Authentic Christmas Decorating

This year I have been in the Christmas spirit a little earlier than usual. I have been helping a family decorate their home for a Holiday Tour of Historic Homes. Both sides of the family are from Swedish decent. They wanted their home to reflect their heritage and interests.

To me this is how decorating should be done, authentic and true to passions not just by the hottest trends. Yes, you need to be up-to-date but balanced with your personal interests.

The newest issue of the magazine "domino" came out the other day. Guess what holiday decorating style was featured? Yep, Scandinavian. I love it when authenticity meets what happens to be cool. Some of the Christmas tree ornaments that are on this Holiday Tour of Homes tree are exact what was on page 63-64 of December's domino.

Swedish decorating is very organic and simple. Here are a few pictures from that house (by the way - the house was built in 1890):

The red berries and ivy came direct from the nearby yard. (no cost decorating at its best).

Even the presents under the tree are wrapped in a simple authentic style. The tree has only white or straw ornaments in keeping with the style.

Some of the above ornaments were personally woven by the homeowner.

I would love to see how you authentically decorate for the holidays. Please send an e-mail to me with photos. I would love to share them. Send them to julie@thehomestylist.com

The new "it" room

Over the years specific rooms in houses are pushed by the media as the new 'it' room to focus remodeling and redecorating efforts on. In the past the master bedroom was in all the magazines and TV shows before that it was the dining room. There is a new 'it' room on the horizon.

Did you guess?

It is ...The laundry room.

Recently I bid on several spaces in a competitive and prestigious Decorator's Show house.

(If you have never been to a Decorator's Show house. It is usually a major fund raiser that gets a donated mansion. Each room is awarded to a decorator to design. The public then purchases tickets for a tour. If you have never been to one, I highly recommend searching for one in your area because you will get lots of fabulous ideas to use in your own home and help a charity at the same time).

For an upcoming Decorator's Show House, I was given the Laundry room to make over. I can't wait. Not only is the laundry room the new "it" room but this Show House's laundry room is in terrible shape so the before and after photos will be dramatic.


I have never been this excited about laundry before!

Here is a little peak at the before photo.





Stay tune for the occasional update on the progress of this room.

Decorating article in the WSJ

A few weeks ago I had a newspaper reporter contact me regarding an article about accessorizing homes. She spoke to me for about 45 minutes on the phone. She asked for names and phone numbers of previous decorating clients and photos. The reporter even had follow-up questions for me via e-mail. I was absolutely thrilled because the newspaper was THE WALL STREET JOURNAL! As any good entrepreneur does, I sent out press releases " Local Businesswoman in Wall Street Journal".

Well...I should have known that on the day the article came out a freak winter storm hit - Friday the 13th. The Buffalo area got 20 some inches of snow. I had no electricity (no TV or computer), no heat and kids off from school. Newspaper delivery could not get through. Using my cell phone, I called relatives in other states. Please - Read me the article!

"Sorry but I don't see your name anywhere" What !!??

Later that evening - desiring heat and TV - we drove out-of-state to my in-laws. I get the Wall Street Journal. Yes, I was in there but I can see why it was easy to miss. There was a grand total of ONE sentence that had my name in it.

Now don't get me wrong - I am thrilled to even be in The Wall Street Journal but it would have been nice to have more than one sentence and it would have been nice for local people to know about it. Many Buffalo area residents are still without power and have driving bans. My little sentence pales in comparison to all the damage and lives disrupted.

Believe me - When things return to normal, I will milk that one WSJ sentence for all it is worth!

PS. The kids are still off from school - urgh!

Plans to improve a boring room

I recently had an appointment with a client who had one of the most boring houses I have ever seen. It was a fairly new house. It had oatmeal colored berber carpeting and builder white walls. They were replacing the furniture soon. The decorating consultation they wanted was for a paint color plan.

Yes, I totally agreed that they needed to add color but the real key element they need was inspiration. If you have a house such as this, what do you do? Well, the first decorating secret is to choose the paint color last. This house needs a coordinating element that will pull all the colors together and make the rooms look coordinated and complete. This element is usually a beautiful rug (yes - place it on top of the boring berber) or a large painting. The rug or painting needs to have a least three different colors in it. That inspiration is where you will find your furniture color, paint color and accent colors.

So by the end of the appointment I gave the client a shopping list not a paint color list. In this case, giving the client not what they asked for but what they need will result in a better room in the end.

Tell me about your plans to make your home no longer boring. What is your inspiration piece?

Changing Rooms

I usually guide other people with decorating their houses but the week I had the joy of actually working on my own home! My boys (ages 11 and 8) have had this beautiful toy room/ playroom for years. It is a spare bedroom on the first floor and it has the largest brightest windows. I designed the toy room for a great place for them to play.

Well... that is one of the design lessons/mistakes I learned from personal experience. The kids never play in the play room. They have always pulled the toys to the room we are in. Toys end up in the TV room or the dining room. Lately toys are in the hallway - the best place to zoom the cars or play dodge ball. My home office space was the former laundry room. (We moved the washer/dryer to the basement years ago). It is a fairly small room with one tiny window.

All this to say that this last week we began the big switch-a- roo. I will get the big bright corner room. The toy storage room - because that is really what it is - will be the smaller room closer to the action (aka TV room) .

The first step was moving the toys out and stripping the wallpaper. Now the toys are piled in the living room so I have to chant to myself everyday "It is only temporary".

One of the design lessons I want to pass on is to not be afraid to switch rooms and make the house function to meet your family needs. You don't have to use the rooms as they are labeled in the original house plans. Have you made any changes to how your rooms function or are "labeled"? Has it made a difference? I would love to hear about it.

I am a subscriber to the magazine "Home". Lately I have been disappointed in the content. But the issue that I received a couple days ago is awesome. The issue was celebrating the magazine's 25 years. One of my favorite articles was "25 years of Comfort and Style". It was so fun to see photos from the early 1980s. The biggest difference from the older photos to now is definitely the busy patterns. The look now is clean and crisp. Today we have more geometric and less busy florals. Here is a photo from that issue. Can you guess what year it is from? (answer at the bottom of this entry)

The magazine also has a fun article about TV shows and how those interiors have changed over the years. Think about the "Brady Bunch" interiors versus the "Cosby Show "interior, or the "Friends" set.

Think about your house now or what it looked like 25 years ago. How do you decorate differently? If you were to name a TV set your house is most like, what would it be?

(answer: 1983)

Combo Decorating Styles

I love getting a peek into other peoples' lives. Now I get paid for seeing how they live in their homes. One of my favorite questions to ask homeowners is "How would you describe your style?".

I get a variety of answer but I always smile when they give me combination answers such as "I am traditional with an eclectic mix". I don't like houses to have one specifically labeled style. I think the home's style looks more authentic when it grows and develops. I think, therefore, the homeowners are more interesting if they mix it up and let the style develop as they do.

One of the best phrases a client gave me was describing her decorating style as 'Mixture of Pottery Barn and Fisher-Price".

I personally would describe my style as American Mission with Paper mountains (usually those mountains are just mole hills but the editing and revisions of my book due next week - they mounds are growing)

How would you creatively and honesty described your home's style? I would love to hear about it.