Tricia’s Magenta and Gold Modern Traditional Christmas

This is a guest post from my Senior Colour Designer Tricia Firmaniuk. Tricia is also an artist and I love her decorating style! I asked her to photograph her house for the blog! Enjoy!

Traditional yet Fresh Holiday Decorating

Happiest of holiday decorating! I’m sure most of you are already enjoying the fruits of your decorating labor, but if you’re still getting to it, here’s what I did this year to help inspire you.

My inspiration was to do a modern take on simple, traditional holiday decor. But I didn’t want to do the red and green thing. Red is not a colour I enjoy working with typically. (Although, lately I’ve been seeing some pretty reds used in a fresh way in my Instagram feed, so maybe next year I’ll give it a go.)

This year, I wanted to work with the rich magenta and gold that I have already in my living room. The challenge was to make it feel traditional but fresh.

Some years, we go to Toronto to spend Christmas with my husband’s family, and my decorating is low key, but this year we are sticking around so I got really excited about decking the halls for some cozy winter hibernation.

On the hunt for ornaments

My daughter Vera and I headed out to hunt for ornaments for the tree on the weekend. She wanted rich cobalt blue while I was on the lookout for deep magenta pink.

We spent all day and came home defeated with a bag of soft beige glass glass balls from Michael’s. Eeep. Not a promising start.

Turns out, traditional red and green were really big at the stores this year. I do remember a few years back when all the ornaments were in non traditional candy colours like hot pink, lime and turquoise, but not this year, ack.

I did find an insanely amazing source for any colour of Christmas balls you can dream up here, (bookmark this one for next year). But for this year, I didn’t want to wait for shipping. So I had to get creative.

Magenta finials from Christmas Central

Florals saved the Day

I was about to settle on a neutral champagne/beige, black and white tree, which would need a lot of interesting texture play to look good, when I spotted some very realistic looking hot pink faux chrysanthemums in the floral section of Homesense (on sale, yay!) and a tub of dried citrus slices. I wasn’t sure, but I thought I’d take them home and give it a go.

Well, limitation really is the mother of creativity, I am SO happy with how it turned out!

It has a pared back modern yet traditional vibe which was exactly what I was going for. I added some deep purple balls for a little depth in the colour palette and a subtle cream and black plaid ribbon to really reinforce the traditional thing and voila!

I picked up a whole bunch of stuff to play with on our simple (faux) mantel, angels, candlesticks, mercury glass, and ended up going with a very pared down look that is both fresh and traditional.

I’m really happy with the festive yet casual vibe.

I piled the Satsuma oranges on either side to decide whether I should get some kind of vessel to hold them and ended up loving the casual stack as they are.

Styling a long Wall

The heavy black candle holders  and slim black round mirror balance the graphic black of the painting in the dining room (below) and give the whole thing a modern edge.

A long wall that has to be the focal point for both the living room and the dining room is a BIG decorating challenge, let me tell you. I have grappled with it for years. But this year I feel like I got it pretty close to right (below).

I was able to bring in the cobalt blue to make Vera happy in the wrapping and ribbons (phew!).

And the orange  and lime slices just feel so country traditional. They act like stained glass when the light comes through them and they are a pretty foil for the hot pink flowers don’t you think?

Styling the Dining Room

To style my dining room, I used just fruit, flowers and candles for a simple rustic modern look. This is easy to throw together if you have last minute holiday entertaining to do.

Just clear off the kids’ crafts and homework (let’s be real) and plunk down some citrus, dates and pomegranates on various platters, add candles and market flowers and some snacks and you’re done.

And of course, you’re not holiday ready without a bar. Isn’t this mirrored champagne bottle (below) so pretty?

Easy Casual Holiday Arrangement

I picked up some baby’s breath and arranged it in a wide low bowl. Then, added pine cones on my vintage glass coffee table. It really feels snowy and festive (below).

It’s always interesting to get my two busy Springers, Stanley and Mabel, to pose for a photo.

They’re usually a blur of brown and white spots because they rarely sit still. They’ve both been caught stealing orange slices off the tree, so they might all be gone from the bottom half by the time Santa arrives, haha.

I really had fun with this this year, and I’m delighted to share it with you. I had never used flowers on my tree before, but it’s a new trick up my sleeve that I’m sure I’ll pull out again. Have you ever decorated your tree with flowers?

Thanks Tricia for this beautiful post, I love your holiday decorating!

Related posts:

4 Keys to Fresh Christmas Decor (Even with Brown Furniture)

The Holiday Home of my Neighbour, the Rose Whisperer

The Iris Apfel School of Holiday Decorating