Holiday Decorating, Part 2: Bright Colors and DIYs

Some of the most refreshing holiday decor we've seen falls outside of the traditional red, white and green color palette. It's fun to incorporate brights and neons for a change.

For example, in Jill's living room, we went with a "black, white and color" theme:

We also love this happy garland from Midget Gems featured on Apartment Therapy:

(via Apartment Therapy)

Your table settings and centerpieces are an easy opportunity to add color. For Jill's holiday place settings, we set out a bowl of bright Christmas balls and then carried the color through the ribbons tied around the napkins:

We tucked an air plant under the ribbon as a modern alternative to the traditional fir tree clipping.

Two DIY projects add some extra fun to our decorations. On the kitchen wall, we hung an original art piece created by Lauren Hosmer from our team.

Lauren glued mini-cookie cutters together (get out your glue gun!) and then painted some of the interiors with red acrylic paint. After hanging the piece with clear fishing line, she inserted a few air plants for a funky touch.

Lauren also created the dramatic vases on the living room table:

Lauren transformed simple wine, Perrier and sake bottles using acrylic paint and painter's tape. (Hint: remove the labels from the bottles and paint the white layer before adding the colorful stripe!) 

What's your current holiday color scheme? Do you have a favorite Holiday DIY? Share them with us in the comments below!

Holiday Decorating, Part 1: Stockings

Nothing says Christmas like stockings bulging with goodies, hung over a roaring fire. But if you don't have a fireplace (or even a mantel), stockings can still be part of your holiday decorating scheme. They bring the holiday spirit whether hung from doorknobs, on wall hooks, or even on an empty coat rack!

At Jill's own house, she hangs her stockings on her stair bannisters, and varies the style of the stockings from year to year. This holiday she found these charming, colorful and unique stockings at the Alameda Flea Market.

She also bought a set of minis for the pets in the family!

Last year we added gold chain to the greenery with the stockings on the bannister:

If you're still searching for the right stockings, here's a few cool ones we found:

White and fluffy from West Elm.

Colorful stripes from LIVbyLouise on etsy.

Graphic and modern by StudioTree on etsy.

Colorful -- and customized -- from Urban Creative, also from etsy.

Where do you hang your stockings? And what's your favorite thing to find inside your stocking? Let us know in the comments below!