TRANSFORMATIVE TRIMMINGS
Learn how to turn an everyday cupboard into a merry and bright showcase for your favorite primitive and Colonial treasures.
See how one cupboard can be styled two ways, allowing both primitive and Colonial selections to take center stage for the season.
One of the great benefits of adorning a country home for Christmas is the decorating style’s versatility. Living a country-inspired lifestyle lends itself well to intermingling decor that gives a definitive nod to the past with accessories that represent today’s marketplace. Whether you gravitate toward primitive wares or are partial to Colonial artifacts, these two popular and beloved looks serve as perfect canvases on which to incorporate a variety of Yuletide flourishes.
Practical and easy to embellish, there is no better place to start your decorating than in a favorite cupboard. Treat its shelves just like the branches of your Christmas tree and add your favorite heirlooms and decorations to fashion a showstopping celebration of the season.
A cupboard can be thought of as a large shadow box and an ever-changing display space—a frame surrounding a stage to show off your best pieces. We’ve picked two distinct motifs, true-blue primitive country and a more formal Colonial, and bedecked one cupboard in two ways to embody each style. Both revamps rely on familiar collectibles, fresh greens and natural elements, which are all easily accessible items that don’t require spending a lot of money.
To begin the transformation, look through your home for anchor pieces, keeping in mind that accessories need not be Christmas-related to work well in a holiday scheme. For a rustic look, try bowls, crocks, cutting boards and baskets. For a more refined setting, incorporate platters, candlesticks, urns and vases.
Choose a diverse mix of collectibles in different shapes and sizes to dress the scene. Select a color theme that you can use throughout to unify objects and create continuity. Red ornaments and textiles and yellowware bowls offer a color lift to dark primitives, while white and blue dinnerware and silver and brass candlesticks provide Colonial elegance.
Natural trimmings such as evergreens, boxwood clippings, pinecones and fruits can be gathered from your backyard or purchased from a garden center or grocery store. These inexpensive items will come in handy when filling containers to create bountiful mini arrangements for each shelf.
No matter which country style best suits your decorating preferences, any cupboard or cabinet can come alive with the Christmas spirit with little extra expense. Simply pull from existing pieces and embellish with natural elements to create festive groupings that will be a feast for the senses.
Country stoneware crocks can hold a small tree or contain delicious treats to pass around to guests.
Prim & Pretty
This primitive-look cupboard features mini vignettes on each shelf, all of which work in unison. Breadboards abound as backdrops for an array of other browntoned accents, such as a basket, pinecones, bottles and vases. A simple cranberry garland draped along the top complements its companion piece lying on the bottom shelf. Repeat objects, colors and greenery to connect the entire piece as one focal point. To offer visual interest to the compartments, we selected pieces that encompass a variety of materials: ceramic, glass, paper, wood, wicker and leaves. The combination of textures appeals to the sense of touch and keeps the eye moving around the compartments.
In keeping with the Colonial theme, apples make for appealing fill-ins for glitzy holiday ornaments.
Cultivated Colonial
This Colonial-style cupboard shows a flair for European antique items that colonists may have brought with them when they immigrated to this country. A pineapple and fresh laurel garland are reminiscent of a Williamsburg Christmas celebration and offer a traditional sign of welcome. We opted to forgo a standard wreath on the door and instead hung an oldtime portrait of a U.S. Army officer topped with a sprig of greenery. Fruit is a common object seen in Colonial Christmas decorating, so we perched golden pears on brass and silver candlesticks.
Hues You Can Use
Rely on a color thread to unite diverse pieces. In this case, we chose contrasting black and cream to connect a collection of finer country antiques. The wrapping paper features the same tones that are found in the tureen, goblet and framed silhouette to pull the look together.
Another Way
For an alternate display that incorporates the treasures found in the cupboard, we combined several pieces that represent the Colonial aesthetic. The interplay of colors and materials makes for a festive arrangement that can easily enhance a tabletop.