Ying and Yang

On the weekend I went to the West Coast Christmas show and got some decorating tips from the Style Editor of Style At Home magazine and thought I would share them with you. When it came time to the question and answer period my hand shot up the highest! I asked him what do you do when 2 adults that have 2 completely different style tastes? I am a true country traditionalist when it comes to decorating on a regular day and especially for Christmas.. red and gold decorations in the house, lots of garlands, real tree decorated with ornaments that are unique because there is a memory attached to each one. Keith is a "modern" contemporary. he likes chrome, stainless steel. he would love to have an artificial sliver tree with ornaments that are all matching in silver and fuchsia or lime green (which he saw last week), no house decorating and just silver accents in the house. (No accounting for taste lol)

So I wanted to know what I could do to make it a more peaceful decorating season and here were his suggestions:

1. Keep the real memory tree as he could tell that was very important to me.
2. Group items in a theme rather then the whole house mixed with both themes. For example have the centre of a table hold a silver bowl with modern color balls or ornaments in the bowl on it
3. Decorate the bedrooms or bathrooms in the contemporary colors with white/silver twinkling lights
4. Use traditional lights on the tree but perhaps use white icicle lights outside.
5. Have a traditional wreath in the house say over a fireplace and a contemporary one on the front door.

Good ideas and most I had already incorporated in my home. I guess I have more style sense then I thought :)