Christmas Home Tour: The Art Of Layered Christmas Decor

Decorating for Christmas with layers brings warmth and beauty to every room. See how greens, organics, and simple accents create a festive home.

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Welcome to Part One of my Christmas Home Tour, The Art of Seasonal Layers. A big thank you to Lynn at Living Large In A Small House and Amy at Amy Sadler Designs for organizing this year’s Holiday Home Tour. You will find a collection of beautiful homes at the bottom of this post, all dressed for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I hope you stop back each day to visit the lovely homes on our tour.

This year, I’m doing something very different than I have in past years. Over the last six months, I’ve been adding a bit of green as an accent color and also a few more traditional pieces to our home. This year’s Christmas decor reflects those simple changes. But magnified!

My Christmas decor is all about layering, experimenting, and creating a collected, natural look that feels warm, lush, and peaceful, with an organic feel. As well as being a little more polished.

This Year’s Christmas Color Palette

This year I dressed up our home in a tight color palette of green in all its beautiful tones. Adding a bit of yellowy gold and burgundy brightened everything and gave the rooms a warm seasonal look. Green has been a popular color for quite a while, and it is easy to see why. I consider green not only a classic but also a neutral. All greens work together, and green blends beautifully with almost any color palette.

This look feels a little moody for me since our home is usually very light and airy, but the white walls help balance the deeper colors. It has been fun to try something new and see how a richer palette changes the feel of a room.

This palette works beautifully with all the natural elements I used this year and helped guide the layered Christmas decor throughout our home.

Layering: The Easiest And Prettiest Way To Decorate

Every room decorated for Christmas tells a story of layers, from the textures of evergreen leaves and pinecones to the soft shapes of orchids, poinsettias, and dried hydrangeas. You will find both real and faux organics mixed together throughout our home, which gives this year’s Christmas decor that rich and full look I love.

All of my green organics and berries are faux this year. I used short needle pine, eucalyptus, mixed greens, cyprus, and all kinds of pretty bits and pieces. One of the biggest Christmas trends right now is adding leaves in different shapes and tones to evergreen garlands and arrangements. It creates such an attractive look, and it is incredibly simple to do.

Bringing together all of these gifts from nature helps me build garlands, arrangements, and centerpieces that become the foundation of my holiday decorating. When these organics are layered with a few candles and my favorite seasonal accents, everything comes together easily and in the most welcoming way. Hopefully, resulting is a home that feels warm, collected, and lovingly dressed for Christmas.

The Living Room

The living room is a bright, cheery space, with light pouring in from the windows and from the dining room beside it. It is my favorite room to decorate for any holiday, especially Christmas. This space is open and airy with high ceilings, except on the fireplace side, and that gives me a beautiful canvas to work with each season.

Because the room is so open, I rely on a large area rug to anchor the furnishings and create a cozy space. It helps the room feel warm and gathered. In our downsized home, this is the largest room, and it is the perfect place to set the tone for all the Christmas decorating throughout the house.

The Fireplace

Our fireplace is the first thing you see when you come into the living room, because it faces you when you walk in from the foyer. It is the perfect place to start decorating for Christmas.

This year, I dressed the mantel with a full and branbly garland. Here’s a quick overview of how I make it.

I used two pre-lit evergreen garlands twined together and draped across the mantel. Then I added more evergreen picks, stems, and my favorite bits and pieces until the garland looked big and lush. Once the greens were in place, I tucked two types of faux eucalyptus throughout the garland to give it interest and variety.

Combining these gifts from nature is the heart of my layered Christmas decor, helping every room feel warm and welcoming.

Ribbon came next. Bows are a big Christmas trend right now, and while I am a bit lukewarm about them, I still wanted color, pattern, and a little sparkle. So I wove two different looped ribbons into the garland. For the final touch, I added generous stems of frosted berries, which brought everything to life.

A trio of green candles in brass candlesticks finished the look and added a warm glow.

Earlier this week, I hosted a birthday lunch for a friend, and the women who joined us gave the mantel such kind compliments. It meant so much to me.

