Decorating for the Season: Our Favorite Holiday Embellishments Through the Years

Along with indulgent treats, spectacular lights and cozy evenings by the fireside, the holiday season also calls for extra special décor details. To get in the spirit, we’ve been digging through the AH&L archives, looking to some of Atlanta’s most stylish design talents for inspiration. Whether its bright botanicals, winter whites or traditional trimmings, our favorite holiday homes are abound with stylish designs and spirited arangements. Here’s a look at a few of our go-to sources of inspration:

Holiday Spirit
“I love the tradition of transforming your house into a whole different look for an entire month,” says designer Suzanne Kasler, who starts planning her holiday décor in November, allowing ample time to arrange the perfect festive flourishes. The predominantly neutral interiors of her Regency-style home in Buckhead provide the ideal backdrop for embellishments such as Frasier fir and juniper berries, antique ornaments and colorful nutcrackers.

Cool Yule
Aglow with varying votives and showcasing boxwood garden frames a charming 1930s cottage near Buckhead’s Duck Pond takes an innovative, organic approach to holiday cheer, calling upon the holiday spirit using earthy, moss letters and glowing lanterns. 

Winter Wonderland
When snow unexpectedly blanketed  Erica and Michael Dines’ Inman Park neighborhood, the couple, along with daughters Eva and Grace and pitbull Mia, headed outdoors to enjoy the sparkling winter wonderland.  A photographer and an artist, both Erica and Michael have an eye for aesthetics and a penchant for design, so together they created a holiday display amid the surrounding snow.

Feast Your Eyes
In this holiday tabletop design, emerald-green Saint-Louis crystal glasses, silver flatware and Hermès china complement a sculptural floral arrangement of hydrangeas and driftwood. 

Joyeux Noel
At Boutique de Noel, floral and garden designer Marie-Laure Coste Dujols of Le Jardin Francais crafts elegant Christmas creations, including one-of-a-kind wreaths and delicate ornaments. lejardinfrancais.com

Merry & Bright
Built in 1937, Beth Ervin’s stately colonial revival house is a classic ode to Christmas, boasting a style that’s traditional without being stuffy and in which natural elements often take center stage.

Christmas, Cabin-Style
When decking his mountain cabin for the holidays, Brian Patrick Flynn took a creative approach, transforming scripts from his favorite holiday movies into seasonal decor by printing them on canvas and hanging them up as scrolls. 

For even more holiday inspiration, pick up a copy of our December issue, on stands now.