How to Plan A Cozy Holiday Refresh That Brings Warmth to Your Soul

How to Plan A Cozy Holiday Refresh That Brings Warmth to Your Soul

There is nothing like the comforting feeling of walking into a home warm with holiday cheer. Memories of sipping cider, opening gifts, sharing family dishes, and spending time with loved ones recharge our soul in a special way.

Quick and easy decor swaps are the most simple and fun way to achieve this holiday transformation in your home. Choosing goods and services from local businesses is the best way to be sure you are spreading this warmth to other homes in your community. Follow these four steps to creating a warm, cozy space for the holidays.

Use Wrapped Gifts As Decor

Gift-giving can be a favorite tradition in many families. Each beautifully wrapped package represents the thought, care, and love that goes into choosing the perfect present that is just right for a loved one. Taking time to curate beautiful paper and complementary accessories only enhance this joy. To extend the life of this practice, gift-givers can choose to wrap and display gifts early in the season. Selecting paper and ribbons that compliment your decor serve to create dramatic statement pieces with little effort and no extra cost. Placement can be classic or whimsical and both create a sense of suspense and excitement leading up to holiday celebrations.

To achieve the styled look skip the traditional gift placement. Instead of a big pile of presents opt for accent staging. A few wrapped gifts placed to the side of each step will lead the eye up to a decorated landing. A handful of small wrapped gifts bring excitement to a mantle showcasing other holiday items. A tower of gift boxes, topped with a bow, can mimic a holiday tree.

Add Some Sparkle

The holiday season is the perfect time to get away with featuring those eye-catching pieces you love but might be a little too flashy for your everyday style. Face it, as soon as we open our packed away box of ornaments from Christmas past, the glitter bomb has already gone off. So, embrace it! Glitter covered reindeer figurine? Yes! Stockings dripping with sparkle? Absolutely! A tree skirt that will have our toes a-twinkle for weeks to come? Do it!

The point is, the holiday season is a time for indulgences of all kinds. Use this time of year to show off your wild side when it comes to home decor. You never know, it may bring out a new side to your aesthetic. If not, it’s all getting packed up in a few weeks anyway.

When it comes to local finds, don’t forget to ask around for custom product designers. Think stocking with everyone’s names written in glitter or metallic lettering. Custom ornaments that capture a milestone from the previous year are always a huge hit.

Recreate Photo Memories

Sharing memories with family is truly the heart of what the holidays are about. It’s such a joy to reflect on what has changed over the year as well as what has stayed the same. Many local photographers ramp up their offerings and sometimes even have deals leading up to the holiday season. This year, consider gathering your family to recreate some of your most cherished moments from previous years. A new family photo will brighten any room and it’s a fun project to share in together. Maybe you want to jump on the hilarious trend of recreating photos of your small children with their grown-up adult selves. Some families may opt for a more subtle approach and stick with simply revisiting a color theme from past holiday photos.

Whichever tone you choose to set with your new photos, the experience is sure to be the real gem of this project. The best part of this home refresh is the time sitting with family looking through old photo albums for the perfect inspiration. And after you have decided on the right theme you have another day set aside to spend taking photos with your family and making new holiday memories. Be sure to choose a quick editing and printing option so you can have these new masterpieces hung for the holiday season.

The Season of Light

Trees and candles, exteriors and interiors, clothing and jewelry, this time of year if we can light it up, we will! Before you add strings of shining wonder in every nook and cranny of your home think about the lighting you already have year-round. Interior lighting is the most important area of consideration for home interior design, and for good reason! Lighting can transform the size, shape, and mood of a room. Consider contracting with an independent designer for a consultation on what type of lighting adjustments would work best in your space. If you are working on a budget or with limited time, consider stopping by your local independently owned hardware store. They can point you to products that will solve any of your lighting concerns.

If you don’t know where to start as a DIY interior designer follow these basics. Your first task is to decide which feature you want to highlight. This might be a fireplace, a gallery wall, or a holiday decor centerpiece. Ask the hardware store associate for accent lighting suggestions for this job. Next you will want to adjust you primary light source(s) to provide even lighting throughout the room. The pros call this ambient light. Last, task lighting comes in to provide additional light when needed such as when we are reading. Task lighting can be a two-fold improvement since most reading lamps also serve as decor pieces.

Sit Back and Enjoy Your Holiday Transformation

Once your home is laid out just the way you want it, kick back and take it all in. You have invested your time and love making your home comfy and cozy. Be sure to enjoy the fruits of your labor with the ones you love. Don’t forget to snap a few photos along the way to remember this project and all the joy it brought to your holiday home.