Decorate for Christmas with Me | How to Decorate an Elegant Living Room for the Holidays

Hello and welcome back to my channel. I'm Rebecca Ropes and welcome to, oh dear, Christmas is here. You know what's gonna be different about my Christmas decorating videos this year? Instead of taking you by topic, like garlands, wreaths, or trees, I'm gonna take you room by room on the first floor of my house and show you everything I did to decorate it to create this winter wonderland. ♪ Isn't that amazing ♪ ♪ In Christmas times ♪ One thing I'd like to point out, this is the first year, now I've been doing YouTube videos for 15 years and I have so many Christmas decorating videos and I know a lot of you come back every year for them. I hope that your Christmases and your Christmas trees are more beautiful now than they ever were before. What I have for you this time is different. You know why? Because it's all shoppable. Now that I mean, I partnered with a local company here in Tulsa this year called Amber Marie. Amber Marie is a mother-daughter owned company and they provided me with all of the Christmas decorations that you see. But the best part is, it's gonna be available to you. In the description box below, there'll be a link to the Amber Marie website right to my page. And on my page, just about everything you see in my house this year will be available for you to shop online. So isn't that exciting? I mean, how many times have people said, where do I get this angel? Okay, so the angel is not actually available. There are a few things that I brought out from my old Christmas decorations that are tried and true that you see in my house every year. So this is not available. But just about everything else. ♪ It will always be Christmas in my heart ♪ Here's a little side note. Because I'm taking you room by room, I don't want you to see all the other rooms at the same time because as in usual fashion, I'm gonna do a final home tour video where you'll see everything. So in this room, you're gonna see this room done, but every other room around me, no lights on. You might get a sneak peek of what's coming, but it's nothing like what it's gonna be when you see the video of that room. I started my Christmas decorating in September. I know, crazy Christmas lady. But that's what I have to do in order to get these videos out to you by the 1st of November. So I decided, okay, I can do all of this. I'm gonna take three weeks. The first week, I worked by myself. The second week, my friend Sarah from Wisconsin came to town and she helped me. Now my friend Sarah has got her own Christmas store. I mean, she's amazing. You're gonna get to see her in a lot of these videos. And you know what was really cool about decorating with a friend? After a while, we discovered that each of us has kind of a specialty. Now she can do all things and I can do all things, but what do I do really well? Ribbons and bows, lighting too. What she does really well is sticking the picks and the branches in to make things fuller and more lush. So you're gonna see a lot of really great ideas and tips that Sarah's gonna bring to the table as well. Hey Sarah, I hope you're watching. We had a blast, didn't we? Oh yeah, we did. So I started myself before Sarah got here with the fireplace. Hello. I love this fireplace mantle. Oh, so beautiful. Now, I just want you to know, it doesn't come out of the box looking like this. No, I have to create it. I installed these 3M hooks last night and they're perfect for hanging heavy garland. And then after Christmas, I can just pull this thing and these things should come off without harming the surface of my fireplace. I find it very helpful to install wires before I get started actually putting my decorations on the mantle. I've laid out two garlands that I'm gonna use starting at the middle, but I always plug my decorations in before I get started with the installation. Otherwise, I could get it all in and find out it doesn't work. So these two work. That's awesome. The next step is to add a complimentary garland to the base. So I've done it on this side and it just ends right here, but I'll add some more to make it connect all the way down. Now, I'm gonna do this side. It's time to decide on ribbon. So I have done some example bows and all the different ribbons that I have to see what it looks like on this particular garland. And these are all the ribbons I'll be using on my tree. Here's my hero ribbon. This is actually pretty heavy, so you have to have really good anchors and secures. My 3M hook came off the wall. Here's the paint it took with it. So I jammed my ladder up here to hold this, ran to Home Depot, and I got these. These are also 3M. But these particular ones, they both hold eight pounds each, which gives me 16 pounds, where what I had before was two pounds, and I think that was the problem. I just put too much stuff on here and it got to be too heavy. So now I have to wait for an hour before I can reattach this. Eric is figuring out what he does every year when we move this mirror from location to location. This is his least favorite part of Christmas, isn't it? I love it. You love it. Oh, good answer. You lie. And the lights, oh my gosh. Not just another set of lights to go through, but then I added twinkle lights. Here's the thing about the twinkle lights. If every light on this fireplace mantle was twinkling, I would not be able to be in this room. It would give me a headache, and it might even give me a migraine. But because only one of the strings