Decking the halls in one day for under $250 using an unexpected holiday hue
Produced, designed, written and directed by Brian Patrick Flynn with photography by Christina Wedge
When it comes to guys and holiday decorating, I envision spaces more in sync with A Charlie Brown Christmas than The White House Holiday Special. Although I’m a practicing decorator, I’m certainly no exception to the rule. In fact, just a few years ago, my own dark, sparse apartment suggested that Halloween, not Christmas, took place on December 25th. But this year, I did kinda get into Christmas; however, taking more than a day to plan and execute it, notsomuch.
Always up for a challenge, I decided to conceptualize and bring to life my own holiday décor in a single day—on a teeny, tiny budget. To make the entire situation even more difficult, I declared red, green, silver and gold totally off limits. Instead I stuck with violet, brown, white and bronze, hitting up only three checkbook-friendly stores to find it all: Wal-Mart, Target and Big Lots. Now that my halls are decked in a less cliché manner, am I in the Christmas spirit? Kinda. Am I more focused on the six-foot, ultra-white tree in the corner throwing off the balance of my living room’s year-round look than the gifts below it? Bah humbug, yes.
Visions of sugar plum
Lucky for me, my living room’s year-round color scheme is violet-inclusive. It also sports plum, grape and lavender. No, that’s not a spelling error, lavender is with two E’s. Lilac, regardless of how you spell it, can stay the hell away; I’m not a fan—at all. To work the royal hue throughout the room, I picked up a $25 embroidered snowflake pillow and a plum-and-grape-striped, $15 Sock Monkey from Target to pull the colors from the frames down onto the sofa. As if that wasn’t enough, I bedazzled the stuffed primate with a sparkly tree ornament from Wal-Mart [$5 for a box of eight]. Come January 1st, that snowflake pillow is headed straight to storage.
Table manners
With a keen eye and tightly zipped wallet, you too can appear to have good table manners! Just kidding—kinda. Ah hell, I’ll just come out and say it: I’m guilty of elbows on the table and forgetting which fork goes where, okay? Happy now? While scouring Big Lots, Target and Wal-Mart for discount tabletop items that didn’t look so discount-ish, I decided to stay away from seasonally-themed pieces altogether. Instead, I opted for a set of white Shabby Chic plates and darkly-stained, woven chargers from Target. For ambience, I hit up the store’s accessory section, then grabbed bronze candleholders and brown metallic pillar candles—candles meant more for the turkey-inclusive holiday than the one with a jolly, bearded, deer-loving dude who plays in chimneys all night. Furthermore, the chocolate and bronze tones enhance the effect of the Graham & Brown “Illusion: Black” wallpaper—my Christmas present to myself. If you’re any good in the kitchen with those heat machines [some people call them stoves], click on over to All the Best to link to a kickass hot chocolate recipe.
Fake, plastic trees
I don’t care whatchya’ll say, I’m proud of my fake, plastic tree and all of its fake, plastic ornaments. The pre-lit six-footer from Wal-Mart only set me back a teensy-weensy $39. As far as the mega-store’s thrifty ornaments are concerned, I mixed a variety of five different styles at only $5 per box of eight. How about that vintage angel tree-topper? Creepy huh? I have no idea where the hell it came from. Perhaps she’s the Ghost of Christmas Past. And if so, sister-angel-friend can focus on yesteryear all she wants while I deal with the present. Can y’all guess what I want for Christmas this year? More readers.
Stock our @#$%& stuffing by helping us [and by us, I mean me...and my photographers] exceed 1,000 Facebook fans and 1,000 Twitter followers. Please. And by please I mean do it now or else a baby reindeer gets clocked in the nose. Merry Christmas!
$39, $39 srly that’s worth stepping under the miserable lights of walmart for! Brian, it’s gorgeous, again. I love the purple. That’s one of my favorite light fixtures and I’m wild for that bronze-y silver paint on the chairs.
Embrace the spirit, Man!
I want to see you clock a reindeer. Tee-hee!
Love you and all your royal purple-ness.
Merry Christmas!
xo xo
Brian, it looks amazing! I love the unexpected use of purple. Fabulous job!
ummm hi. why are you so fabulous? amazeballs once again
I’m having Christmas dinner for all the guys in my life on Sunday & this is seriously making me want to bust out some decor for them! Great job Brian! As usual you make it look easy peasy & fabulous at the same time.
Excellent job Brian – My home is a on the Ghetto chic side – I have over 150 ornaments and I cram them all on a 6 foot tree.
Lovely!!! Great job B!!!!
