Decorating for Christmas that will last the winter | construction2style

Good Morning friends! We are back live on WCCO this morning chatting about the holidays. Christmas time is all about getting your home spruced up and ready for entertaining! And if your like me, you want to keep your decor up well past the Christmas season after how much time and money you spent to get it all up.

I always like to decorate our home that will last past Christmas and, well, pretty much until spring. Since after Christmas comes New Years and then Valentine’s Day, the entertaining doesn’t stop. Today we wanted to share with you a few ways to decorate for the holidays and beyond. Along with some fun ideas for when you’re entertaining!

Tip #1. Go Metallic. Use a mixture of golds, silvers, and blushes instead of the standard red and green.

Table of Contents

Greenery

It’s all about the greenery and bringing the outdoors in. Which means finding stuff in the woods for free! Greenery, pine cones, sticks, tree bark, spruce trees, and more. Get outside and take a hike in the woods and see what you can find. If you love that fresh greenery and can’t find any in your yard, go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and ask for their scraps and they’ll give them to you for free. Holla! Then take all that greenery and sprinkle it throughout your home. Along the door frames, over your mantels, bookshelves, and in your table landscapes. You can never get enough free greenery in your home and nothing makes a statement more than the fresh smell of Christmas.

Tip #2. Use free greenery from your yard and bring the outdoors in.

I like to keep my greenery super simple. I usually just like to take some burlap and tie it around it at random places, either creating little knots or bows. At the most, go with gold and silver ribbon but don’t pull in too much of the greens and reds or it’ll just scream Christmas and you won’t be able to keep it up past the New Year.

Ottoman & Centerpiece Decor

Another easy way to add some winter and holiday fun is by creating festive centerpieces. We love, love our DIY serving ottoman tray that we’re always sprucing up for the seasons.

Tip #3. Create subtle centerpieces that you can use year round to spruce up and decorate for the holidays.

[Photo Credit: Nest of Bliss]

These work great not just for your ottomans, but also for the your table landscapes. For the winter months, throw in some pinecones, greenery, metallic candle holders and even some frames with pictures or festive printables (which we have for you below).

How to make a serving tray…

These are super easy to make too. To make your own serving tray, start by cutting the largest base piece, the tray’s bottom.

We used our table saw to cut the materials to size. All the sides need to be cut at an angle, and we decided on 30 degrees. After the bottom was cut to size, we ripped the sides by againg using the 30 degree bevel on the table saw.

Both the top and bottom are beveled to make a flush level transition. The other two sides were ripped to size so they match the beveled sides. Then a 30 degree angle cut was made so the straight sides fit into place.

When we had all the parts cut to size, we pieced it all together using wood glue and a 18 gauge nail gun. There are two ways of assembling the trays: you can either glue and nail all the sides together and then drop the middle tray piece in, or you can work around the middle tray from corner to corner putting each piece on as you work your way around.

Once you get the trays assembled and glued together you need to sand them really well. Once sanded and cleaned off, they are ready for paint. We stained most of the trays but on a few we’ve painted them white.

Printables

I love, love, love some good free printables. Our office is where I go crazy on the printables. Framed motivational quotes make for the perfect decor as well as seasonal prints. So to add to those trays or decor in any room, use these free printables to print and frame for not only Christmas quotes, but ones that can carry throughout the winter season.

Tip #4. Print Free Printables, rotate out for the seasons with fun quotes that will keep you smiling.

What a Wonderful World | Free Printable Link | construction2style

Baby it’s cold outside | Free Printable | construction2style

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year | Free Printable | construction2style

Guest Tags

Holidays mean lots of entertaining. And it’s all about making it personable when inviting your people over. Guest tags are the perfect way to do it. Buying guest tags can quickly add up and being they just get tossed within minutes, it’s fun and inexpensive to DIY them. And it really makes a fun statement when you check out the table decor.