of the three different types of lights on here does a random twinkle, I think it's just right. What do you think? I just think this is so beautiful. Then to have the six tea lights on either side. But here's a perfect example. Most of the time I have my lady painting. Took that out, and I thought, you know, this is very glamorous, but it's also sophisticated, and it's got a modern look to it. So I think if I was to describe my decor this year, I would say it's very glamorous. It's also sophisticated, but it's clean, if that makes sense. I mean, there is a lot of stuff on here, but the color palette is so subtle that I think it just, it doesn't look like a bunch of stuff everywhere. I was careful about what I put where. For example, take a look at my sitting area. I have my acrylic angel here, and she is so spectacular. Honestly, I wish they had not stopped making this. She's got clean lines. She's modern, and she's clear, and she's telling the story. Do, do, do, do. Oh, there, Christmas is here. As your eye pans around, you come over to the arched opening to my music room. I had a green wall last year at Christmas. I put it back to black, and watch the saga, the story about these trees. I think the question is, how does a tree go from this to this in one hour's time? Well, first off, it helps to have a really good friend from Wisconsin in town. Here's what happened. When I was at market, I found these half-backed trees. That means the entire back half of the tree is missing. They're flat-backed, and I found them flocked, and they were narrow and skinny, which I thought would be so beautiful here. Turns out that we didn't find out about this until maybe two weeks ago, that that company chose not to even manufacture that tree. They didn't get enough orders. So last minute, Amber Marie ordered me two flat-back trees, nine-foot trees, but they're green. So on this side, you can see what the tree looks like in its natural condition. It comes pre-lit. It's a pretty tree, but my theme this year is using flocked. And on this side, using just a number of picks and sprays that we got from Amber Marie, as well as some things that I already owned, we took the picks and sprays that we had, and we split them up 50-50. So here's the other half. Can you believe it? Just adding these things to this tree will make it look just like that one. I think Sarah deserves a round of applause for doing some masterful, masterful design work. I know this is gonna seem totally random and crazy, but after all the flocking that we did, that Sarah did, we're taking it all off because we're changing the trees out. We don't like the color of the lights. They're very yellow and almost lime green. They're green. They just don't look good at night. So I want it to combine with this light fixture. You see how this light fixture has an amber glow and this has a limey? So yeah, we did get the green trees. We did flock them. You saw us do it. These had a green color hue, and against the black wall, it was not working. I called Amber Marie and I said, guys, I need tall, skinny, white trees, even if they're not flat backed. If they're skinny enough, I think they'll work. And I think this is gorgeous. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ Unlike my main tree, which you will see in one of the other videos, this one is so clean. It has large balls. Now, you know, a lot of times I talk about graduating the size of your balls. They're big on the bottom, and then your balls get smaller as they go up, taking them deep in the tree. In this case, I actually have large balls at the top. Why is that? Because it's more of a modern feel. And I just think the colors, when you see all these different colors, I think it's a little breathtaking, don't you? And I kind of mirrored the two trees. I put on these, look it, amber. Isn't that cool? It's Amber Marie and Co that has these, but these icicles and their amber color, even taking special attention to what you use as a tree skirt can make a big difference. I am not big on the ones you purchase because I feel like it's, first off, it's wasted money, in my opinion. Usually packages go underneath of a tree and it gets completely covered up, but they don't make them really big enough, I don't think. And they're kind of distracting. You know, what do you want to look at? A little Santa along the floor or some sort of embroidered balls? Or do you want the tree to be the thing? So I always try to find something that's really close to the color of my floor. In this case, I put around here an old Ikea velvet curtain. The problem is I only have one of these. But do you see what the tree looks like now when it doesn't have any kind of tree skirt? First off, you can see its legs and that's never pretty. I do love seeing the balls against that. So what I did is I bought two fleece blankets in chocolate brown, mostly to cover up the legs of the tree, the thing that holds it in position. La la, super inexpensive and easy to use tree skirt. And after Christmas, I can wash it and use it to get cozy with when I'm watching television. I want people who walk in my house to walk up in the tree and just get lost in it because it is so mesmerizing and the colors are so calming and peaceful and glamorous, honestly. And of course, that color scheme follows through over to this side. I also removed my horse painting that was over here. This is just a canvas. You know, it's a canvas transfer. It's not an expensive piece. But look, oh dear, Christmas is here. I also loved