By Kathy Wilson
Special to Relocation.com
It's the holidays, and we all want our homes to be decked out with holiday spirit. However, we all want to save our checkbooks as well.
Here are some great ideas that anyone can use to decorate your home for the season and still have enough left over to decorate under the tree!
Create a Theme. Having a theme for your holiday decorating will help keep you from blowing money on impulse purchases. It also will keep the decor tied together for a more elegant, professional look. A theme can be anything from a color scheme used all throughout the house to a Toyland Fantasy.
Use What Your Have. The holidays are supposed to be about family and memories. Use those memories to create sentimental decorations with things you already own. Baby booties hung on a tree, Grandma's cookie cutters tied with ribbon, or your child's favorite childhood teddy tied up with a big fat bow are all good choices.
Focus Your Decor. Most of us won't be able to dress every corner of our home in holiday style, so concentrate your holiday decor on the focal area of the room. This could be a fireplace, entryway, or the tops of kitchen cabinets.
Keeping the decor in one area of the room will bring the eye in and give the illusion of an elaborantly-decorated home, but without the need to purchase as many decorations as years' past.
Light Up the Night. Adding lights to your holiday decorating will add drama and fantasy. Use inexpensive clear light strands from the discount store to dress up windows and doorways, as well as the tree. Group candles onto a mirrored tray to double the reflective sparkle they add to a room.
Dress the Tree. Instead of investing in expensive designer ornaments, create your own elegant look this year. Fold decorative paper into delicate fans and tie with ribbon. Use a glue gun to add jewels and glitter to plain glass balls. Purchase unfinished wooden cut out ornaments and faux paint them in stylish antique finishes.
Wall Art, Holiday Style. Take down key pieces of wall art from your walls and wrap just like it was a present. Add a large bow, and then re-hang on the wall. This is a great idea for an entryway where you can make instant holiday impact!
Quick Tips
- Use wire edged ribbon to add bows all around the house. Choose gold or silver and you can reuse the ribbon right through the new year!
- Add Epsom salt to glass containers to resemble snow, and then tuck in pillar candles for a winter wonderland effect.
- Make inexpensive holiday wreaths by cutting a base from cardboard, and then use a glue gun to completely cover the base with wrapped candies.
- Create holiday glassware by using glass paint from the craft store on clear glass. Stamp or stencil on your favorite holiday motif.
- Make paper trees out of a square of pretty paper; preferably use a paper that is a little stiff. Simply roll the paper into a cone, and glue the edge with a hot glue gun. Perhaps some gold glitter or squiggles of paint to dress them up, and they will be beautiful on your mantel or as a centerpiece with greens.
No matter what your holiday budget this year, you can make your home a warm, welcoming refuge for your family and friends. So pour the hot cocoa, stoke up the fire and start dreaming of sugar plums!
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Kathy Wilson is a home and garden author and is a home decorating expert for LifetimeTV.com. Visit her for more home and garden ideas at http://www.TheBudgetDecorator.com or http://www.DecoratingYourSmallSpace.com.