DESIGN FOR MEN

I love the holiday season, especially because of the cheerful decorations. This weekend, I went crazy decorating. As a single guy, I wondered how I could balance incorporating Christmas (my holiday of choice) cheer and not going overboard. I figured that I would share how you can do just that.

1. Keep it simple – my place is small so I settled on 3 holiday statements – a tree, a wreath, and garland. Also keep the decor simple as well.

2.  Create a budget - prevents overspending

3.  Go real - while a personal preference, there is nothing like the smell and look of a real Christmas tree, wreath and garland

4. Get inspired - what do recall from your childhood? I started with how much I loved our large Christmas trees growing up. Rather real or fake, the tree was always at tall and full.  Image above from Apartment Therapy….great color palette and love the oversize ornaments

Here are some great options that inspired me this season.

THE PALETTE

Fruitfully Luxe I love this palette of rich cherry red, violet, plum, blackberry blue, and teal. Image from Apartment Therapy

Monochromatic and masculine. I love the ads for Macy’s this season featuring stylish duds in an equally stylish christmas back drop.  Note the great tone on tone gifts in chocolate and silver….Love that combination this season as well. Image from Glamour Boy

THE TREE

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My tree of choice this year  and perhaps for years to come is the Concolor Fir AKA White fir.  The trees tend to be quite full and quite wide in diameter but the overall look is phenomenal.   Here are some ideas for trimming the tree.

Images by Cupola House Tree and  Iowa State University

Fruitful Plumage

Monochromatic

Silver  with  subtle pops  of color

Love the gold and silver in the Macy’s tree and the pool of ornaments is fun touch – imagine integrating your gifts too.

Tree images Credits: Apartment Therapy 1,3 Your Nest Design 2, Macys 4

WREATH

My favorite wreaths and garlands incorporate magnolia leaves.  Perhaps it is because I am from the South.

Traditional Charm

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Pottery Barn Magnolia Wreath and Williams Sonoma Bay Leaf Wreath  – add a colorful bow to these beauties for some pop

Monochromatic

Crate and Barrel Centerpiece Wreath Champagne

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Neiman Marcus Shell Wreath and CB2 Bubble Ball Wreath or Garland – a little DIY project

Out of the Box

NM Lodge Wreath (R)- masculine and certainly a conversation piece, although I would loose the dangling spruce cones

GARLAND

My favorite wreaths and garlands incorporate magnolia leaves.  Perhaps it is because I am from the South.

Traditional Charm

Copper Ribbon Garland by William Sonoma – WS has great combos for wreaths and garlands

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Pottery Barn Magnolia Garland and William Sonoma Triple Berry Garland

Monochromatic

Vintage Beaded Glass Garlands – combining these will provide the look of the garland in the Macys ad I love.

Crate and Barrel Jingle Bell Garland

So have fun decorating this season but remember to keep it simple and classic so your decor will stand the test of time.

Felt is another obsession of mine.  Not only do I love the aesthetic but also 100% wool felt is water-resistant, and environmentally friendly, and incredibly durable.  Did you know that wool felt was one of the world’s first textiles?  Yep, goes back to 1500 BC possibly before, when people realized the potential of sheep’s fleece.  The earliest forms were found in Central Asia where felt was used for shelter, flooring, and clothing.  There’s a little history lesson for you.

Anywho, I am a sucker for the charcoal gray but felt comes in any color imaginable.  The following are some of my favorite applications of felt…All of which you can do yourself!

Felt Headboard
Check out this subtle yet effective transformation of this headboard using industrial charcoal grey felt. Simple DIY instructions here.

After                                                            Before

Via Apartment Therapy

Felt Pillows Photo from Boston Globe

Love a simple felt pillow and have been seeing the sprout up an many retail stores but you can make them yourself quite simply.  To make you own, click here for basic instructions from Ehow.  Pillows above available for purchase from Filzfelt, a new shop formed by Boston designers Kelly Smith and Traci Roloff.  Also check out CB2 for one of my favorites, a wool blend bold stripe pillow in charcoal grey/oat.

Photo from CB2

Mailing Tube Wine rack
I love cute little felt accessories like this.  This little wine rack is a great for showing off your wine in a small studio apartment.  The components are simple: felt, colored duct tape, and mail tubes…I have so many of these tubes floating around from trace rolls and storing drawings.  Click here for instructions on how to make this rack.

via Design Sponge

Felt Rugs

I have been digging the look of felt rugs, since I found this great zippered grey felt rug by Jim Zivic, click here to view.  Planning a DIY project myself: I am planning on purchasing several large pieces of wool felt and seaming them together using zippers for a custom look.

Another idea is to purchase the rugs from vendors such as FilzFelt (above photo from Apartment Therapy) and Peace Industry (below left).  Not to mention another fave, Flor (below right) where you can create a custom looking rug using Flor tiles.

I think of anything with a custom component as being DIY!

Love the look but just don’t want to spend the time making stuff?  Click here for some great places to buy felt products from the Apartment Therapy Marketplace.  Here a few to get you started:

Book Box by Etcetera Media and Goods

Don’t try these at home…

Felt Wool Stones by Viva Terra

Soft Stone Pouf by Viva Terra