Don't Start Decorating for Christmas Until You've Asked Yourself THIS…

what if the secret to christmas decorating was less about what you added and more about what you asked yourself first? well i have five very simple questions that might just change the way you decorate. well hello everyone and welcome to the first episode of this year's christmas series. today i'm sharing the five questions i always ask myself before i start decorating for christmas. and to kick things off we're giving the guest bedroom a little holiday refresh along with some good old christmas thrifting. let's jump right in with question number one. Now everyone has their own decorating threshold and figuring that out ahead of time can save you a lot of unnecessary stress and help keep the process enjoyable rather than overwhelming. You might be someone who loves decorating every little corner of your home or maybe you're more of a Christmas tree, a few stockings and call it a day kind of person. Either way there's no right or wrong approach and I'll do my best to cover a little bit of everything no matter where you fall on that spectrum. Let's start with some of the easiest ways to get festive without the fuss. Starting with a little linen swap. Now for most of us, changing our bedding is already a part of our regular routines. So switching up the colors for the season requires very little to no extra effort. If you watched the bedroom makeover back in the spring, you might remember I was going for a light, airy, almost monochromatic color palette with lots of whites and ivories. Well, this time I'm doing the opposite and bringing in some of those richer colors for a little festive contrast. Okay so I don't know what it is with the pipe look lately but I have been obsessed and I've been loving my other set of sheets so much that I couldn't help myself and I had to get the exact same set but in a different color. Like you know when you just find that thing that everything's going for it? Like the quality, the feel, the style and you just know it works? Sometimes you just gotta get the thing in multiple colors which is what I did. This time I got the European linen pipe sheet set in burgundy, and obviously for Christmas. I got the European linen sham set in a dusty olive. Now if you're not familiar with Quince, they work directly with top tier manufacturers to offer premium quality without the markup. They also prioritize safe ethical manufacturing and high quality materials which is something I've always appreciated. So these sheets already come very soft already for linens but I will say that we put our other set of sheets through the wash countless times by now and Somehow they just keep getting softer and softer but they still maintain that same quality and durability. If you want to check out Quinn's I've linked both these sets in the description below or you can scan the QR code and get exclusive offers by downloading the Quinn's app. They offer 365 day returns, free shipping and are now also shipping to Canada and the UK. And what I specifically love about these colors is that they're both muted so you can actually pair all sorts of different colors with them all year round. For example you take this on its own and you could do fall but then in summer you could even do like a light blue and it would be like a nautical kind of look and then this green also could work really well in the fall or summer or spring. So I didn't want to darken up the room too much which is why I'm going to reuse this duvet cover from Quince as well. This is also linen and it was in my original makeover but what this is going to do is it's also going to break up the red and the green and it's going to keep the room feeling light. And to finish off the bed I'm just layering in a few of my other year-round favorites. So I think this is perfect and keep in mind we technically haven't even added any Christmas Let's listen to the accordion. So I thrifted this rug a while back and it was like $20. but because it's so small it's super easy to switch around different areas of my house and rug layering is something that i've been seeing a lot lately so let me just try and lift this bit. now if you're not familiar with rug layering it's essentially just placing a smaller patterned rug over a larger neutral one. it's also great for adding a little extra color and character without overwhelming a space and in this case it's the perfect way to bring in more of that of that burgundy throughout the room. Now, depending on your decorating threshold, this might be all you need, but since Christmas is my favorite time of year, we're taking things a little further, which brings me to the next question. now christmas decorating can get pretty expensive pretty quickly and let's be real it's very easy to get lost in the sauce and get carried away and while there's nothing wrong with splurging on christmas decor i personally find having some sort of budget in mind really helpful not only does it help manage my expectations but it also helps me decide where i want to spend and where i want to save and when it comes to saving I'll always start by shopping my own home first. Every year, I seem to rediscover one or two things I'd completely forgotten about or picked up during the off season and haven't had a chance to use yet. And another great way to save, of course, is by thrifting. I'd say about 90% of my Christmas decor has come from either the thrift store or a garage sale. Not only does it save me quite a bit of money, but being able to get more for less also gives me a lot more decorating freedom. Just a few weeks ago, I actually found multiple complete sets of Christmas ornaments, some of which look like they originally came from Michael's. And it's safe to say I got pretty lucky during this visit. And you'd be surprised how much Christmas stuff you can find at garage sales. Here are just a few of my finds from back in the summer. Some you'll be seeing today, and others I'm saving for later in the series, so make sure to keep an eye out. Now this garage sale had an entire bag of Christmas garlands in the free pile, which I couldn't believe. And considering how much garland I use every Christmas, I know these will come in very handy. This was one of the garlands that I got from the garage sale and at first it was like really flat looking so I had to kind of try to fluff it as much as I can and even still I know there's a ton of fluffing that I still have to do. I've been trying to find another way to secure the garlands but what I've come up with for now is just these hair clips. I'm gonna just try and secure the garlands. I'm gonna try and hide whatever you see with swapping basically. Now finding a