Warmer temperatures this weekend, which are forecast to hover around 0 C, may make the outdoor Christmas decorating job a bit easier.
For the Gazette’s At Home feature this week, we asked two floral designers – Irene Hill and Cory Christopher – for ideas about how to warm up the outside with a little seasonal dĂ©cor.
The trick, both said, is not always to add more decorations, but instead, to add focus to your design scheme.
“It’s all about scale. You need to decide what you want to make the focal point of your design and to do that you need to go and stand on the curb and visualize where you want that focal point to be. Most likely, at least one of the focal points will be your front door,” said Christopher.
Christopher and his parents love decorating for Christmas and this year they have organized a show for Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at their farm, First Choice Tree Nursery near Morinville. Some of the funds from the event, a Very Chedarchuk Christmas, will go towards the Mazankowski Heart Institute. The event is an opportunity to see Christopher’s Christmas design ideas.
At the farm Christopher has multiple display areas available, but as he points out, that’s not usually the case for most urban dwellers.
“In most cases I would choose one or two areas and make a statement that says ‘wow’ rather than trying to show too much,” he advised.
Hill is a member of the St. Albert Floral Arts Society. Every year she teaches a workshop on how to make wreaths and floral centrepieces for Christmas. Hill explained that whatever is on the front door must have visual impact that is obvious even to passersby.
“Remember if you make a wreath or a swag for the front door, you have to see it from the front street. It’s like being on a stage,” she advised.
Hill has an easy formula that works for most design problems. She uses just three colours in her swags.
“Sixty per cent is the background colour so of course, for most swags or wreaths, that is green. Then the main accent colour makes up 30 per cent of the arrangement. The final 10 per cent is the second accent. This year I used red berries as my first accent and silver leaves as the second accent,” she said.
Hill repeats her three-colour scheme in differently-shaped arrangements and swags that she puts by her garage and in the big pots on the front steps.
“You see the arrangements as you walk up to the garage, where I have two pots and I also put big loopy ribbons by the lanterns on the garage,” she said.
Though she and her husband no longer put up lights on the roof, there are tiny lights inside the pots to make them glow at night.
For even more visual impact, Christopher suggests going beyond the door and looking at the front window for display possiblities.
“To adorn the front of your house, take note of the windows and treat them like a shop window display case that is visual both inside and outside of the house,” he suggested.
A window display could include the Christmas tree but it might also be a place to tell a visual story.
“For example it could be Mrs. Santa’s sewing room. I did this at my mother’s house by painting an old sewing machine red and lighting it up with little faux-burning candles,” he said.
To incorporate new lights or pretty Christmas ornaments into the design, create a theme.
“For example, if you want one of the pretty deers that are available in so many stores, you might have the deer up against one of the garage-door pots, as if he is nibbling at the greenery,” said Hill.
Hole’s Greenhouses has a display of fluorescent green trees complete with lime-green mini lights. Complementing this colour scheme are bright red trees with red lights. The green trees have red birds clipped onto the branches. The store also sells different-sizes of sparkle-covered boxes that go well with the trees.
“That would make a stunning focal point,” said Christopher, who suggested adding a bird-seed wreath and perhaps a reindeer to the display for more impact.
“You could pull it together by tying a lime-green bow to the wreath and adding a few shatter-proof green balls. The birds won’t mind the green,” Christopher said, adding that the main thing is to put your own personality into your display.
“You don’t need a ton of stuff,” he said. “The design will have more impact if it’s an expression of you.”