The Spindle Chairs

The spindle chairs are snow sentinels that flank our fireplace. They are old friends and have served us well in function and form. I love them as much today, maybe even more, than when we first brought them home to StoneGable. I have often thought of recovering them, but have never been able to. Instead, I enjoy adding color, texture, and pattern with pillows.

When I found these gorgeous green velvet pillows with the sweetest little ruffle, I knew they would be festive and pretty on the chairs. You can see them here. They add a layer of softness, color, and richness to this area of our living room.

The Vignette On The Coffee Table

The coffee table with the turned legs is one of the new traditional pieces of furniture I mentioned at the beginning of this post. This is the first year I have decorated a large dark surface for Christmas, and it was fun to try something different. I’ve had ten coffee tables in this living room, and this one is here to stay. You can see it HERE.

To make decorating easier, I divided the top of the coffee table into quadrants. I do this often. Creating an imaginary grid on any flat surface helps guide where things should go so the arrangement looks balanced and intentional. For this Christmas vignette, I filled each quadrant with something that added interest and helped build a full centerpiece for the room.

Stacks of books are wonderful fillers for a coffee table. After Thanksgiving, I will replace them with Christmas books that feel fresh through winter. Books look fine on their own, but I always like to add what I call sit upons. A magnifying glass with a horn handle and a gold-flecked candle under a cloche sits on the taller stack.

On the other stack, a gold bowl filled with vintage-style ornaments, fairy lights, and a few evergreen snippets adds a festive glow. This is one of my favorite ways to decorate. A bowl of pretty ornaments can add festive sparkle and charm to a room.

A gilded reindeer and a guacamole plant fill the other two quadrants.
The reindeer has lived many decorating lives. It was brown when I bought it years ago, then I painted it silver, and now it is gold. Painting a tired accessory is one of the easiest ways to make it work with your current decor. Isn’t he so handsome?

I added the houseplant even though it is not seasonal. In fact, that is exactly why I added it to the coffee table. Too many seasonal items clustered together can feel heavy. So adding something every day helps soften the look and keeps the table from feeling overdone and forced.

I am planting paperwhites this week, and as they begin to grow, I will rearrange the coffee table and tuck them in. They will add another layer of natural beauty to this space as the season goes on.

The White Buffet

Not every flat surface needs to be overly decorated for Christmas. Loading a room with seasonal decor can make it look confusing and cluttered. Keep a few surfaces simple to give our eyes a much-needed place to rest. The only thing I added to the white buffet this holiday was a few tiny Christmas balls at the base of the orchid plant.

The blooms are faux; however, there are two small sprouts that hopefully will bloom just in time for Christmas.

The Christmas Tree

Isn’t the Christmas tree the real star of any room? Even though the mantel is the first thing you notice, it quickly becomes a supporting actor once the Christmas tree comes into view. There is something about a beautifully decorated tree that pulls you right into the season.

This year, we used a very old Balsam Hill evergreen tree and dressed it with layers of leaves, berries, and ornaments. I cut apart green velvet leaf wreaths to make garland, then added assorted leaf stems, white pearly pod stems, and long stems of frosted berries. The tree holds about 350 ornaments, most I have collected over the years.

There is no ribbon on the tree this year. Instead, I relied on all the natural shapes and the shimmer from the ornaments to fill the branches. I love acorns and pinecones and have quite a collection, so I used the larger metallic ones on this tree. We will put a small real tree in the family room and use some of the smaller ornaments from this collection on it.

Last year, I recycled several dozen Christmas balls in different colors. I was so pleased with how they turned out, and I still love them, so I made sure to include them on our tree again this year. This DIY is incredibly simple and such a smart way to give new life to old ornaments. If you have Christmas balls you no longer use, you might like to see how to make them HERE.

Our tree sits between the living room and the dining room, so it can be enjoyed from almost 360 degrees. A simple glittered star crowns the top, surrounded by pearly pods and frosted berries. At the base, a gold tree collar completes the look. It started as an inexpensive cream-colored plastic collar that I spray-painted antique gold years ago. It is one of those small updates that makes a big difference.

The Poinsettias

I have not added poinsettias to our Christmas home for several years, but on a recent trip to our local greenhouse to pick up paperwhite bulbs, I saw the most beautiful yellow white blooms and was instantly smitten.

