After spending so much time at home during the pandemic, it wouldn’t be a surprise if your interiors have started looking staid. The holidays are a perfect excuse for a festive spruce, to invoke some cheer before we ring in the new year. 

 

Here are 7 fail-proof ways to refreshing your home for the holidays, which will fit any home type, budget, and interior style. They start with the easiest, and grow in scale and complexity as you move down the list, so there’s something for everyone. 

 

Some candles and pine cones are all you need to subtly bring a holiday mood to your coffee table (Source: Unsplash, Photo by Olena Sergienko)

 

 

Curate one festive nook in the home

 

This tip will especially please the minimalists out there. If decorating sounds like a colossal chore, the trick is to make it as effortless and low commitment as possible. One way is to pick just one spot in the home, no matter the size, to focus your festive facelift. 

 

It can be as compact as dressing up your everyday coffee table, or as extensive as your entire communal space, but controlling the decorative area will help narrow your to-do and shopping lists, saving you time, energy and money. 

 

Let it glow, let it glow, let it glow (Source: Unsplash, Photo by Evelyn Horvath)

 

 

Light it up

 

Perhaps the easiest and most low-maintenance way to bring in a festive vibe is to simply add decorative lighting at home. From basic string lights and candles to elaborate Christmas-specific snowflake trees, there are a myriad lighting options to choose from, more than enough to light every room at home with a different shimmering glow.  

 

Christmas’s signature colours the natural way (Source: Unsplash, Photo by Nadia Pimenova)

 

 

Change up the house plants

 

Another straightforward way to instantly inject some yuletide cheer in your home is to bring in some signature Christmas flora. Naturally bedecked in the season’s signature shades, the crimson blooms of the poinsettia make it a popular perennial plant choice. 

 

For a more verdant look, the Norfolk Island Pine or Lemon Cypress are great evergreen indoor plants with similar silhouettes and textures to Christmas trees. 

 

 

Pick a theme to unite your festive decor

 

Before you set off to the nearest Christmas market or furnishing store to soak up the festive spirits whilst picking up some new interior baubles, we suggest giving some thought to a theme or motif to which your festive decor will abide. Otherwise you might come home to find a shopping bag full of decor items that barely match, or worse, clash. 

 

A traditional red and green theme is perfect for those who are inclined towards timeless styles, and would like to reuse the decor in the future. For a more contemporary vibe, simply go against that classic grain and pick any other hue you fancy - not forgetting that it should still complement your home’s existing interior style, of course. Rose gold and jewel tones like turquoise and amethyst are frequent favourites, as these saturated hues invoke warmth and cosiness, perfect during this wintry season.  

 

Source: Unsplash

 

 

Swap the soft furnishings

 

Ornaments and accessories may come first to mind when thinking about festive decor, but soft furnishings play an important, if underrated, part as well. Consider changing your cushion covers and throws from your usual linens to more sumptuous and patterned fabrics for the holidays. Velvets, plaids, and cable knits add a flurry of cosy textures that definitively up the snuggle ante of your sofa.

 

The same trick works for the bedrooms, too. Give your routine bed linens a rest by breaking out the festive bedding - patterned sheets with festive prints (snowflakes, reindeer, rustic country scenes), and even fleece-lined blankets for extra fuzziness against the season’s chilly nights.

 

Let your eyes feast on a sumptuous tablescape (Source: Unsplash, Photo by Libby Penner)

 

 

Set up a holiday table that’s a feast for the eyes

 

Hosting guests or dinner parties in the coming weeks? Since the dining table is where the merrymaking will largely take place, you can’t go wrong if you concentrate your decorative energies on this hotspot. 

 

Tablescaping, which is the art of arranging one’s table in an aesthetically pleasing way, may sound daunting, but it only needs to be as complicated as you make it. The two main things that will influence your table’s look will be the colour scheme and dinner menu. Choose a few hues that work well together, such as pink, gold and white, and keep your tablewares and other items within that palette. Your menu and how you will serve the dishes will affect the cutlery and dishes that will be laid on your table. 

 

 

No mantel, no problem. Sideboards and TV consoles make great substitutes. (Source: Unsplash, Photo by Erica Marsland)

 

 

Create a holiday “mantel”

 

A stockinged mantel over a crackling fireplace is a classic holiday imagery that many of us are familiar with. In our tropical city, however, one would be hard pressed to find a mantel or fireplace to recreate this scene. However, all you need is a long, slightly elevated surface to create your very own holiday mantel - consider your sideboard, TV console, or even your open bookshelves to serve as substitute mantels. 

 

Once you’ve identified your appointed “mantel,” dress it up as you fancy. A simple illuminated garland can be fashioned from real or artificial leaves, such as pine or magnolia, when wired together with string lights. To hang stockings to the edge, attach adhesive hooks to the surface that can be removed easily once the holiday season ends.