I love entertaining during the holidays, inviting people into a cozy home, filled with seasonal ambiance. One of my favorite styles is the rustic farmhouse look, and one of the best aspects of this design is that it is easy to achieve and affordable. Below, I will show you how you can turn your home into a magical holiday space from the minute you walk to the front door to when you retire to your bedroom at night.
Set the Stage with the Front Porch
As an avid gardener, I love to decorate my home with lots of greens and florals. On my front porch, I design cool winter containers with fresh cuttings from my yard. Heading into the holidays, my front urns were planted simply with dwarf Alberta spruces. I wanted to jazz them up with more greens but keep the spruces, so I underplanted them with fresh-cut winter greens.
Winter container gardens are a great way to extend the gardening season and are much easier to create than they look. Planters are low-maintenance, require minimal investment and can last through February if properly cared for. They also can be very budget-friendly if you use cuttings from your yard. I prefer to keep mine with a winter theme so I don’t have to change much when the holidays are over, but you can give them a Christmas theme by using red berry sprigs, lights and bows.
I extend the greenery from the entranceway into my home, where I have adorned my staircase with faux greens, string lights, large pinecones, white berry sprigs and a light beige bow. If you like poinsettias, go with faux since they are a short-term holiday plant.
Add a Glow to the Kitchen
Cozy up your kitchen island by adding lots of faux greens, twinkle lights, pinecones and battery-operated candle lanterns. Decorate kitchen windows and cabinets with garland, small trees and twinkle lights. I love how warm and cozy my kitchen feels all lit up.
Create a Cozy Living Room
When you enter my living room, you’re greeted with a warm and cozy fire. Since we light our fireplace daily, I use faux greens so they do not dry out and always look gorgeous. I added two small faux evergreen trees that flank the flatscreen TV over the mantel, then added a faux cedar branch garland with some fairy lights. To add dimension, I tucked in oversized pinecones and neutral, textured ornaments.
Dress Up the Dining Room
I love to dress up my dining room table with a gorgeous tablescape and centerpiece. Get creative! For a centerpiece, use an unexpected container — like a vintage toolbox — and stuff it with faux greens, mini trees, Christmas present ornaments, pinecones and fairy lights.
For each holiday table setting, I layered a cedar branch placemat, rattan chargers and two melamine decorative dinner plates. Because I love the wood of my farmhouse table, I prefer to leave it exposed so I layered a jute table runner over a flannel runner for some additional texture and to soften the look of the wood.
Tuck in Your Bedrooms in Festive Style
Consider decorating your bedrooms for the holidays. There’s something about the soft, warm glow of twinkle lights and a pre-lit Christmas tree that makes going to bed a lot more inviting. To decorate the master bedroom, I added a small tree, twinkle lights, faux greens, cozy throw blankets, some faux fur, pom-poms and Christmas throw pillows to the neutral bedding. Since the palette of the room is neutral, I added a pop of red to make it feel more festive. With a little imagination, you can create a room that evokes all the magic and wonder that is this season.
Stacy Ling is a home and garden blogger in Bernardsville. A self-taught master gardener for over 20 years, she enjoys helping others find their inner green thumb and shares her passion for gardening with her decorating and entertaining style. Follow her @bricksnblooms on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Pinterest.