Making a Magical Christmas Front Entryway
Decorating for Christmas can be a little stressful. We are bombarded with hundreds of thousands of beautiful homes and images for Christmas starting as early as October. I love to decorate and share the photos of the spaces I dress up for the holidays as much as the next decorator. I also love to look at the beautiful photos everyone is posting. Today I’m going to share with you my formula for making a Magical Christmas Front Entryway.
Getting Started:
The first thing I do is assess my space. Not every front entryway is created equally. This is our rental house we lived in for a few years before we bought our fixer upper. It had quite a bit of open space as well as the open staircase. With the antique door and refinished dresser in this corner I decided this was the perfect corner to create some magic.
The next thing I do is gather some of my everyday decor that I could use or dress up. My antique wood box, the wood bead garland, the white cake plate and the galvanized tin bucket. These things will help create texture, height and interest in my space.
Add Your Greenery:
Of course I need trees. I love trees in all shapes, sizes and textures. Choosing your greenery before you get too far into the process helps immensely. In this space I used King of Christmas’s 4-piece flocked set. It has two pre-lit 2 foot trees, a garland and wreath, which are both pre-lit as well.
The wreath was placed on the antique door and the garland draping the banister. The fun was with the trees. There were more places these could go whereas the wreath and garland pretty much were limited to the door and banister. My advice is try them out one way and if you aren’t loving it switch them around, change it up. There is no right or wrong. That is part of the magic of it.
Accents Pieces:
Moving along I open up my Christmas decoration boxes. I look for accent pieces. For instance, these cute mini wood houses and the wood tree we made. (tutorial for wood houses) These will be perfect accents and fillers. I look for things that will fill a space but also might tell a story. Who might be living inside these tiny houses? Are there littles looking out the windows, watching and waiting for St. Nicholas? Someone may be joyful singing as the first snowflakes gently fall from the sky. Or maybe there’s a grandma baking cookies or gingerbread houses for her grandchildren to decorate. I love the imagination of creating stories but also the beauty of family heirlooms, traditions and stories that are passed down from generation to generation.
And then… Pillows and blankets are the next accent pieces I add. They give a cozy feel and warm up the space, making it inviting and welcoming. I try to keep them all in the same color palate and I try not to mix in too many patterns. They lend to the story as well. I love plaids for the Christmas season and the colors red and green. I try to find neutral backgrounds to brighten up the area too.
Bells, lights and stars are more holiday favorites at our house. The twinkling of hundreds of tiny lights makes my heart happy. Stars are symbolic of light as well. During the Christmas season you’ll find at least one, but generally more, stars accompanied by jingle bells. I love the soft clanging and musical tinkling of jingle bells. The beautiful thing is not all bells ring the same pitch or tone. It’s like each one has it’s own voice blending with the choir making our scenes more magical.
Then the last thing we added into our Christmas entry way was the stockings. Tied to the open staircase, hanging in anticipation of being filled to the brim with goodies and fun little presents; our stockings finish off the entry way with the perfect amount of welcome cozy.
How will you create your next Christmas entryway or Cozy Christmas Corner? I hope you’ve found a few helpful tips. Wishing you a Happy, Merry and Safe Holiday season.
Love:
Joleen & Jess
