The holiday season is finally here, which means it’s time to infuse a pop of yuletide cheer into your home. But instead of relying on traditional reds and greens, why not mix things up this year with some playful color combinations? There’s more to the holidays than poinsettias and mistletoe, and with a few quick tricks of color you can take your seasonal decor from basic to bold and unexpected!

 Your Dining Table

Instead of plastering your holiday table with red and green, try nixing the green altogether and replacing it with gold. Make red your dominant color for plates, glasses, and stemware, and then sparkle things up with pops of gold in your napkins, your place tags, or even your centerpiece. Gold tea-lights scattered down the length of the table are stunning against a deep red runner, and you’ll still get that cozy and traditional holiday feel.

 Your Mantlepiece

There’s nothing more fun than decorating a mantlepiece, and my advice? Going organic with shades of ivory, brown and silver. To achieve this sophisticated look, fill your mantle with candles of varying length and then hit your local craft shop to buy some pinecones. Time to DIY! Color-dip your pinecones in sparkly silver paint and cluster them around your candles. The sparkles will catch the flickering light from the candles, creating the beautiful illusion of a winter wonderland.

 Your Christmas Tree

If you celebrate Christmas, decorating a tree is the main event. But instead of breaking out the same trusty box of decorations that you’ve used year after year, try something new. Too much color variation can make a tree look cluttered, but if you stick with one color for your lights, a complementary color for your tinsel, and a third color for your decorations, your tree will be an eye-catching show stopper. I love the idea of using white lights, pink tinsel and decorations in various shades of red. Something tells me these cheerful hues will transition beautifully to holiday decor!

 Your Front Yard and House

Better get out that ladder, because now that you’ve finished decorating the inside of your home, it’s time to tackle the outside. Decorating with lights is a classic holiday tradition, but it’s easy to go overboard. Instead of buying strings of multicolored bulbs and festooning them all over your trim, why not stick to two or three colors? Try combining classic white twinkle lights with electric blue for a cool, icy look. Or you can satisfy your sweet tooth with red and white striped lights –– your front yard will look like a candy cane!

These tips provided by creativeLIVE instructor and interior design guru Tobi Fairley. For more tips like these, check out her recent class on Using Color in Home Design by visiting the creativeLIVE website