DECORATING WITH URNS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Tis the Season for Decorating! Your interiors are being dressed for Christmas -  Layers of warmth and some evergreen added to the bedroom, a wreath and candles at the mantle in the family room, and the tree is adorned with ornaments and lights in your front window to share your joy of Christmas! But why stop there? Take it outside! I don't mean you have to convert the exterior of your home to look like Broadway or the Grizwalds - but simply adding a little holiday cheer at the entry is a wonderful way to welcome family & friends for holiday get togethers. A simple way to address the entry - large or small - is with urns. For the holidays, urns can be filled with an arrangement of fresh cut greens, branches, pinecones, oversized ornaments, or even a small spruce. The arrangement can be lit, or stand on its own - whether under a covered entry or urns can even look magical covered in some fresh fallen snow. Urns can also be used in a inside entry on a pedestal, a console or buffet. Here are some ideas to get you inspired...

 

Welcome guests with an entry as grand as the holiday season!

 

Use an urn to plant paper-whites...

 

En lieu of lamps, use a pair of urns on a buffet...

 

In a small entry, use a single urn with vintage ornaments & antlers, set on a pedestal in front of a mirror...

 Add some swag to your entry draping cypress garland flanked with white urns & greens...

 

A bountiful urns can be created with a mix of greens, natural pinecones and shine...

 

Lead the way with small urns & greens in a stairway...

 

A mix of winter greens are hardy enough to withstand a light dusting of snow outside...

 

A small rusty urn can add can add charm with a small tree and pinecones inside...

Large or small, urns can handle the holidays. Urns can be as heavy as cement or iron, great for outdoors, as porous as pottery for the porch, or as light as fiberglass for a pedestal indoors. Urns can be found at your local home decor store...

 

 I found this fiberglass urn at Garden Ridge...

 Urns can also be found at your local Garden Center...

Cast stone Medici urns at Home Depot

 Do you use urns - inside or out - to decorate with for the holidays?

Urns are a good decor investment piece - not only for the holidays, but this classic vessel can be used through most every season.

 

An urn with birch branches can take you through the holidays and winter...

I hope you're inspired!

For additional holiday or seasonal ideas, visit my pinboard

Decorating with Urns

Happy Holiday Decorating!

Thanks for stopping by,

Sharing post at the 

HomeGoods - Design Happy Blog - Holiday Link-Party!

Also linked post to:

 Christmas Extravaganza - Setting For Four

DECORATING WITH URNS FOR THE SEASONS

Do you love to change your home decor for the seasons? The foundation to being able to make a big impact from small changes is having a few transitional key pieces. Although very traditional in style and history, one key piece that can gracefully work into almost any space, anytime of the year is an urn. An urn can be small and sit in pairs on your mantle. An urn can be over-sized and sit on pedestals at an entry. An urn can be inside on a table in the foyer, or an urn can be the focal point of your courtyard or garden. As for fillers - urns can carry ferns in spring, hydrangea or coral in the summer, branches in the fall, and a mix of evergreens, ornaments, and pinecones in the winter. For holidays, urns can also be a statement piece to contain flowers for Easter, pumpkins for fall, and oversized ornaments at Christmas. Here are a few ideas for decorating with urns for the seasons or anytime of the year...

 

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Fill an urn with a collection of old books... 

 

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Fill and urn with fruit in the dining room... 

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Fill an urn with treasures from the sea, like coral on the fireplace...

 

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 Fill an urn with glorious hydrangea in summer...

 

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Fill an urn in the Fall with your favorite gourds...

 

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Fill an urn at an entryway with branches in Winter...

 

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Fill an urn with greenery any time of year...

 

Fill an urn for holiday with evergreens, ornaments, and even antler as Matthew Mead did for his new book... Matthew Mead's Holiday All Through The House is available for pre-order via Amazon.com and Amazon.ca.

 

Fiberglass urn at Garden Ridge 

 

Cast stone Medici urns at Home Depot

Large or small, urns can do it all. Urns can be as heavy as cement or iron, great for outdoors, as porous as pottery for the porch, or as light as fiberglass for a pedestal indoors. Urns are easy to find at your local garden center or home decor store.

 

 Read: Aging an urn with paint

And if over time, you still love the shape, but not the finish, urns are easy to patina and paint (I can remember learning and doing this when I did freelance window displays with Rei Diaz at Displayworks in Miami!) 

Do you decorate your home with urns? Inside or out?

Coming up, I'll share more specific inspiration for decorating with urns for Fall, as well as Winter Holiday... 

Happy decorating and thanks for stopping by,

How To Create a Christmas Centerpiece With Conifers & Pinecones

Last year, I had shared Ideas For Decorating With Pinecones, and being a little more traditional at heart for the holidays, I too used them again in our new place this year. Using pinecones is a really wonderful way to add nature & texture to your home for the holidays. I especially like the contrast of the pinecones mixed with the shine of mercury glass or mixed with galvanized metal. This year to relate to our new location and add a little rustic touch, I did just that: I reused two galvanized rectangular containers, two thrifted pails I recently found and a large basket to pile my pinecones in...

 

This years basket of pinecones mixed with silver bells and a 

keepsake star sits on our coffee table...

 

My grandfather made the star when he worked at a steel mill in NJ.

This was the tree topper my parents used traditionally every year and I grew up with...

 

To mix in some rustic charm, I used my galvanized containers, just filled with pinecones and some Christmas balls added for shine...

 

I also reused some twine I had saved from some flower arrangements...

 

A few years ago, I had used the same containers, but mixed with fresh cut greens...

 

This year, I really like the simplicity of the pairing of nature texture and shine.

I recently scored these two shiny pails, and just filled them with pinecones...

 

They helped make this years Christmas vignette on the red painted thrifted buffet (previously in our FL living room), I now have upstairs in the loft.

To make the galvanized container filled with pinescones is simple & quick. 

Here is what I used:

2 Rectangular Galvanized containers ($5 ea. at BigLots 6 yrs. ago)

Packing paper (or newspaper) as filler

Silver pinecones as filler

Various sized pinecones

Various sized Christmas balls (or bells) for shine

2 Glass containers

Small pheasant feather clusters for height

Twine

 

I used feathers (I plucked from last years Thanksgiving centerpiece), but you could also use a glass cylinder to hold a pillar candle .

 

Since we just moved, I put some of the packing paper to good use, 

but you can also use newspaper.

 

 

Since I was near the end of my pinecones to use, I separated what I had to use for two container displays.

 

 

Measuring cups are a great way to sprinkle buffalo snow onto your display.

 

 

You can further decorate the outside of your container by hot gluing bells to it (use the lines as your guide), add twine or ribbon, or even hang word ornaments like peace, hope or joy - the message for the season...

 

Keep your display monochromatic with just shades of brown & bronze...

 

Or mix in those fresh cut green for the fresh scent of pine...

These containers are simple ways to winterize your homes decor for the holidays. They can be used on console tables in an entrance or behind a sofa, coffee tables, side tables or in bookcases. It's low enough to also use as a centerpiece on your dining table for a holiday gathering, mixed with candles. The Beachy Bottles I made this past summer also got winterized for our Christmas decor this year. Stop back by tomorrow and I'll show you how!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

 

LINKING POST TO:

 

The DIY Showoff - Project Parade

Under The Table and Dreaming - Sunday Showcase

Sisters Of The Wild West- Sister Sunday Link-up

Between Naps on the Porch - Metamorphosis Monday

Skip To My Lou - Made By You Monday

Dittle Dattle - Amaze Me Monday

Centsational Girl - Holiday Craft Party 

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