Here’s a closer look inside my home decorated for the holidays and also featured in Canadian Living Magazine. I’m including a few tips to help you decorate a magazine worthy home this season.
I am overwhelmed with gratitude by the number of you who bought my White is Complicated, A Decorators Guide to Choosing the Right White eBook in the past two days since I launched it!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, it makes all my hard work for this launch so worth it!
Your emails and feedback have been so much fun to read! Onto my holiday tour!
I have had this tiny figurine (below) that I inserted into the gingerbread house in my kitchen last year since I was a little girl, isn’t she adorable?
The Best Trim Colours NOT Cloud White was one of the first posts I wrote the weekend I started writing my blog in November 2008. In December 2008, Brett Walther mentioned it on Style at Home’s blog when he was an editor there. Now he’s the Home & Garden Director at Canadian Living and last year when I decorated my house for Christmas, Brett and the team at Canadian Living accepted the photos for Christmas this year!
It’s kind of fitting that my house has just come out in the magazine along with my eBook launch!
That was why you didn’t get the tour last year for the holidays!
I am so grateful and honoured to everyone at Canadian Living for including me in this issue.
And you can do it too! I am including some tips throughout this post if you’d like to get your holiday decor published!
If you look closely, you can see the Spring decor in the small photo in the bottom corner above and below:
Holiday Decorating Tips
Of course, that tour was the condensed version, here are the photos!
Welcome to my home! I’m so delighted that you have stopped by to visit!
My green front door, get the colour here.
My raspberry drapes really fit into the holiday colour scheme!
Open up the magazine you like and hire one of the photographers whose work regularly appears in the magazine. Tracey Ayton’s work is regularly in both Style at Home and Canadian Living, and she shoots without using a single light. Using aperture only. Gorgeous.
1. Wrap empty boxes in beautiful wrapping paper that coordinates with your Christmas decor.
Spend an entire day or more meticulously wrapping and arranging boxes with wonderful ribbon and ornaments. Such an easy–and inexpensive–way to add colour and holiday cheer!
2. Adding Colourful ornaments to decorative vases and vessels always looks good
3. Add colourful ornaments to your garland of greens
It’s not hard to attach bunches of ornaments to a garland around your mantle. I posted about this last year when I was decorating here.
I’m always a sucker for a cute face! That’s how these owls ended up as part of my holiday decor!
4. Set your table as if you were about to serve dinner.
This is where you can totally Go OVER the TOP!
5. Don’t forget to include fresh flowers!
Nothing dresses up a table like flowers, One of the first posts I wrote the same weekend I started blogging was about the difference between flowers or not ages ago, here.
6. Beautifully wrapped gifts underneath the tree are also a must!
Unless you can think of something else creative, this is great filler for beautiful photographs.
7. Decorate a simple gingerbread house for your kitchen
Last year I posted a tour of my friend Rebecca’s house and she had whipped up this gingerbread house for her decorations. She generously donated it to me for my photo shoot. You’ll see it in hers right here. It adds just the right touch of festive to my kitchen!
I love these glittery santa boots I bought last year. I insert glasses in them with water to hold holiday greenery.
I seem to have accumulated quite the collection of white porcelain animals. The penguins are perfect here, watching over the gingerbread homes.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!
Thank you so much for supporting me by buying my eBook!! xoxo Maria
Related posts:
The Gucci Guide to Holiday Decorating
Maria’s Studio Dressed for the Holidays
If you would like to transform the way you see colour, become a True Colour Expert.
Maria, I am in LOVE with all the color, you home makes me smile, big time!!
Merry Christmas,
Kathysue
So beautiful! The colours take my breath away! If you asked me I would say I do not like raspberry but then I see your rooms and I LOVE raspberry! lol!
Love the colours. So fresh and fun.
Oh how very exciting – being published in Canadian Living magazine. I thought I loved my Christmas decor, but now I want to change everything!
I especially love your little girl statue – I’ve got little snowmen that I’ve had ever since I was a little girl and they are so dear to me!
xo I just love your style – breathtaking!!
Maria, one word…WOW! It’s breathtaking! I love it so much. I’m such a sucker for cute lil faces too, love the owls and the Penguins. Your home looks so festive and colorful. Full of life and yes it does make me smile. Very warm. Oh and I love the Santa boots. lol Absolutely fantastic!
Oh! Maria, I just bought your book, I hadn’t the time to start it but I saw the video. Perfect! And now I see your home with details and I immediately called my sofa man to change the scheme of 4 sofas I make for a project. Off the buttons, in the nails all the way around the back. Nice inspiration!
Maria, your decorations are absolutely gorgeous and the colours are delicious. I only follow one other blog – Quiltville.com by Bonnie Hunter. I am a quilter and earlier this year she taught some classes at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan and devised a mystery quilt using the colours they have decorated with. They are your colours. I live in Australia and haven’t been there but I thought of you as soon as I saw the pictures. Enjoy your Christmas and thank you for all your inspiration.
