The warm glow of Christmas in brown and gold

Brown and gold ribbons bring warmth and sophistication to flocked Christmas decor.

Rarely, if ever, have I planned the color palette for my Christmas decor a full year in advance. Last year, I had fully intended to work with brown. But at the last minute, I decided that the inaugural year of the new King of Christmas Tree needed a more traditional look.

With plenty of time to plan and acquire ornaments and ribbon, this warm brown scheme came together fairly easily. I knew the brown and gold would contrast beautifully on our 9′ Queen Flock slim tree.

I also was blessed with hydrangeas that dried on the branches in a lovely caramel color.

Mixing pinecones and other natural materials brown warmth to the flocked tree and garland.

The mantel is layered with several types of garland. The bottom-most layer is a pre-lit garland from King of Christmas, a 12′ King Noble Fir Garland. On top of that I layered a cypress garland from Terrain. Then I tucked in pieces of a flocked strand of garland, dried hydrangeas, pinecones and seed pods.

The asymmetrical design is highlighted by the 4″ brown satin ribbon and layers of gold and green striped ribbon from Hobby Lobby. (From the sewing department.) I also tied in a large strand of vintage-inspired bells.

If you’ve visited the blog at Christmas time before, then you might recal I never use hooks or nails on my mantel to secure the garland. I use the heavy-duty wire of the garland to hold it all in place. You can see exactly how I do that here.

On the opposite side, new sweater knit stockings are clustered together.

The tree features dark gold silk style ribbon with simple knots draped over branches.

Honestly, I had intended to swap the gold out after Thanksgiving. Yes, I put up the tree before Thanksgiving. Because I knew I was working with browns and golds, I thought it would be a nice way to bring an extra cozy feeling to Thanksgiving. I did try to make it feel more like Thanksgiving than Christmas.

After Thanksgiving, I put away the pumpkins and added our traditional holiday ornaments. I believe any color scheme or theme of a Christmas tree, can and should feature our memorable ornaments.

For some of the smaller ornaments that were more colorful than I would have liked, I added a small brown ribbon to the ornament hook.

On the coffee tables, a vintage brass tray warms up the glass tops. I piled pinecones gold ornaments and vintage bell ornaments from my husband’s family collection in a large paper mache bowl.

The windows were adorned with simple wreaths in a combination of brown and gold ribbons. The brown ribbon is a 1 and 1/2″ double-faced satin ribbon and comes in several colors on a large roll.

There is one drawback to the dark brown satin ribbons. In some cases the brown did not have enough contrast on the greenery. That is when I was sure to layer a bit of the gold silk-like ribbon on top.

The layers of ribbon are so lovely though.

I hope you enjoyed this look around our open spaces this Christmas with all the glowing lights and candles. It was particularly dark and gloomy the day I photographed and thought I should embrace it.

This post features products gifted from the King of Christmas. The flocked tree, branch picks, ornaments and fur tree skirt.)