Wednesday Style Points: A Seriously Yellow Accented Christmas Tree

Each year, the question begs

Style? Format? Type? Placement? Number? Real? Fake? Combo?

I like it all. Truly.

Austere Contemporary? Bring it on.

Over the top Traditional? Awesome.

Cabin Kitsch? Perfect.

This year, we were approached by ivillage & asked to send them some “beautiful Christmas Trees”

What to do?!

(Be sure to check out the feature HERE and let them know you like us! We’d love to do more with ivillage….:)

Today: Yellow

My inspiration came from yellow flowers in my blue kitchen sink (behind) & red cake plates…it was one of those mornings when the aha moment came!

Later: Our Contemporary Tree

My main home is a traditional combination of yellows & slate blue

I went on line and thought – lets see what’s out there that will fit into my existing color scheme.

What did I get back??

The White House Blue Room Tree!!!!!

Seriously? The only tree out there was this one? Time to get making a Practical Beautiful YELLOW Christmas Tree!

There was seriously NO Christmas Tree out there with Yellow. There was a lemon or two, a fruit theme, but nothing with the main body combining Yellow.

So got about doing what we do best. We custom made something.

I couldn’t find ANY ornaments of scale in Yellow. So I headed to the Dollar Store and found a prototype plastic snowflake for 99 cents. I bought every single one they had.

We then had them made to accept paint.

We dipped in lacquer quality paint (matte) that had been custom matched to a silk taffeta I have (see tree skirt)

We hung them out to dry – and then dipped again – and again – and again.

This was part of the set up. These two ginger jars reside in my front hall and are on top of an antique swedish kitchen bed (soon to be on Joss and Main!). We really wanted the color combos to fit with our everyday living.

This formed the color backbone of the tree.

In order to make it work – it was trial & error.

Since I hadn’t seen it  done before, there HAD to be a reason = truth is it’s HARD to make a Yellow Tree work. Frankly, black is easier. Much.

This was one of our First Drafts. As you can see, the colors in my Entry Hall are Yellow & Blue. We felt this needed more pop, so added the red. Though, for a client who wanted a Hanukkah Bush (or something along those lines) we may have stopped with this color combo.

We had several combinations, took photos – walked away – changed composition – walked away – took more photos….until finally I was pleased with the overall scale & volume.

I considered using these red Chippendale Style Chairs (also soon to be on Joss and Main) but opted for the lesser Blue Upholstered Chair (from Pottery Barn) which typically sits in a corner of any room in the house for reading a book. It floats the house & works in most rooms.

It is not for everybody.

But this year? As I CRAVE the traditional….it was for me.

It reminds me of a ball gown. And if I could wear one each day, I would.

The Final Tree as shown on ivillage & in our Entry Hall

And a few clients who happen to have Blue & Yellow Family Rooms are quite pleased that their trees this season actually work WITH their rooms. We had fun modifying some of the ornaments for clients: custom over scaled upholstered (WOW!). I think I will sell these next season……for now, they are under wraps as we photograph for our “A Couture Chateau Christmas” Book (2013)

Anyway – the point is, make it YOU. Don’t apologize for what you love.

“Live a custom life. There is only one you.”™

xo Ann