this because these gold panels are something that are mounted to the wall and are hard to take down. Whatever I was gonna put here, I wanted to make sure that the gold color was well-represented in the painting, thus making that look great together. ♪ It ain't Chelsea's day ♪ Maybe asking yourself, so Rebecca, you've got this theme, oh dear, Christmas is here, why did you name it that? I'm about to show you. It's because of these guys. Let me introduce to you Donner and Blixen. I just got them this year. They have them at Amber Marie. I found them at market. And the finish on these deer are so spectacular. I think I called this one Prancer yesterday when I was working on his little coat. But yeah, I'll show you how I made this coat. But I decided after I got it on him, this is definitely a Donner. So let's review some of the pieces and parts I'm gonna use. This is that lacy fern looking with the ice on it that I've used in other parts of the house. This is a random piece that I just happened to have left over, but I love the leafy look. Some sort of like brush and pine cones with snow on it. Here is a piece of garland that I like, but it's really dense. And that's, you know, if I'd have done the whole thing in that, I think it would have been way too much. And then I have another kind of garland here that I've used throughout the house, but it tends to get kind of thick. I laid that on there all by itself because it was a longer piece and it just wasn't enough. So I am going to create my own look for this swag. I've got some pre-cut pieces of wire here that I'll just wire these two together so it's stable. This is my Mr. Chomper, and it is perfect for cutting things that are too stiff and too hard to cut by themselves. And honestly, this is basically floral design. It's all just put it in, take it out, put it in, take it out. It's like trial and error. So what do you think? It's cute, right? And it's super interesting because it has a lot of different pieces. I don't want to fully cover this, but I do want to soften it a little bit. I have this gold wire here, which I love, but I've used it everywhere. Especially good for this deer because if the wire shows up, it's going to show gold. We'll call you Dancer or Prancer. You're Prancer. This one here? I think so. And I'm thinking this little piece would look nice coming right out from there. So I'll wire him on. Might could use this one down here to finish off my point. And this actually has a wire on the end of it, so I'm just wrapping it around the existing piece I'm making. You know that the key in making these things is knowing when to stop. And I'll admit, I'll confess, that's still a challenge for me. And you'll notice that when I deal with greens, artificial things, I bend and shape things the way I need and want them to lie. All right. I think that's really pretty and festive. What do you think? And guess what? You don't see that gold wire under there. All right, so I have this bow that I had made. It's probably way too big, but you never know till you try. So since it's already made up, let's see what this looks like on this guy. He's like, ah! I would say that is a no. This year I bought a number of wide ribbons as well as the really skinny. I think next year I'll make sure to get something in the middle because I have found a number of times where I wish I had something that was just a little bit narrower. All right, so I made this bow. I'm gonna go under here and see what it looks like. You just kind of have to feel your way around. I'm just gonna, I'm gonna do a quick secure. Now, here's my thought on this. I could weave ribbon in and through, you know, like this. This kind of thing. Here I have added one more piece that comes from behind and loops around. And I just use my fingers to make this curl like this. And you'll see this on my tree and other areas in my room too. So I'm going to create a clean edge here like that. And at the last minute, honestly, I was going to put Blixen on the piano. That's where her home was gonna be. I was gonna separate these two. This morning, my piano guy came to tune the piano so we had to pick her up. And Elena brought her and sat her right here next to Donna and I went, oh, that's it. They have to be together. You're not peeking in there, are you? Because if you are, that is really unfortunate because that's like looking in the packages before Christmas day. Yeah, I want you to stay tuned. Now that we've started uploading our Christmas videos, we've got eight of them. And that room right there is my sunroom. And it is the room that has my main character, my Christmas tree. And I think it's gonna blow your mind. Yes, this has been a process to pull all these things together, but it was a group effort. I had a lot of people helping me and I am so grateful and so thankful and so thankful to Amber Marie for providing me with these Christmas decorations this year so I could decorate my home in its most beautiful splendor and glory and make it available to you guys. There is going to be an open house at the Amber Marie store and they're gonna have my tree. I'm gonna decorate my main tree at the store. The store will close and then it will reopen at six for you guys. I wanna wish you a very Merry Christmas. I hope this is the most beautiful one you've ever had or will ever have. I say that every year, but look, I think this one is even more beautiful than the one I had last year. What do you think? Leave me a comment below and I will see you guys next time. Bye-bye.