Ready for my personal holiday decorating schedule? (Remember that my job alters a typical process, so NO PRESSURE). Ok, October: start gathering inspiration, new ideas, and any new pieces you want (good stuff can sell out). November: it’s dark/wet outside, so it’s fun to start adding greenery and twinkle lights (yes, faux for us inside, real outside comes later, and no, we don’t host Thanksgiving – we travel to family that week). And then the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we have our small family ornament hanging party (literally my favorite night of the year), and it’s an explosion of holiday from there on out. No holding back. No shame. Just utter joy. I really want people to do whatever schedule they want, real or faux, long or short. To me, this spreads out the fun (and the labor) and we get two months of twinkling lights, which help the darker nights and mornings so much (the magic doesn’t get old). For this shoot, we took to The Carly, the most magical rentable retreat estate outside of Portland, because we wanted to try out some fun new holiday decor ideas using pieces from AllModern. They have so many great holiday gems, and The Carly is too special not to get a proper holiday makeover. If you are ready to decorate or not, check out these really pretty areas that my team and I created, and hopefully, it will give you some ideas and inspiration going. It sure did for me 🙂

Wreath | Folding Paper Tree Set | Folding Paper Ornament | Christmas Village | “Gumdrop” Velvet Pillows | Faux Fur Throw Blanket | Gold Throw Blanket | Side Table

Their wreaths and garlands are solid (and so full). My two favorite things from their collection that I’m likely stealing for our house this year are those stockings and the accordion paper trees (you’ll see later). The colors all just worked so well together, in a happy and traditional adjacent way 🙂

Our Favorite New Stockings

Stockings

The stockings are ochre and cream check, in a chunky knitted wool. This colorway works so well with our jewel-toned palette (it’s really just a gold, so in a way it acts as a neutral). I love our stockings, but boy am I tempted to use these this year because they are so pretty and well-made (and dare I say “on trend”). They come in green/cream and red/cream as well, should you want a more traditional color.

Great Non-Holiday, “Holiday” Pillows

“Gumdrop” Velvet Pillows | Wreath

All the cut velvet pillows are so soft, high quality in the prettiest jewel tones, and clearly we like mixing them all together (and are great year-round). And that 4′ wreath is KILLER (so hard to find that big of a size) and will be living on our huge picture window outside (it’s not pre-lit, but easy to string). Fun fact, there was a big white outlet (for a future Frame TV) on the fireplace, so we hid it with that collection of bows (not AllModern) that frankly turned out so cute.

With faux wreaths, in my opinion, you need to dress them up with ribbons, bells, or ornaments to give them more life (I suppose the same with real greenery). The bigger the wreath, the bigger the bow.

A Solidly Good Faux Tree

Faux Christmas Tree | 3-Tier Serving Tray | Tree Skirt

Even though I’m a massive tree lover (one of the reasons we moved back to Oregon), I’m pretty “tree agnostic” when it comes to real or faux. You do you (we often do both, lol). But if you are in the market for a new faux tree, this one is fantastic (they just keep getting better and better every year). This is a Nordic-style fur, pre-lit with really warm lights. It’s excellent. I also want to say that if you are really into collecting ornaments (hi! me!), the faux trees can hold much more and heavier ones 🙂

Large Glass Ornaments (Rose Gold, Green) | Café Latte Ornaments

As you know, I’m a massive family ornament lady (my kids joke that “soup” and “ornaments” are my two biggest hobbies, and they are hilariously correct). For this tree, we chose some really beautiful glass balls that reflect the light in such a pretty way (and you always need the big round reflective shapes to offset the more eclectic handmade ornaments, imho). The smaller “Café Latte” ones are a really pretty blush/ivory tone and hang with wire (so they stay put).

