I can honestly say this is the earliest my home has ever been decorated for Christmas, but with holiday projects in full swing, it was a must. There really is something special about embracing the season. The lights, stockings and trees really bring so much joy to our home — I think we may start decorating early every year.

My friend Ginger Curtis, Principal and founder of Urbanology Designs, helped me to bring the vision to life. My holiday decor always has a few common themes: lots of greenery, neutrals and ribbon. I tend to keep it simple and play up little details to make it feel more special. This year, I wanted to keep things sophisticated, but neutral mod. Ginger and I have worked together on many projects of the years, but this is the first holiday inspired project. I absolutely love what she did.

THE TREE

If you are in the market for a new tree, I highly recommend this one. We did the 8ft and are adding these twinkle lights, but if that feels like a hassle, they just released the pre-lit version. I wanted to keep everything very neutral, moody and sophisticated. We used these a mix of matte 2.75″ dark brown ornaments and shiny 4″ ball ornaments. and added velvet taupe ribbon to random areas. Some have bows, some have a simple loop, we wanted it to feel simple and not too uniform. We used 2.5″ black wired ribbon to create a large bow at the top of the tree. This took some work, but after playing around with it, we got it to where we liked it. For our tree skirt, we actually used a linen bed sheet.

To keep everything cohesive, I am wrapping in black and brown matte wrapping paper with satin and velvet matching ribbon. For the kids gifts, we will put those out as “Santa gifts” and they will be unwrapped.

THE STOCKINGS 

For stockings, Ginger found these beautiful white linen stockings (similar style here opt for no personalization or this budget-friendly option) and we did a little DIY by adding the cone bell, black satin ribbon, and handwritten tag (I just used scrapbook paper, cut it out for the size I wanted, and used a Sharpie to write out the names). I am going to share a video on this later, but we used hot glue to assemble everything and it worked like a charm. We used white mini command hooks to secure them to the shelves.

ENTRY TABLE

I wanted something really simple and unique. Ginger had the idea to use white (unscented) pillar candles in varying heights throughout the length of the table. I don’t plan to light them, but it would be gorgeous for a dinner party or special occasion. I ordered this faux olive leaves (you will need 3 bundles to get this look) and tied it together with a satin ribbon.

DECOR 

I don’t love a lot of clutter, I’m sure this will change when the boys get older but for now, I wanted simple holiday decor. We landed into wreaths, dried leaves, candles and ribbon.

Ginger loves these Faux Cypress Wreaths. She usually always recommends real greenery but these look natural and full. She also added some dried leaves and sticks from her backyard to style it.

There’s a lot you can do with dried leaves. We added them to wooden dough bowls and I’m considering leaving it up year round. I buy

For more home decor links, you can find everything in my Ashley At Home series or on my LTK.

 Hope you find this helpful as you start to decorate for the holidays. xx Ashley