One smaller poinsettia sits on a wooden plant stand in front of a window. The two larger ones are tucked into my blue-and-white fishbowl planters, which I use on our patio during the summer months.

I could not find the stand for the pots, so I placed one on a barely turned pedestal instead, and it works perfectly. The large poinsettias sit beside the Christmas tree, and since I have not started wrapping gifts yet, they bring color, beauty, and interest to that whole side of the room.

I just went out to the living room, and the lit tree looks so pretty. I think I’ll add fairy lights to the poinsettias.

The Goddess On The Curlacue

Sometimes keeping things simple is the best choice. I did not add much to the Curlacue Chest this year. The only touch of Christmas is a few small pieces of mother-of-pearl leaves tucked into the goddess’s asparagus fern hair. It is just enough. She looks out over the room with a regal expression on her beautiful stone face, and this quiet little moment feels right for the space.

After Thanksgiving, I’ll remove the goddess head and let my little grandchildren help me put up the creche- the true center of our Christmas home. Baby Jesus is missing one of his uplifted arms from an unfortunate accident involving one of my little ones. Somehow, baby Jesus looks even more precious now.

The Dining Room

The living room opens directly into the dining room, which is quite small. Just like the living room, it is defined mostly by the rug, and that simple boundary helps the room feel grounded. The Christmas tree sits just off the edge of the rug, and its glow brings instant festivity to the entire area.

As full and layered as the living room is, the dining room is just the opposite. It is a room that does not need much decorating to feel Christmas-ready; however, the seasonal decor it has still connects it to the layered Christmas decor in the living room

A few thoughtful touches are all it takes to make this space feel warm and inviting for the season.

The Dining Room Centerpiece

If you follow StoneGable, the dining room centerpiece might look a little familiar. This past summer, I made an arrangement with the gorgeous Oakleaf Ruby Slipper hydrangeas that bloom along our front walk. As they dried, the blooms softened into a deep burgundy, which happens to be one of this year’s trending Christmas colors. They were too pretty not to use again.

To turn the arrangement into a Christmas centerpiece, I tucked in evergreen stems, small bits and pieces of evergreen, and a few of the same frosted berry stems I used in the mantel garland and on the tree. It all worked together so easily. The hydrangeas give the arrangement presence, and the evergreens bring in that fresh seasonal look.

The centerpiece is flanked by green ribbed candles in brass candlesticks. Under the right side of the arrangement sits an antique gold pair of partridges. They found their way into my stocking last Christmas. When they are not on the table, I use them as accent decor. You can see them HERE.

Light seasonal layers in the dining room keep this busy space looking calm and layered and still easy to transform for dinners and gatherings throughout the Christmas season.

The Bar Cart

The only other piece of furniture in the dining room is a bar cart. I think every home should have one. If one is not able to work in the dining room, it might be able to work beautifully in a kitchen or even a foyer. A bar cart is a true workhorse and so versatile. Ours adds a decorative touch to the dining room, but it is often called into service as a bar or a small serving station for appetizers or dessert.

Because I read cookbooks the way some people read romance novels, the bar cart also works as a little library cart for my current favorites. It is both pretty and practical, which is exactly what I love about it.

Today, because who knows how often I’ll change it before Christmas, the bar cart is home to a fern that I am shocked is still alive! Black reindeer bookends hold a few cookbooks, and a sprig or two of faux evergreens adds a gentle hint of the season. It is simple, useful, and just festive enough for this little space.

Thank you for joining me for Part One of this Christmas Tour filled with layered Christmas decor and seasonal touches that make our home feel festive and loved. Creating layered seasonal decor has been such a joy this year. Starting with a simple color palette, adding organics, texture, and small, thoughtful seasonal decor helped make these rooms feel warm, collected, and ready for Christmas.

Every space tells its own Christmas story, yet the layers connect everything so the house feels calm and welcoming. That is the beauty of decorating with intention. Little by little, the rooms take shape and become places where family and friends can gather, linger, and enjoy the season.

Part Two of this Christmas Tour will take you through the foyer, kitchen, and sunroom, and maybe even a peek into a bedroom. I hope you come back for the next stop on the tour. There is so much more to show you, friend.

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MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Happy Holidays, friends…