Written By Cari Pierce
This year, forget about the little black dress. Forget about classic cherry red and hunter green decorations. Bling in the New Year by infusing color and sparkle into your look and the dcor of your home. Think bright unexpected colors, rich luxurious fabrics and dramatic glitzy touches.
Certified Interior Decorator Sherri Blum, owner of Bare Walls Design Co.
in Westminster, encourages her holiday clients to “give it all a twist and take their [decorating] clues from fashion and the runways.” Current couture has infused our closets with pinks, oranges, purples and greens. Translate this to your home dcor to embrace the New Year in a house of style and glamour. Or, counters Blum, “create a frosty and romantic look by taking color out of your dcor. Go all white and creams – slipcovers, guest towels, table linens – with sparkly touches of silver or gold.”
It’s the little touches that can turn your home from everyday style to New Year’s sassy, Lisa Coyne, interior designer and owner of Dovetail Designs in Hampstead, reminds her clients. Simply “dimming the lights and using lots of candles,” intimates Coyne, makes an elegant statement and “just paying attention to the material of your chandelier’s lamp shades,” Coyne adds, “can help by adding an additional decorative element.”
Keep the damask packed away. Instead, dress your table or buffet with
layers of sumptuous linens. Tuck sprigs of metallic beads into holiday greens to give them a New Year’s kick. Use champagne glasses for more than a midnight salute – giving them new life as a centerpiece, each flute filled with silver beads, glass ornaments or individual blooms.
Swap your everyday sofa pillows with ones in raw silks, satins and velvets. Finding pillows with chic beading, elegant tassels or delicate embroidery means just a quick jaunt to a local department store or a few online keystrokes to York, Pennsylvania-based PillowAndThrows.com. For tabletop accessories and home accents with festive flair, visit stores like ArtWorks in Westminster, Every Bloomin Thing in Taneytown or Contrary Mary’s in Sykesville.
Once your home is dressed for a notable and natty New Year’s, it’s time to achieve a fashionable look for yourself. Certified Image Consultant, Marva Goldsmith, names this year’s hot holiday season look as “Grace Kelly Glamour” – defined as a sophisticated, yet alluring look. Goldsmith, the president of her own professional services firm and the Washington, DC-area liaison for the Association of Image Consultants International, touts “luxurious fur (or faux fur) stoles are a real hit this season and high heels are back with a vengeance.”
Depending on the formality of your New Year’s party, options abound for dressing up daily denim or glamorizing a simple gown. Keep the
lines of your clothing simple and then “adorn your neck and ears with lots of bling,” Goldsmith advises. Don’t own any real bling? “Buy vintage wear at a garage or resale shop, or use cubic zirconia,” says Goldsmith.
From a pressed pair of jeans topped with a satin camisole and velvet blazer, to an elegant, winter white suit, adorned with a fashionable brooch, this holiday season, fabulous accessories are all that are needed to achieve New Year’s style nirvana. This year, it’s the little blings that will make your New Year’s style sing.
