The Season Is Here
We all have challenges and restrictions in our homes, which can stump the best of us. In this newsletter I will explain what I have done in my own house and in a few weeks we will talk about Heather's.
I seem to be always challenged with lack of space and in the middle of doing work on the house--it is my bane. Because of it, I have not had a Christmas tree in 8 years! I still decorated as much as I could by filling large glass vases with my favourite ornaments and clustering them on my dining table. I also have a wire-frame small cone (tree) that has shiny colourful discs hanging off of it, which helped me cope with not being able to have an authentic tree. I also hung coloured glass droplets off my track-lighting in my kitchen in another desperate attempt to bring cheer to my cramped living quarters. I refused to let my space ruin my chance to festively decorate, and overall, this arrangement was quite pretty and festive.
There is another reason for avoiding a tree: our two dependants, otherwise known as our cats. I could just hear the sound of a tree come toppling over with one of the offenders tearing out from between the branches and ornaments smashing as they hit the floor. So, it was with much trepidation and excitement that we decided to risk broken ornaments and purchased a "slim" Christmas tree. A real tree is not an option, as the smell alone would create too much excitement in these pent-up kitties.
Changing the layout of our living room was easy enough to do and it left us with a nice spot to fill. I know these cats all too well, so there was no way that putting everything up in one day was going to be wise. I needed to go in stages to prevent the fulfillment of the saying, "Curiosity killed the cat." Assembling the tree on the first day went smoothly. The only offence was them gnawing on the ends of the lower branches, and we are comfortable with ending up with gnarled branches. It's a small price to pay for Christmas decorating bliss.
On day two, I added three more strings of clear lights because I wanted the tree to have more impact. I then used four different types of ribbon as the garland. I have a thing for grey and I ended up finding warm-grey velvet ribbons in three different widths. I chose the 1/2" and 1", and added to it a sheer grey-green ribbon and a dark warm-grey satin ribbon. I have enough sparkle going on in my ornaments that sparkly garland would be too much enticement for my cats. It also coordinates perfectly with my charcoal sofa!The effect is sumptuous and inviting, especially with wrapping a few yards of leftover velvet fabric overtop of fiber-fill around the base for a tree skirt.
The day of hanging the ornaments ended up with only one glass ball being pawed down and it didn't break. Phew! I still have glass vases filled with ornaments with bright apple-green ribbon strewn around them on my mantle, and more vases on my entertainment unit. It helps to spread out the ornamentation in a small room because it makes the room feel more cozy and inviting, as long as all the colours are coordinated.
In a small space you also do not want to overwhelm it with too many colours going on, especially on accessories, Christmas included. There should be one predominant colour, and a few accent colours in varying quantities. I have greeny-greys on the wall with a greyed out teal as an accent wall, which looks like a darker version of the main colour. Then I have charcoal and yellow-green for the main pieces of furniture, and turquoise and brown (which will be going at some point soon, I hope) for the two other small pieces in there. White and black finish it off on the lamps and drapes. It might seem like a lot, but it is actually muted and soft looking, aside from the white and black. Because of this, I can get away with some punchier colours for my Christmas decorating, although still within my overall colour scheme. My main accent colour is the yellow-green/apple-green/pear with bits of bright turquoise, silvers and browns. There is definitely a lot more green than anything else and that is how the tree doesn't overpower the room as much as it would if I had a random mixture of colours on the tree. All the colours coordinate back to the original colour scheme in the room. That is the key.
I think I have successfully mastered decorating in a small space and adjusted my cats to living with a tree without climbing it. We'll see if they can refrain themselves for the next month.
