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Cinnamon Mornings and Chocolate Dreams
Whether you're hosting a formal get-together or need a quick brunch idea, this book will spark your imagination and your appetite.
Decorating "Inn" Style
December, 2011
Isee all sorts of wonderful decorating, not only in my travels all around the country, but also right here in beautiful Sonoma County. I'd like to share with you a few tricks that I've seen deployed and also learned from my own designing aunt. One of the tricks of decorating this time of year is to come up with a color scheme that suddenly evokes all the fall seasons and can also be tweaked to embrace the holidays and New Year.
Use natural materials such as evergreens boughs, magnolia leaves, pine cones, nuts, and vegetables such as pumpkins, which can go a long way to bring in the harvest spirit.
Working with a base color scheme of green and white adding orange and yellow for Thanksgiving and then switching them out for more white as well as red accents and a touch of bling like gold and silver helps you form a segway seamlessly, and not to mention inexpensively, through the fourth quarter.
One inn whose decor I always admire because it looks fresh and seasonal, and I know she doesn't spend a fortune on it because she
doesn't need to, is Joyce Quigley from Quigley's Log Cabin in Michigan. A favorite trick there is to create a splendid low table decor and a beautiful presentation on the front steps or in the form of a wreath on the front door to evoke the season and welcome guests. She uses pictures of this decor to keep her website seasonal, and a page we can all borrow from that book is that she also uses photographs of her logo to embellish Chirstmas Cards!
Another great way to bring seasonality to your decor is to use linens that heed to the seasons' color theme such as a white table cloth with a beautiful green runner and a gorgeous display in the middle, such as well polished silver, brass or even mirrors to bring in the wow factor. Use that glass water pitcher and make it shine with tinkling ice cubes. Pour red wine into lovely decanters and let the warm colors bring in the new year. If you have wonderful linens, silver, or crystals, by all means bring them out and enjoy them. No time is more perfect than the holiday season with family and friends, who better to share your treasures with!
Best wishes!
Pamela
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McKitrick House Inn
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