What better way to plan your Christmas decor than with some professional tips coming from actual interior designers and their personal experience? Working with interior decor all year round, these interior designers have seen and tried it all, so they know how to work their way through Christmas decor to make it look unique and, above all, personal. 

SEE ALSO: A LIGHTING DESIGN GUIDE TO CHEER YOUR HOME THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON

Designer Sara Story says she loves “incorporating natural elements, lights, and a little gold” to her holiday decor, “be it in the ribbons, ornaments or objects”. Magnolia leaves are a few of her favorites, especially when used in wreaths with a few golden details, which “make for an elegant statement on any door”.

Miles Redd is also a fan of magnolia leaves and chooses to use it on mantles. The designer intersperses “lemons or clementines, and paper whites – either the individual bulb – or just mossy pots of 6 bulbs”, and “the smell of the combination is wonderful”.

If you want to give your Christmas a quirky and unique touch, go with designer Summer Thornton’s advice: “One thing I do which always stirs conversation is hanging ornaments from my chandeliers. It’s easy to do and adds some great color to the room”.

Make it vintage and full of light by following Windsor Smith’s ideas. The designer hangs a “vintage brass and leather sleigh bell horse harness” on his front door, wrapped in evergreens and lights. To give it a continuity and a sense of harmony, the Smith does the same on his staircase, “wrapping evergreens and leather straps in those tiny strings of lights that you never have to plug in”.

If you’re looking for something a little bit more DYI, think like designers Anne Maxwell Foster and Suysel dePedro Cunningham of Tilton Fenwick Designers, and use leftover fabric scraps to have wreaths made out of them. Their advice, if you don’t feel up to the task? “There are amazing vendors on Easy that will make them for you”, so there’s no excuse to not have beautiful Christmas ornaments.