good deal is one thing but knowing how to make the most of what you have is just as important which brings me to the third question. One thing I definitely cannot survive without at Christmas are these little battery operated fairy lights and I have about five packs of these and they come in a pack of six I believe. What I do is I basically just take these, I put them in bowls, I put them around wreaths, sometimes I add them to the tree but what I love doing with them is adding them to garland because sometimes garland doesn't have enough light if you know what I mean. So it looks like we're going to need one more serenity. And another great trick to make a little go a long way is by finding new uses for pieces you style with year round. Brass and silver are two of my favorites and I think they look especially festive around Christmas. Now I was so excited when I stumbled across these lovely little brass planters for only a dollar each. You know that I love a pretty storage solution and these would be perfect for things like pens and pencils, small kitchen utensils, or even just styled on their own. Okay, so I'm going to put the Christmas tree in. it's like not quite the right height so i don't use this hair stuff anymore so i'm just going to plop this in here and then my christmas tree is looking way better and speaking of pretty storage solutions vintage silver serveware is another one of my favorites Okay so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to put here yet but it kind of just reminded me of like those you know those hotel displays sometimes where you walk into your room and they have like those cute little swan towels or whatever or they have like little candies or something. I want to set something like that up here. I'm going to come back to this and finish the room and hopefully I'll be able to think of something in the meantime. And when it comes to actual Christmas decorations, pieces that can be styled in new ways each year not only keep things feeling ...feeling fresh, but also allow you to get more out of what you already have. One of my favorite Christmas staples that I like to reuse year after year are these bottle brush trees. I think they were like two dollars a piece. What I love about them is you can use them together or you can separate them. Last year I used them in my Christmas greenhouse but you could put these on a shelf, you could put these beside a book, they're really so flexible. For this shelf I'm gonna play around with the height. We have the taller objects on this side and then we have this lamp. So there's kind of high, low, so I'm gonna now go high again. Okay, so I like that we have tall, low, tall, so it kind of balances everything out. And then my favorite thing to do with candles is switch out the colors for the seasons, of course. So I'm going to put some red ones here, but again you could do green. And then what I'm probably going to do is put a green and a red bow and do the whole red and green. And speaking of bows, wrapping supplies are another one of my favorite decorating tricks, especially since they're usually things we already have on hand. Besides adding bows to just about anything I can, I also love taking everyday things like coffee table books, mirrors, or other decorative objects and wrapping them like Christmas presents. Even leftover wrapping paper is perfect for switching up the artwork in your existing frames. And while there are so many different ways to decorate for Christmas, I think it's worth remembering that the things we choose don't always have to follow a specific theme or trend. I used to put so much pressure on myself to have all my Christmas greenery be the exact same shade. And don't get me wrong, I still love that look. But I'm much happier decorating without the pressure of everything perfectly coordinating. this hook on the outside where it shows i'm gonna actually stick it on the back of the closet i want the wreath to hang i think like around here i'm just gonna go into the closet and try and get this right and then it's just gonna fall through the crack like that hopefully when we close the closet Oh, there you go. And whether you love following trends or you prefer doing your own thing, I think what matters most is choosing decorations that genuinely bring you joy. Maybe that's a slightly cheesy Christmas pillow or something nostalgic that reminds you of Christmas growing up. Or maybe it's those little DIYs you love, not necessarily because they turned out perfectly, but because of how much fun you had making them. I actually repainted the red frame here and this actually came in a set of three. I did another one in blue and another one in green but I'm going to save those two for downstairs I think but I thought that this one would look really nice right here and I'll probably move some of these objects around as I kind of build on this. My favorite pearl frame. That I got from a garage sale in the summer and they're so small that they happen to fit the shelf perfectly. and of course being green it works perfect for christmas. pine cones are perfect for fall and winter. you can even like spray paint the tips white as well. now i'm just gonna have this here as like a little bookend type thing. i think that's really cute. this little deer was one of those like silly little purchases. i think it was like three dollars. i just thought it was so cute and i think I think last year I actually put... One of these and everyone's loot bags for Christmas, but I obviously had to get an extra one for myself. So this goes out every year. I'm gonna move these over. We need some objects over there. This was another DIY I did last year and found this at the thrift store. Had this on it, but I don't know. I didn't have time to stand it, so I just kind of took one of those chalk markers and did the tree on the front and then I just took some twine. I don't know what this was supposed to be. Either way, now it is a Christmas decoration I think it looks great. And with the room almost complete, that brings me to our fifth and final question. And personally, I think we should be asking ourselves this throughout the entire Christmas season. Now, as fun as it is to decorate and deck the halls with bells, when I look back on my fondest Christmas memories, it's rarely the decorations I remember. Instead, it's the people who were there and all of those little moments that stay with me long after the decorations come down. And whatever your decorating threshold might be, or how much you decide to spend, I hope you'll make room this year for the things that make Christmas special to you. Thank you so much for watching and I cannot wait to share the rest of the season with you.