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Updated: Dec 23, 2021




Have you ever walked inside someone's house at the holidays and immeadiately felt like you had been transported to a winter wonderland? It smells like a mix between christmas cookies and winter balsm trees, you see candles, garland, matching ornaments, perfectly wrapped presents placed neatly under the tree, and pristine china waiting to be used at the dining table. You wonder... how do they have time to do all of this? Especially during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. It is really not as hard as it seems. Honestly it just takes some really good organization, time management, and a little imagination.

When it comes to getting your home ready for the holidays having your decorative christmas items handy and labeled correctly is crucial to getting your home in the Holiday spirit. It is easier if you don't have your christmas tree stuffed up in the attic where you can't get it down by yourself and have to wait for someone to get it down for you.



As a solution dedicate a section in the garage or basement to just christmas decor storage. Its relatively inexpensive to purchase a plastic shelf (ranging from $80 - $200 new, and don't be afraid to purchase these second hand either you won't be showing them off) to keep boxes tidy and acess it easily when you have time to decorate. Something similar to the picture shown above. Clear boxes help with finding what you need at a quick glance, but just be mindful of the space you are putting it in. If the area gets lots of sunlight you may not want precious items to get faded with the years so darker colors like navy blue or black tubs may work better for your brighter space. Just make sure to label them correctly and if necessary get trays or divders for ornaments to keep them from getting damaged and always wrap the fragile ones in tissue paper or bubble wrap.





Selecting a project for each day and making To Do lists helps you get things done in a timely manner.Having the space to work helps get the job done more efficiently. I usually try to clear out my livingspace of everything nonessential first, so there is room to work and then put all of my knick-knacks and decorations. Espcially the family stuff thats old and the more fragile things like the porcelian nativity scene.


Now don't be afraid to get really into putting up your decorations, crank up the holiday tunes, make a nice Peppermint Mocha or Hot Cocoa and get the kids in on it too. My parents always put the tree together but my brother and I were the offical "Tree Fluffer's" and "ornament placers". Although mom and dad did get the high places on the tree and the tree topper placed. It makes it so fun when everyone is in on the decorating. As children it gave us such pride seeing our own handmade ornaments from school hanging on the tree even seeing special ones we got on vacation made us smile seeing the places we had visited. Ofcourse we each had our own favorite activity at christmas time but it was so nice to help each other and it makes memories as kids for a lifetime.



Personally,I love to have a nice wreath on my front door so all those who don't get to enter my home kind of get to see a holiday greeting from the outside as a warm winter welcome. Below are 2 wreaths I hand made. (Keep scrolling in the slideshow to see how the ribbon wreath was made) and the front door wreath I bought it's from Target, I love shopping there! I find hand made items to be so much more personal than things you find in a store.





Some of the best cozy touches are simple ones that make a big impact. Like keeping the house smelling fresh with a sweet candle. The warm comforting glow adds ambuiance and aroma to the air and just makes the house feel like a home. Adding to that warm glow a fire going in the fireplace always adds a touch of cozy plus adding a few chunky or fluffy throws in the living room just beckons people to sit down, cover up, and watch a christmas movie.




Make this Christmas yours in a special way. We have all been crazy since we spent last Christmas in quarrentine. Do something different this year to make your home feel more special like a festive advent calendar or maybe a projector for the house this year. Whatever you choose I hope you and yours have a very Merry and Cozy Christmas this year and a Happy New year in 2022!



-Miranda Montgomery






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I want to share my physical projects here so we can go through the transformation process start to finish. My first post-graduation project was our home office. It is a converted bedroom to office space and the previous owner had purple walls with stenciled designs from Alice in Wonderland, the Giving Tree, and Edgar Allen Poe poetry. Please refer to the following pictures to see this room in its original state.

A dark color was chosen to cover up the room's initial Cheshire Cat purple. The color is a dark charcoal gray from BEHR. Felt it was dark enough, modern, and wouldn't be a distracting color for a work environment. If anyone likes the gray paint color used in this makeover I'm including a snapshot of the paint can label.

With a new paint color the room started taking shape. It needed something to make the dark charcoal color a bit softer, more inviting. After much deliberation and consideration the best option was to do an accent wall in the office. Some pallets were ripped apart then the wood was sanded and given a light dry coat of paint to give it a white washed look. Next the wood was attached to the wall with finishing nails so there would be minimal damage to the drywall. Below is a halfway shot of the install of the accent wall and then the finished wall.



For a long time it was this desk and a desktop computer in this room and that was it, as far as furniture goes. A new desk was ordered and I was given the small white desk. I didn't think the white color fit the room very well so I decided to update the small desk to a black and marble look. The top of the desk is done in chalkboard paint so it could be written directly on. The sides I put black marble contact paper on to it for a more streamlined, luxurious, and contemporary style.

Next once this desk began to feel too small to accomplish the tasks that I needed (and the funds were acquired). I ordered a matching desk for my side of the office. Oh the difference an L-shaped desk makes for space and productivity. I came up with a digital design of how I envisioned the office looking so we had a plan to follow. The program I use is roomstyler.com for two reasons. One because it's user friendly and secondly because it's free. Below is the design I came up with for a well balanced and cohesive work space.


It really did not take long after making this concept drawing to get this office put together. We took the small old desk and made it a central location for the printer and made a coffee station beside it. We upgraded the living room TV to a 55" 4K Roku TCL smart TV so we moved the 50" Samsung TV that was there up here to the office. It's great because it has an amazon Fire stick installed to make it a better smart t.v. that we can link to our computer for presentations. The curtains for the windows are navy blue with a black out panel to the backside. They were not expensive, just picked up both the rods and the curtains from Walmart. I went with the 60" length because I wanted them a bit shorter and I bought one panel for each window because when they are opened I did not want any fabric covering the flat screen in-between the windows. We have plenty of storage for not only our books but our camera gear as well. This is the finished product of the room. I would love to get your thoughts on how it turned out. I love how well it works for us and I think it's a great space we can bring clients to an be very proud that we did it all ourselves. Stay tuned for my next project blog for more exciting makeovers!






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