fresh-cut greens and incorporate wood cutting boards and plates for a textural touch. Seek out uniquely carved pieces at flea markets and antiques shops, and use these items as contrasting backdrops. Layer your ironstone pieces in graduated stacks to add interest, and fill them with pinecones, twigs or white stone marbles. Mix in drifts of faux snow and a few DIY snowballs, with wispy feather trees tucked here and there. As you work on your winter vignette, keep the austere beauty of the natural world in mind— snow-blanketed earth, bare branches, lots of shadows and silhouettes etched by sunlight shining on buildings and trees.
Side of Nature
A kitchen sideboard is dressed for the holidays with a peasant runner, boxwood wreath and oaken bucket. To recast this scene in a less festive light, simply remove the red and green elements. Bring in white bowls, platters or pedestal dishes, and recycle pinecones, nuts and twigs from past seasonal decor. Trade the fresh boxwood wreath for a woodland version made of bark or cut pieces of branches. Finish with a sprinkling of faux snow to soften all the wood elements and hearty stoneware.
Frosty Frolic
A wall shelf looks just as cheerful when ironstone replaces beige stoneware and miniature mittens fill in for jaunty gingerbread folk. A pinecone placed on end in an early mug becomes an instant topiary and a mix of snowballs and faux snow brightens the scene. Add in unexpected elements such as branches with dried fruits, wooden carved ornaments or wild critters.
Snowball Effect
Make no-melt snowballs with foam balls, white glue, Epsom salt and glitter. In a large bowl, mix together 1 to 2 cups of Epsom salt and 1/2 cup of glitter. Coat the foam balls with white glue and roll in salt/glitter mixture. Dry on a cookie sheet for 24 hours and display in a pottery bowl or wooden trencher. Add berries and greens to provide spots of seasonal color.