Holiday Decor - easy and inexpensive ways to decorate for the holidays

Last weekend, I did a complete home makeover for the winner of Time Warner Cable’s #EnjoyHolidaysBetter campaign for winners Paul and Claire Ryser. They’ve been married 5 years and never had a tree! This post is filled with simple, beautiful and inexpensive ideas to decorate your home for the holidays. Their home backed to woods, which inspired a woodsy meets glitz holiday decor theme.

simple, inexpensive and elegant Christmas decor ideas

I spoke with the winner to see what they had, took my budget shopping and started decorating. Here are a few before and after photos, including a few of the details:

Before:

A living room filled with furniture and a fire place

After:

simple and elegant Christmas decorations

I spent the majority of the budget on getting them a pre-lit Christmas tree and ornaments. I loved it-it forced me to get really creative on the rest of the decor, and it will be so nice for them to keep! To the left, you’ll see the garland I made from fishing twine and the non-shatter snowflake ornaments. Oh, and I made that tree skirt – without sewing. Click here for the easy DIY.

easy and inexpensive Christmas decor ideas

I added pieces of fresh frasier fir on the mantel to give them the fragrance of a real tree, while not upsetting their cats! You can get them {usually free} from hardware stores and tree lots.

beautiful and inexpensive Christmas decor | rustic elegance

When I spoke with Paul and Claire, they said they would like to refrain from a lot of color. To make their tree stand out, I filled it with lots of texture, including glitter ornaments {DIY here}, a mix of glass and non-shatter ornaments, pinecones and icicles.

Before:

A wood dining room table with a brown carpet underneath

After:

inexpensive ideas to decorate for the holidays

I used a gold paper mache reindeer, faux mini tree and a stump {free at tree lot} as accents in the dining room.

For the dining room table, I created a table runner from two pieces of thick burlap ribbon, purchased in the floral section at craft stores. I used her pedestal to display pinecones that were lightly glitter sprayed. Ornaments added an additional element at each place setting and in the wine glasses. So simple!

Wood chips were transformed to serve as place card holders. {DIY}

I added a wreath to their dining room window to create a focal point for the dining room table.

simple ideas to decorate for the holidays

easy & beautiful ways to decorate for the holidays

The burlap ribbon is seen again tied to the barstools with spare non-shatter snowflake ornaments.

Before:

A bathroom with white appliances and festive poinsettias.

After:

I added fresh holly and berries around the mirror, spray painted the base of a store bought poinsettia gold and switched their bath rug with a faux fur rug they already had.