As the snow begins to fall, people tend to stop worrying about the outer appearance of their homes and concentrate on ways to decorate inside. Decorating for Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukkah can be fun and easy. Simply follow these indoor holiday decorating ideas for creating the perfect winter home.
Choose a Color Scheme
Color schemes help unify the entire home, no matter how differently each room is decorated. Popular winter color schemes are:
- Pink and green
- Red and green
- Purple and blue
- Blue and gold
- Red and white
- Green and white
- Silver and red
- Blue and white
Make Big Elements Neutral
People who are shopping for new furniture and wall paint should consider choosing neutral colors. This makes changing to a spring or summer decorating scheme much easier, since only accessories, throw pillows, etc. need to be swapped out.
Use Vintage Accessories
To avoid having a finished room that looks like a catalog for your favorite home decor store, shop for vintage accessories. For example, if little cardboard houses are popping up in the catalogs, search for Vintage Putz houses in thrift stores and through online auction sites and buy them instead. This vintage twist on new items really makes a room look special.
For crafty people, using vintage materials to make indoor Christmas decor is another option. Supplies to shop for include:
- Buttons
- Fabric
- Pom-pom trim and other edgings
- Ornaments
- Chenille bedspreads
- Quilts
- Ephemera (Old postcards, letters and magazine ads)
Using pieces of these vintage supplies to make new accessories for a home can give them a modern twist. Glass ornaments can be painted with new designs or they can be carefully crushed to make an inexpensive replacement for glass glitter. Bedspreads and quilts can be cut up to make holiday pillows, Christmas stockings and tree skirts. Look closely at items in store displays and think about how vintage materials can be used to recreate them with a unique feel.
Create a Holiday Focal Point
While a few little ornaments or decorative touches scattered around the house are still festive, nothing says holiday like a major indoor Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or Christmas display. Mantels and bannisters are the ideal spots, but a table or a corner of one room will work, too. The key is to make sure that the area really is well decorated. A few ideas include:
- Bowls of ornaments
- Swags
- Grouping of Christmas trees, angels, Menorahs, or other symbolic items of different sizes and styles
- Winter scene using miniature houses, artificial snow and little people. Make the scene special by looking for family photographs that have shots of an entire person in them. Cut out the people and adhere them to cardboard to create a personalized paper doll family to place around the village.
Add a Plant
Having a living plant in a room makes the perfect finishing touch. While Poinsettias and other winter plants are the most obvious option, forced bulbs or orchids are also nice.
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