Building vignettes for the Holiday Open House

Last week, we were mostly building the bones of each room; adding furniture and large accessories.

Amy had already had her pow-wow with Henry and the rooms were painted, and it was decided what each room would "be".

Now it's time to add more layers to each room and complete a few vignettes.  Come read a little more about how we do it...

Inside the house is all about painting & rearranging.

Here is one of the upstairs bedrooms.  It may not look like much, but at this point, it's gone from a blank canvas to some major changes:  painted new wall color, selected & hung chandelier, selected large pieces of furniture and placed them in the room, and unloaded some of the major decorative pieces {mirrors, squirrels, vases, garlands} that would be featured in this room.

Outside the house, we're taking stock.  

Here is a scene from outside one of the barns.  We pull out all the trees, garlands and greenery and line them up.  Then we can visually see what works, and how many we have vs. how many we need.  We start grouping looks that we think will go well together in particular rooms.  We also take stock of what we may need to still buy if we don't have enough.

Grouping items back inside.

Back inside the house we are "grouping."  Since we've lined things up, we know {approximately} how many of each item we have.  We've had conversations that if overheard, you would think a group of crazy people were rearranging a fun house:  "Lay the giant fuzzy deer in by the elf."  "I want your eye to travel from these blue pieces to this pillow, so these have to go on the dresser."  "The squirrel tails and this garland have similar textures, work them in together."  "I need a big bucket or basket for these owls."   The girls start moving the items in groups to the appropriate rooms.  Everything is one step closer to its final resting place in the house.

Playing around until it's just right.

Once we have groups of items in each room, it's time to play around and create the focal points & dress up the major parts of the room where your eye goes when entering the room. 

Here is a mantel of owls.  Notice the layering or multiple objects in similar tones.  Though the owls are the focus, other pieces are used to add height {candle holders, paper church, wreath} and texture to the vignette {garland, ornaments, floral pics / springs} and everything is worked until just right.

Unexpected Surprises.

We always love to add some fun in to our vignettes.  The unexpected in decorating really makes people stop and take note of the details and appreciate your holiday vignettes.  At the Holiday Open House, you might catch a glimpse of an elf on a ladder decorating a Christmas tree, for example.

We're not done with sneak peeks!  I'll also be posting later this week about some great local vendors who are joining us for the Design House Holiday Open House.  Casey is working on giving the spaces directly outside of the house a more farmer's market feel, including local handmade products like soaps and items made from alpaca hair.