Stunning Maria! Congrats!
Gorgeous! It’s like living in the midst of sunshine. The Christmas gold booties with greenery are one of my favorite elements. Congratulations on being published.
I’ve always had a huge crush on your kitchen, now its the living and dining rooms. Beautiful!
Love the fun holiday decorating! Congratulations on all your milestone events in 2014! I am in love with the dining room chandelier – can you tell me the name of the manufacturer?
Thanks Annie! Unfortunately I don’t remember but I bought it from Mint Interiors in Vancouver for around $750 Canadian. Hope that helps, Maria
Your home is absolutely beautiful – inspiring and Like Cathysue says – makes me smile – very cheerful and bright – how Christmas should be.
Congrats on both your editorial and also your Ebook – I have bought it and love it.
Thanks for sharing so much of yourself with so many of us – you are amazing.
This is amazing! The details are incredible!
Congratulations Maria on being published again. LOVE the Nutcracker all suited up in pink!
Re the glitter Santa boots, can recall as a child there was always a pair of red flocked ones that adorned my parent’s fireplace mantel each year, so thank you for bringing that memory back to me. -Brenda-
P.S: That was sixty + years ago so I am guessing unlike today, their white fur trim wasn’t faux and was the real thing. ☺
love your little pink trees, and your round wooden tables…..well I love ALL of it
Your home looks absolutely ravishing! I loved how you combined different elements (balls, pine cones, accessories…) in beautiful blend of colors & nature. I find the wrapped gifts marking the corners & furniture. Hope you will have an Amazing Christmas just like your Amazing home!
Beautiful! Love the pink nutcracker!
Congratulations Maria! I’ve been following you for over 4 years, and your growing success makes me happy! I love, love your Christmas decor. So cheerful. Thanks for the publication hint.
How gorgeous your decorating ideas are Maria. I love the happy colors you use in your decor and in the Christmas decorations and gift wrap. I have pinned several to Pin It. Merriest Christmas to you and your family.
Just beautiful! Your hard work and dedication shine through in these photos!
Just beautiful, Maria. So many lovely touches.
So gorgeous!!! So bright and cheery! Love it all. I want to come over for a holiday visit this morning! Darn! oh yeah, we aren’t close enough for that! one day!! oxox
HI Maria, love this blog post. Thank you for sharing the beautiful pictures in such detail. Love the little girl that you place in the vignette. For some reason that really speaks to me of the innocence of children.
Just a quick note to ask how soon the ebooks arrive. I purchased two yesterday and they have not arrived in my email yet. Can’t wait to see them.
Hi Michelle, Hmmm. . . you should have got them immediately, I will send your email to store and we’ll figure it out! Thanks for buying my books! x Maria
Maria, Love those Santa boots – so cute. Something I learned years ago that you might like, use baby pinecones or moss, or ornaments on top of the soil in potted plants. It dreeses up the naked look of the pots. Beautiful post !!!
I just brought my Christmas bins down from the attic last night. So I should be getting busy this morning turning my home into winter wonderland. But instead I’m enjoying all of your hard work.
Maria, everything is stunning!
My daughter & I went on a Christmas house tour last weekend. And nothing we saw compares to your beautiful home.
Congratulations on your white book. It must be such a relief to have it finally completed.
Lordy, girl…you KNOCKED THIS ONE OUT OF THIS WORLD!! What an absolutely fabulous decorating (HAPPY) PLACE!! (Those glitter Santa boots on the table photo…the BEST!) franki
I’ve never been one to decorate much for the holidays but this year with a new home I’m kind of getting into it! I even purchased pink pointsettas. Here is my question – did you paint that nutcracker pink?! I have an old broken nutcracker and I may now just be inspired to spray paint him solid and give him a new life!
Well done Maria!
I did not, it did come that way though, a present from my sister 🙂 Maria
Absolutely beautiful. Maria you are an inspiration to so many people. I can’t tell you how much I have learned from you. Congratualtions!!!!
Maria, wish you good health, happiness and prosperity in the New Year. Enjoy Christmas with your loved ones.How could anyone not have a wonderful time in that very happy, joyful looking home, beautifully decorated for the holidays!
Your decorations are absolutely beautiful, Maria, and a real tour would have to last for several hours, maybe a day or two, just to discover everything. My favorites are the baby owls. The serendipity is that the photos of your decorations highlight certain elements in your rooms that weren’t so noticeable before. I crave that stunning chandelier in the dining room that I’d never really noticed before.
Bought your e-book the day I got the launch e-mail – my Christmas gift from you to me to myself and I’m part of the way just scanning. My second Christmas gift came yesterday when a new neighbor with my floorplan invited me over for coffee and a close-up touch-and-feel look at her new white kitchen. I’d caught a look from her front door before and I got excited. This was an opportunity to see what my cabinets would look like once they were painted – beautiful and brand new. Her painter did a great job and chose a great color. He will now be my painter and a kitchen consult with you is much closer than “eventually”.