Great look and the Christmas decor is simply designeriffic!
There’s something so festive about a white tree, plastic and all. Love this!
Ugh, everything looks AMAZING. the violet is so vivid in the images. don’t know if it’s the combination of white & violet together, but it really pops. the photography is stellar, and the styling is really, REALLY good. one of my fave shoots. i think i like the one with the sectional the best, partly because the floor looks so exotic. also happy that sebastian finally got some airtime.
shout out to b & sarah d!
[...] this image does NOT come from our Flickr group, but from one of our favorite bloggers, Decor Demon. He whipped up a chocolate, purple, white and bronze Christmas with inexpensive purchases from [...]
absolutely fabulous. that white tree looks pillowy soft and purple + bronze are fabulously, impishly decadent together. it’s one big willy wonka chocolate bar of a room!
[...] out more pics from the shoot HERE. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Sugarplum tablescape", url: [...]
Love the fact that shag is coming back! 40mm rugs are sooo nice to walk on…
Really, I like your departure from tradition and you are delightfully grumpy, I love it! Merry Christmas, Scrooge, and please don’t hurt any reindeer!
Brian, your color palette is sugar plummy yummy! And thanks for the whisical touches of plush “loveies” joining in the holiday fun. Merry Christmas and pat your dog for me!
Unrelated, though the violet color scheme is stunning…who is the beautiful tricolor mix pup? He/she is an EXACT body double of our Maxine, who passed away after 18 wonderful, fun filled years. The picture by the Christmas tree literally took my breath away, for a seriously long time!
You’re just going to make me go into Target and look for purple ornaments now, aren’t you? Like I haven’t got fifty other things to do before Christmas as it is!
Lovely!
looks amazing!
love, love, love the purple and brown. i’m so happy to see when people use non-traditional colors and it still looks super festive!!
i cried a little when i saw these pictures because the white tree with purple highlights sorta reminded me of my great grandma’s hair…which is a sweet memory in itself
but i cried more so because i wished i had thought this rockin’ scenario up! it is beautiful!!
What a fabulous, unexpected interpretation of Christmas decorating! How you ever thought of this palette is beyond me, but it works beautifully. The use of stuffed animals (and especially that TDF purple sock monkey!) adds a delightful touch. Your darling pooch is perfect in the setting, too! Thank you so much for sharing this, and for shaking up our notions of what Christmas decorating can be. Happy New Year!
Seriously ridiculous and fabulous! Glad to see I can finally comment on your blog…almost makes me want to follow you on twitter…oh wait I already do. Have a merry @%^&* Christmas! And stay away from the baby reindeers!
I think you’ve hit the holiday decorating nail-on-the-head: instead of injecting (infusing? enforcing?) red-green-gold use colors in your overall color scheme, add a few seasonal accents (melon jack-o-lanterns and purple and black bats, lavender turkeys & bronze cornucopias, grape and silver candles in the advent wreath/menorah/kinara and magenta stockings, shades of pink and purple Easter eggs) and you’ve got complementary decor down for any holiday…thanks for the inspiration!
Oh and I ♥ the purply Sock Monkey, I really do!!!!
Everything here is lovely. Love the tree except for the unfortunate tree topper. The colors are unique and fun!
Red/Green/Gold make me gag! Purple/Plum/Chocolate? AMAZING…I could spend hours at your dining room table! So glad I found your blog via Houzz…will be visiting often. Thanks for having exquisite style!
[...] I blame blogger bad boy, Decor Demon, for turning me onto Walmart’s metamorphosis with his brilliant Christmas post. [...]
Popping in from Courtney’s blog…you did a beautiful job! This makes me wish it were Dec 2011 already so I could get to decorating again!!
And I’m partial to the ‘sugarplum’
Decor Demon… Where have you been all my life? I know I’m late to comment on this holiday post but I’ve been perusing your older blog posts since I came across your site yesterday! I am seriously dying over your use of such bold shades of grape and purple. What a nice reprieve from the typical holiday colors AND from the teals that were going on everywhere this holiday season. So thankful I ran into your site.. Cant wait to keep up with you in the new year. : )
Happy blogging!
Wow! Hello Decor Demon! Like the above comment (from Christina) I just found you today…and love what I see! I have dreamed of doing Christmas in jewel tones for quite some time, but hubby just scoffs. He cant imagine anything but red and green…boring! Your pics are truely inspiring and make me take a second look at my own four walls. Ideas are spinning in my head, which feels good. Thank you for inspiring me,(and others) and writing this blog. I will surely follow!