Dec 25, 2007

I’m Dreaming of a Retro Christmas

Merry Retro Christmas!




It has been a walk down memory lane for our family, beginning with the lava lamps our children -- Audrey (19 yr.) and Alex (16 yr.)-- received this morning.


This has prompted discussion about “what was Christmas like when you were kids?”





We pulled out family photos with my mom entertaining guests at her '60s style Christmas party. My kids loved seeing her cat-eyes, her updo and wearing her perfectly fitted A-line dress.

We think she looked like Jackie O.

Trying to capture how my mom decorated for Christmas in the '60s, I pulled up photos from an HGTV, Design on a Dime, holiday room makeover, retro-style.

Holiday decorating of '50s and '60s can inspire today’s holiday design, even if you are not into mid-century modern.

Here are some ideas:


My mother, during the 50's and 60's, had a room decorated like the above photo, with silver and blue. Not just the tree being silver and blue, but the whole room!

I may be wrong, but it seems like in the mid-century we saw a lot more color coordination of the entire room to fit the theme. I remember relatives and friends also decorating such color-coordinated rooms.

You can create a dramatic look by coordinating the colors used in your decorations to work with your existing furnishings.

Consider changing out your pillows and artwork to reflect the color-theme of your tree. Also consider how your walls and furnishings can inspire the color for the decorations? My mother's blue living-room furnishings and walls inspired her use of silver and blue for her tree.



This room had a great start, pictured above. HGTV's Design on a Dime team took it further -- or backward -- and added retro-styled, color-coordinated accessories to pull off a dramatic '60s themed Christmas, pictured below.






Wrapping holiday paper and ribbon around particle boards (pictured above) reminds me of so many front doors I saw in the '60s covered with paper to resemble gifts. What a fun back drop this makes for photos of guests at a holiday party!

I can also see taking your existing framed artwork and covering with holiday wrap. If you have a montage of pictures on a wall, for example, you can cover them in holiday wrap to look like gifts.

If you don't want to cover your existing artwork and photos, but you do want to add some festive color, try adding holiday ribbons diagonally to the corners. Or string ribbon down behind the frames to look as if the artwork or photos are hanging on the ribbon.

I am taking inspiration from Mom's photo albums for decorating next year.

What design tips do you glean from Christmas past?


See more ideas at HGTV, Design on a Dime.

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