Beachy blue Christmas

I have a lot of very talented people in my life, and my soon-to-be sister-in-law is definitely no exception.

The principal of Ana Cole Interiors, based in London, Ont., she has a fun and eclectic style when it comes to decorating for the holidays.

If you’re not one for mainstream Christmas décor, perhaps Ana has exactly the last minute ideas you’ve been looking for…

Q: Such a beautiful space! Where did you start out?

A: I would have to say we were going for a sophisticated beach house meets log cabin, or Pina Colada meets hot chocolate if you will.

I love using colour and pattern in my design work, and the idea of a really fun and energetic space that was balanced with some very minimalist tones and textures really helped steer our choices. 

Even though we feel like we are in a tropical oasis most days, we still wanted it to feel like Christmas.

Q: Beach house meets rustic living…. how can you mix the two?

A: When we set out to decorate our home, we loved the idea of feeling like we were at a beautiful beach house on a tropical vacation somewhere.

We decided that we were going to give ourselves that feeling every day, and I love coming home and feeling the vibrant energy from the stunning environment we created. 

Not wanting to overwhelm the space with too much additional colour, we opted for very simple and rustic decor on our Christmas tree with a lot of natural tones and mixed metals. 

And we added some complementary coloured ornaments in almost every vase and decorative bowl throughout the home for an added seasonal touch; I feel we achieved a good balance between the two styles and have a super fun and eclectic style mix.

Q: What about your tree and decoration favourites?

A: The nice thing about using a live tree is the different height, width and needle colour that you are able to choose each year. 

That also means the number of ornaments you need may differ every year. Sometimes we have too many, and some years we've had to buy more because the tree was wider or taller, etc. 

You can keep changing things up… I like picking up a few new ornaments every year to add to the mix.  

This year, I added a few gold wireframe ornaments and a few cream knitted ones that I think really play into the eclectic/rustic charm of the tree.

If I had to pick a favourite, I'd have to pick the pine cones actually. They belong on the tree and really, no other ornament can compete with that!

Q: Where can a thrifty Decorista find some of these style gems?

A: A good bulk of our ornaments came from Canadian Tire if you can believe it; their Canvas collection is wonderful, and they add new ornaments to their collection each year (I love checking out what's new every holiday season). 

The silver letters A & K (mine and hubby's initials) are from Home Sense; the wood carved snowflakes are from Quantum, a wonderful, local home decor store here in London, and the blue ornaments throughout came from Target.

In the end, just have fun when selecting your decorations, and surround yourself with things that make you love being at home…

it’s the perfect season for bringing touches of the outdoors, indoors.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.