Large Glass Ornaments (Gray/Purple, Blue)

A Huge And Excellent Pre-lit Garland

9′ Pre-Lit Garland | Cream/Black Dining Chairs | Green Head Chairs

This garland is extremely girthy, and each one is about 9′, so we hung three in a classic drape. They are prelit, LED, warm lights and connect together, so once up, you don’t have to think about them. One end plugs in, and you have warm ambience all month long. These are also on the list for our living room – the scale of the garland is huge and perfect for any really large windows.

The Easiest Table Centerpiece

Paper Folding Tree Set

What I love about these accordion paper trees is a long list:

1. They style themselves – different heights, shapes, and colors that look good together, no matter how you arrange them.
2. You can put them on any surface in any room. Mantel, shelf in kitchen, bathroom, coffee table – they look great everywhere (we’ll prove that today)
3. They fold down flat, and use a magnet to stay together – so easy to store, put together, but take up such little space.
4. They come as a set – you don’t have to think about combining the right colors/sizes.
5. They play with the light/shadow in such a pretty way – so much texture and depth.

Red Dinnerware Set | Wine Glasses | Napkins | Placemats

I also want to give a shout out to this dark red place setting – it’s such a good tone and finish for anyone that wants to have “holiday plates” that are more simple (i.e., not fancy) but still high impact. Christmas Eve lunch is the meal I host; I’ll be pulling these out.

Taper Candles | Wooden Candlestick Holders | Green Glass Flutes

The candlestick holders are also fantastic for year-round – turned white oak in a really simple shape can do no wrong any time of year.

Green Head Chairs | Cream/Black Dining Chairs

Should you be in the market for new dining chairs to host this season, I love what we chose here. The two green end chairs swivel and are so graphic and warm (a massive hit with the kids), and the arm chairs are solid, large in scale, and have really pretty lines.

Pre-Lit Wreath | Pair of Vases | Colorful Stockings | Chrome Lamp

This 3′ pre-lit wreath is fantastic (warm white lights, plug-in), and we peppered it with a bunch of smaller velvet bows that we made. Those knitted stockings are so, so good, too.

There she is 🙂 Not Martha, but certainly looking ready to host here. I just thought this whole space turned out so festive, fresh, and fun (but still traditional enough and transitional enough for a lot of styles).

Felt Garland | Green Glass Flutes | Blue Dinnerware Set | Pink Platter | Napkins

I want to call out how pretty the texture of the trees is – the light just plays so well with all the paper folds. Here we styled out the shelves with some felt garlands (great for trees, too) and these new stackable blue plates, which pop so well.

Pre-Lit Faux Skinny Tree | Cream/Black Dining Chair

We kept moving around The Carly because it’s just so dang pretty (shout out to Max Humphrey for designing it). This little area highlights a skinnier tree, which is great for smaller spaces, obviously. We styled more with the velvet pillows, wreath, and trees, just to show you different combinations.

Pre-Lit Wreath | Gold Throw Blanket | “Gumdrop” Velvet Pillows | Felt Garland

A Cozy Nook

9′ Pre-Lit Garland | Geometric Christmas Pillows | Wool Sphere Pillow | Gold Faux Fur Pillow | Gold Throw Blanket | Teal Side Table | Chrome Serving Bowl

We couldn’t not shoot this nook – it’s so sweet and cozy. We used one of the garlands to frame it out and layered it with a ton of pillows from AllModern, accented with the modern lacquer table.

Teal Side Table | Chrome Serving Bowl

This was such a fun shoot, styling with beautiful and festive pieces from AllModern with my team in the most incredible location. A huge shout-out to Gretchen for doing a stellar job at producing this one and Kaitlin for these gorgeous photos. We had so much fun styling it out, listened to holiday music, and even stayed the night in our own suites. At night, we drank martinis and watched The Twisted Tale Of Amanda Knox (not ready for Christmas movies yet) while we wrapped all the “presents”. Thanks, AllModern for sponsoring this post and project. I hope you all enjoyed it and got some new ideas and inspiration. xx

*Photos by Kaitlin Green