Decorate the Designer Way This Holiday

Pick up genius holiday decorating tips from some talented designers who give you the inside line on celebrating the season in style.

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November 30, 2017

By: Felicia Feaster

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Photo By: David Christensen

Home for the Holidays Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Designer Showhouse and Marketplace

This grand estate in Atlanta's tony Buckhead neighborhood is the perfect location to show off the best in designer holiday decor. Step inside the Home for the Holidays Showhouse for some great ideas. The home dressed in all of its holiday finery is on view through December 10, 2017.

Mix Your Greenery

This festive reindeer sleigh is an exercise in abundance, with various types of greenery from lemon cypress to magnolia leaves and berries mixed in to this colorful but still naturalistic arrangement.

All About the Ribbon

Instead of investing in a variety of patterned gift wraps this year, try a neutral backdrop of white or brown craft paper wrapping paper and then invest in sumptuous fabric bows to ornament your gifts. Even, better, the ribbon can be used again and again.

Go Big or Go Home

The holidays demand you go all out and that is especially true with your containers, curated here by Boxwoods Garden and Gifts of Atlanta. Here evergreens of different varieties, along with oversized ornaments and outdoor-suitable ribbon give these zinc containers a luxurious look. Two bookend containers at your entryway inside or out can set the stage for a festive holiday welcome.

A Gift-Filled Greeting

We love designer Barbara Westbrook of Westbrook Interiors' idea of placing wrapped gifts in shades of millennial pink and silver under this table in the Home for the Holidays entry hall. The display instantly sets a holiday tone and demonstrates how elegantly wrapped, color-coordinated wrapped gifts can be used as decor throughout the house — not simply beneath the tree.

A Touch of Holiday Spirit

Not every room cries out for the full-on holiday treatment. This study from J. Wheeler Designs adds a little holiday magic without overwhelming the design. A simple amber vase filled with festive, colorful winterberry is all the ornament this stylish room—already accented with glamorous touches of gold—needs.

Fresh Guest Towels and Flowers

Make holiday visitors feel welcome by stocking your guest bath with fresh flowers or a pretty potted plant and a selection of freshly ironed monogrammed guest towels.

Decked Out Child's Room

Talented Atlanta designer Mallory Mathison created this themed Little Boy Blue bedroom decked out beautifully in child-friendly holiday style in Francophile shades of blue and red. Each twin bed comes with a charming lit Christmas tree with fire-safe LED lights. Parents can treat these trees as advent calendars and nestle a different gift for each day leading up to Christmas or Hanukkah in the boughs or at the foot of the tree. Children will love the cozy glow of the tree lights as they drift off to sleep and these trees also make the perfect holiday night light says Mathison. Rather than cut trees, Mathison used potted evergreens that can be planted in the garden when the holidays are over.

Accessorize With Vintage Toys and Decor

Christmas is the perfect opportunity to pull out those vintage mementoes you've kept tucked away in an attic or closet. Atlanta designer Mallory Mathison added a simple Target wreath to this classic hobby horse, accessorized with a bright red bow for the perfect seasonal touch in this little boy bedroom. Continuing the red theme, vintage twin beds have been painted a cheerful cherry red to beautifully contrast with the room's blue accents.

A Note for Pere Noel

Designer Mallory Mathison recommends teaching children about Christmas traditions around the world and designed her room with a charming French theme. A tray set out for Santa (aka Pere Noel) features macarons in place of the usual cookies.

A Luxurious Fur Throw

Designer Alice Cramer includes a soft and cuddly fur throw at the foot of the bed in this muted, grey-toned bedroom. As Cramer attests, the holidays don't have to be complicated. Use things you already have and just add the bling with seasonal touches. "Nothing prettier to a tabletop," says Cramer, "than simple glass containers of different sizes filled with cranberries, red berries, greenery and floating votive candles. Mix it in with silver service pieces filled with white flowers and various candlesticks." It's a look that works for a beautiful tabletop, or in accent tables in a guest room. Another great idea to add a touch of magic to a guest room: "If you happen to have a large window in your home, draping it with strings of white lights is so festive and fun."

Woodsy Elements Work for the Holidays

Davenport Designs turned this utilitarian mudroom and laundry into something special with these gorgeous lemon cypress topiaries in birch containers. Moss and feather accents and a cloche add more woodsy detail to this natural holiday display.

Modern Meets Natural

Designer Jimmy Stanton of Stanton Home Furnishings mixed these stylishly mod vases with traditional greenery and pine cones to create the perfect contrast. Don't force tradition on your modern or contemporary space: think of ways to blend some seasonal elements to suit your design.

Three Wreathes Are Better Than One

Bright green preserved boxwood wreaths linked with red ribbon are a wonderful alternative to a single wreath, especially when the door is as epic as this one.

Mix Old and New

Even if you live in a more contemporary home, the holidays are a wonderful opportunity to blend some classic details with your modern design. The holidays are about cherished traditions, the past and making new memories. Designer Mallory Mathison makes some memories of her own in this charming little boys' room that riffs on the colors of the French flag. Vintage elements like a red hobby horse and a preserved boxwood ball contained in a child's silver baby cup show how effortlessly classic touches can be intergrated into holiday decor.

Holiday Looks for Every Style

This ultra-stylish dining room from Kay Douglass Interiors makes a simple but very elegant nod to seasonal decor with these dramatic square vitrines filled with minimalist white Christmas balls.

Little Things Mean a Lot

What a difference the details make. Designer Alice Cramer recommends tucking bits of evergreen onto gift wrapped packages. "I love a simply wrapped gift with a sprig of greenery which adds a personal touch," says Cramer. And in this keeping room, design firm Shayelyn Woodbery Interiors uses that same idea at a table setting, tying a bit of evergreen with a pretty gold bow and bringing out the festive gold utensils to further amplify the holiday mood.

Dramatic Curb Appeal

This striking galvanized metal ball enclosing a boxwood and placed on a bed of pine straw brings real impact to this entryway.

A Fresh Take

This kitchen and breakfast room from Meredith McBrearty Interiors illustrates a simple lesson of holiday decor: you don't have to privilege the usual red and green or even silver and gold decor. A fresh clean palette of white and the unexpected detail of single flower stems tucked into bud vases is just the kind of festive touch that makes every surface and nook of your home holiday-ready.

Sentimental Touches

This chest of drawers in a little boys' bedroom by Mallory Mathison hosts a tableaux incorporating thoughtful details like a silver cup ornamented with a preserved boxwood orb, family photos, a vintage child's toy and the lovely, unexpected detail of fresh flowers. People don't often think of putting fresh flowers in a child's room, but designer Mathison says giving even small children access to nature—as well as to art early on—creates moments of beauty in their lives.

Graphic Centerpiece

We love the punchiness of these abstracted white trees surrounded by greenery and colorful ornaments in this keeping room table design from Shayelyn Woodbery Interiors.