Style season: Here’s how to bring festive cheer to your home during the holidays

As the festival season is here, it is a good time to upgrade your home for the ongoing holidays and the festivities up ahead. It is that time of the year when we invest a lot of funds on extensive annual cleaning rituals, so why not add some special touches for the festivals too?

If you haven’t done so already, put your decorator hat on, as it’s time you unleash the décor stylist in you and get your home festive-ready for the last quarter of the year with these quick tips.

Light up the living room

Let the festive fervour begin with a variety of lights that can be strung in stylish ways in all the major rooms. For starters, string long fairy lights and flower garlands in between the sheer curtains of your living room, as this will bring a festive glow to any space.

Liven up the dull corners of the room by placing authentic clay diyas with marigold flowers on a copper plate. Don’t keep the centre table devoid of festive cheer either. Start by placing a transparent glass bowl or brass uruli with water, add flower petals into it and as a final touch, place aromatic floating candles in it. Use colourful gerberas and roses to create an uruli floral arrangement.

Festive touches in the bedroom

A range of DIY lamps will help amplify the festive appeal of the bedroom. Repurpose old glass bottles into hanging lamps by filling them up with elegant fairy lights and hanging the bottles with coloured wires.

Alternatively, you can also place tea lights inside empty glass jars to create perfect radiance for your bedroom and add a touch of festivity to a cosy space.

If you have kids at home, engage them in some crafts for festive preps by using balloons, string, paints and glue to create hanging lamps. Fill up the balloons with air and apply glue all over the surface, barring the top of the balloon. Follow this up by rolling the string all over the surface. Don’t follow a singular direction for this, as the more asymmetric the string, the more beautiful the outcome will be. Finish covering the entire surface of the balloon and let it dry.

Now paint it in shades of bright yellow or orange. Once the paint dries up, untie the balloon and remove it from the top part that was left empty. And there you have your lamp.

Find the right spot for this lamp in your bedroom and place a yellow light inside it.

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Beautify the balcony

The centre stage of festive decorations is the balcony. It can be made to look beautiful in numerous ways.

Repurpose a hula hoop, into a light fixture as this decorative piece will look stunning in the patio. Cover the hula hoop with jute thread, and create a three-way knot to ensure that it can hang flat. Wrap this structure with fairy lights and allow some of the threads to hang from it as well, to create a DIY chandelier. Be sure to use a single string of coloured lights to make a substantial impact.

You can also place a number of bunched up fairy lights in a glass bell jar to light up a remote corner and place shiny baubles around the jar too.

Transform a room with colour

With some quick changes in this area, the living room can be transformed for the festival season.

If your living room has a muted colour scheme, use vibrant cushion covers on the sofa. Spread out a sofa runner in a neutral shade. Opt for sheer curtains in lighter shades to bring more focus to the vibrant display of cushions.

Since festive celebrations are all about reviving traditions and Indian culture, you can use décor elements that reflect a touch of ethnic elegance. For instance, you could display Ikat cushion covers or handcrafted, spun cushion covers for your sofas and living room patios.

You can also add ethnic printed carpets, cushions, rugs and runners to your living room, to amp up cosy indoor spaces.

In the bedroom, for starters, spread out bed sheets which are inspired by traditional Indian art forms like Gulrana, Kashida and Meenakari to bring home a tribute to the rich legacy of our country.

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Create an attractive display on the bed by using pillows in a contrasting colour scheme. Arrange the pillows and cushions in such a way that they sit up straight. This will help add height and will add some depth to the bedhead, and play with colours too, like using sea green pillow covers with purple bed sheets. Add a bed runner with large motifs in vibrant shades to add more festivity to a room.

With the ongoing pandemic, Zoom calls have become a norm, even for connecting with your family. Create a comfortable, cosy floor seating arrangement for some long family rendezvous calls, by placing a mattress on the floor and cover it with a soft comforter.

Then deck it up with floor cushions with bolsters and place candles in different sizes around the area to add a festive feel to the room.

Alternatively, throw several floor cushions of different shapes and sizes on a floor muted floor rug, to give an earthy yet festive vibe to any space. Use flower garlands to dress the railings to make the balcony look ethereal even during the day time.