Congrats on all and Merry Christmas!
Good Morning….LOVE…LOVE…LOVE….your décor! Thank you so, for inviting us in! *perfection extraordinaire* !! 🙂
I have always loved the vibrant use of COLOUR you use in your house, and is obviously part of your personal aesthetic! I understand that a monochromatic palette is challenging to achieve, and is very desirable by many…I just prefer COLOUR! I love your home, and you pull out all the stops for the season! Fantastic!
It’s absolutely fabulous! I think you should come to North Carolina and do mine EXACTLY like that!
Maria, Your home is absolutely fantastic! The color just makes me happy. I love all of your decor. The boots and the little owls are adorable. You have to be so proud of yourself. Every one of your posts is a lesson in design and I love it.
I was so impressed with your professionalism in the video. You have come a long way baby!! I immediately downloaded the book and all the “gifts” that you gave us. I will take them to Kinkos and have them printed and bound. I think I will have them bound into one book. That way I can take them with me wherever I go. Thank you for all that you do. I am sure God sent you to us.
Congratulations, Maria! Whenever I see your living and dining rooms, I’m always impressed with the colors used. I always feel the “need” to use something in the form of art or fabric to “link” my color scheme together but I don’t see that in your rooms. I wonder if you would consider a post describing how you arrived at the color scheme used in these rooms.
Hi Dawn,
I didn’t think of responding here until Betsy posted her answer. I was thinking a post was a good idea. So here’s the answer, Usually, you would need to repeat such a strong colour like the raspberry in the room or it would look odd, I decided to treat it like I was ‘colour blocking’ instead. The reason I can get away with it is because the yellow balances the raspberry, they are both clean and strong colours. If the sofa was grey or white, it would look very strange to only have raspberry in basically the drapes. Maria
Delish!!!! So fun! I want to eat your house 😉
Merry Christmas Maria and Terreeia ! xo Tess
Everything is just beautiful.
Absolutely beautiful, Maria. So festive and inviting! Congratulations!
To Dawn, Maria has linked all the living spaces with green and yellow beginning with her kelly green front door. The green is repeated in the DR gourd lamps and LR pillows. Yellow fabric covers the DR chairs and is repeated in the LR sofa and again in the nat geo magazines on the bookshelves in the den. Pink, green and yellow are all in the painting which is usually over the den fireplace and i believe in other paintings. That same hot pink is then on the LR drapery. Just green is carried into the white kitchen. Plus the walls/trim appear to be the same soft greige throughout… Well done, clean, contempory and
colorful. Love the new take on traditional christmas red (pink) and green (lime). Well done
Thanks Betsy..your description helped me in understanding how it flows so well.
Maria, hope u dont mind that i answered Dawns question for you….what off white or “ivory greige” is on the walls?
I believe it is Rice Paper by Cloverdale Paints
https://mariakillam.com/mariaslivingroomstyle/
Such a beautiful decor! I am amazed at how much inspiration your posts and your pictures provide. Happy Christmas!
Betsy, I don’t think I phrased my question clearly. Obviously the colors were repeated. What I’m wondering is what the starting point was. How did she arrive at pink, yellow and black? I would have started with something (a print fabric or wall art) with those colors and then used them. I’m just wondering what the inspiration was for using those colors, or did she come up with that scheme without any specific inspiration. I’m still probably not making myself clear:)
I started with the yellow sofa because it’s my favourite colour. Then I added the black and white rug to go with it and then green. It is rare to start a colour scheme without a ‘pattern’ that’s definitely easier but the yellow was a no brainer for me so I started there Maria
Love it all, Maria! You really know how to make everything pop with beautiful color that pleases our eyes perfectly! Thanks so very much for sharing so much knowledge with us. It’s transformative. I get asked almost every week what color is on my walls and it’s all because of you and your amazing technique!
omg! I also have about 3 of those little figurines! I will dig them out and post I pic of them! I haven’t seen anyone else who also had one!
So festive and light! Love the colour combinations! I especially love your green door!
Merry Merry!
Ivy
So inspirational! Great ideas for decorating at the holidays. Love the simplicity of ball ornaments in various bowls, glass cylinders and boxes! I put a few around my house. That’s how you know an article is good when you feel inspired to decorate right away
Congratulations! Your home is so fresh and happy, just like you! I can only hope that someday my home will be finished and as lovely as yours. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
You make it look soon easy!
Thank you for the colorful tour, I so enjoy your “canvas” of Christmas creativity. You inspire me, Maria.
http://karenjlee.fineartstudioonline.com/events
Always use this as inspiration pictures. Are the dining room hutch and chairs the same white as the trim?
Beautiful! How do you attach your wreaths above the fireplace and in front of the window?