This year I went completely non-traditional and very simple with our holiday decor. I was craving something fresh and couldn’t get a dried floral wreath or some kind of dried floral garland out of my mind. We had been traveling, Tanner was in New York for work, and the next thing I knew it was mid-December and we still had pumpkins on our front stoop(!!). So I enlisted the sweetest floral babe, Taylor Anne, to help me track down some pretty dried florals and bring what I had been dreaming up to life. I was originally thinking of an all white and green palette, but skip down through the photos below to see the neutral dried floral wreath and mantel display Taylor came up with. We made simple DIY bleached strawflower chains for our tree, and I love that Taylor incorporated the strawflower into a main wreath that’s now hanging in our hall as well as on the mossy branch installation over our mantel to tie our tree and everything all together. Best of all, since we didn’t get our holiday-decorating act together until mid-December, will be traveling at the beginning of January, and the house doesn’t feel overly-Christmasy, I’m planning to leave everything up after the holidays. In fact, I’m now tempted to throw some kind of mid-January New Year’s party just to show off Taylor’s cool mantel installation in our living room.
DIY Bleached Strawflower Chains | SO easy! Taylor found this particular bleached strawflower at the SF Floral Mart (here’s something similar on Etsy). All you need besides the strawflower is a needle and thread. Simply trim the heads of the strawflower off their stems and string onto thread with your needle. Then hang wherever–your mantel, tree,.. wreath. It’s the perfect DIY to do while watching a Christmas movie or with kids (old enough that you trust them with needles.)
Since these photos were snapped, Rex has added ornaments to the tree and our stockings are up which gives this room all the more holiday charm. I love that most of the ornaments are at his level this year since he did the majority of the decorating.
Another neutral and simple holiday decor idea I’m loving this season that Taylor turned me onto is hanging wooden bead strands in your tree.
