An Asian Themed Tree for the Holidays

Decorate your tree easily and with charm  

Seasonal Decorating is a wonderful way to show your spirit and love of traditions.  The holidays are a great time to invite your friends and family to your home.  You will feel more confident and excited about your seasonal decorating when you artfully and creatively arrange your holiday décor.  Taking the time to add  flair to any home gives you prideful enthusiasm. If you’d like to achieve a festive look but do not have the time, ideas or energy to decorate, hire a holiday re-decorator!

As an interior redesign professional I help clients deck the halls for the holidays in one quick afternoon.  I professionally transform  homes for the holidays, using what you already have in your holiday decoration boxes.  It’s fun to see how someone else might place your tree, arrange your decorations in a vignette or place special ornaments onto some garland.  I also make a list of items you might want to consider purchasing either after the holidays on sale or immediately to add some punch to your décor. 

Impressions Redesign "holiday Redesign" decorating service is not complicated and includes:

Holiday theme development

Organizing holiday decorations (for Christmas, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, Easter)

 Placement of holiday lighting, trees, garlands, and wreaths, table centerpieces and trim for banisters and doors.

Lets walk through my most recent "Holiday Redesign" that I worked on last week.  Here I will share some tips.

First off I loved the Asian look and feel of Marlene's home.  When she showed me these wonderful ornament she had made there was no question we had a "theme" to start working with.  I unpacked her boxes working with color and sorting what worked with our theme and what we would use this year to decorate.  I carefully repacked items we would use another time.  We also got rid of a few things she was not interested in using ever.  We also found a few things for her children she will wrap up and pass down.  (This took approximately one hour.)

Focus on the Tree's Theme.  I have done many tree’s over the last 20 years.  I love themed tree as that gives a focus to work with.  Try a Teddy Bear Tree if you have young ones, a Victorian Doll Tree, a Santa Clause Tree, a Country Classic tree, a Patriotic color themed tree or all children’s handmade crafts tree.  Why not create a tree with your hobby in mind: like sewing or golf tree or perhaps your Career inspires you -teacher = apples, librarian = books or your interests might make a fine tree.

I'd like to use this Asian inspired theme tree as an example of a themed tree for today.

Light affects mood.  Choose clear or white lights for a clean look. If you want to add color and excitement you might add larger bulbs or all one color bulbs.  I've seen pepper light strands and star light strands too. Typically, count on 100 lights per vertical foot of tree.

Next fill the holes -  No tree is perfect.  Use silky fabrics, organza, mesh ribbon, Mylar, glitter ribbon, tinsel, strings of beads, ribbons, garlands etc. to hide the imperfections in your tree.  Take the end of the string, start from the top and work down. Weave garlands in and out of the branches.

Think  festival color pallet. For a more formal looking tree, use a color pallet that includes two or three colors, and play with different shades of those colors.  There are many color combinations, and as in decorating always consider adding an accent.

Glass ball ornaments add a designer touch Any tree looks more cohesive with colored glass balls and works whether you want a classic or contemporary tree.  The larger the tree, the larger some of the balls should be.

Ad something special Visit your local craft store for an array of silk flowers, trims, feathers, glass bulb garland etc.  This owner had one large sprig of red glittered leaves that I used as filler for the tree. Also avoid hanging all the ornaments on the tips of the branches. To add depth and interest, try to place ornament into the tree a bit.

Add a bird for luck.  She had one lone clip on bird that I loved, it had glitter wings.  I added it to the top of the tree for luck.

Embrace your personal style Whether your home is Asian inspired like Marlene’s or traditional, contemporary or old world, find a tree and ornaments that fit into your personal taste and design. 

Handcraft your own ornaments - Jewelry Artist Marlene whom had an impressive amount of quality creative jewelry made these special ornaments that reflected her personal style.   

She had made these Asian inspired ornaments for her tree and I was excited to help her pull her holiday decorating together.

Top the tree with interest.   The most common tree toppers in the US are Stars and Angels.  I loved that Marlene had a Dragon for the top of her Asian Tree.  Do not be afraid to put something of your theme at the top, and the taller your tree the larger the tree topper should be.

Tree Skirt  The tree  skirt is there to catch needles and hide the stand and trunk. I make my tree skirts by sewing two different colored round tablecloths together making it reversible.  If you don’t sew, just add several yards of green or red material bunched at the base of the tree.  For an easy decorative skirt cut a circle of felt like we did for Marlene's tree.  

Finishing Touches.  For a finishing touch and to hide the wire leading from the lights to the plug, place a few wrapped presents under the tree. Empty boxes wrapped in the same colors as your decorations will look best and mean you won't be left with a big gaping space once the real presents are opened.

We really had a great time decorating this Asian inspired tree.  There was so much to work with.  The last hour I placed the Santa Clauses and holiday decor. 

How are you doing with your tree?

For more Holiday Tree inspiration check out:

http://www.homedit.com/30-christmas-tree-decoration-ideas-for-2011/

I love working with the clients own, and interesting I may add, things to make small Christmas vignettes. These were fun and quick.  I recommended the client buy some greenery and garland to accent these displays.

***Impressions Redesign does seasonal decorating for homes, businesses, restaurants, and clubhouses.  Typically my service takes 4-6 hours and includes: moving furniture, unpacking decorations, set-up and installation of decorations, and re-packing decoration boxes (always packing them more organized than when they were when unpacking the boxes).

For more information on holiday decorating services or special occasion decorating services contact me at Impressions-redesign.com or call  916.833.7807.  Please  “like” me on facebook at www.facebook.com/ImpressionsReDesign to see more trees and projects I am working on.