It’s that time of year again . . . A New Year with a clean slate and a newly cleaned home that inevitably now looks a little sparse; especially once the glittered bows, fresh evergreens & all the magic that is the Christmas Season, is safely packed away for another year. For those of us who are still a little bit ‘wistful’ for the Beauty, Spirit and Sheer Magic of the Holiday Season, we thought we’d share a bit of our Southern-Charmz Interiors Christmas Decorating Traditions from North Carolina to fill the void. As always, it is our sheer DELIGHT to give back to our local community and partner with the Apex Historical Society on their Annual Holiday Home Tour that they host every December. For (5) five years now, Southern-Charmz Interiors/Southern-Charmz.com has had the honor to bring this local landmark to life with Christmas Spirit as we research, revive and perfect new, exciting decorating techniques that were lushly-displayed from a Holiday-era gone by. We relish the challenge each and every year to come up with new and exciting ways to decorate the Apex Historical Society’s Landmark Maynard-Pearson Home with period-specific products, techniques & textures as would have been enjoyed at this 1870’s Home. We literally work throughout the year with concepts and ideas that finally come to fruition each year the week after Thanksgiving. We only use fresh evergreens and foliage in our designs and flourish them together at the latest-date possible, in order for the overall designs to remain their best throughout the Christmas Season.
We endeavor to maintain the historical integrity of the home with our Natural Christmas Decorations and what may have been enjoyed in North Carolina and the time-era of the 1870’s. The overall theme of our 2014 Southern-Charmz Interiors/Southern-Charmz.com’s Christmas Design was: Nature’s Beauty at Christmastime. The perennial hallmark of Southern Hospitality is the Pineapple and so this year’s design brilliantly displayed a fresh pineapple as the focal point of our entire design this year. It is nestled delicately into the middle of our mixed-evergreen wreath and accented with fresh orange-peel roses and a green-apple ribbon. In continuing our Nature’s Beauty Theme at Christmastime, we used more fresh-fruits this year than ever before and used a few very convincing faux-fruits when the fresh ones just would not last the month of display. This year’s fruit-bounty includes pineapples, orange-peels, lemons, green and red apples, limes, pears and cranberries. The beautifully fragrant evergreens we included were: fresh magnolia, cedar, conifer, Frasier–fir, white pine, pine, pine-cones and pampas grass fronds. The fresh-strung cranberries are making a ‘repeat-performance’ this year, however we have strung them on wires to form ‘cranberry-petals’ to add to the composition and layer in a new design-technique, this year, too! It was also a first for our addition of a new curved-ribbon application technique in the vertical door displays. This magnolia leaf ribbon technique turned out to be a delightful new way to display our fresh magnolia leaves. We also tried an orange-peeling technique that allowed us to turn out some of the most perfectly enchanting, orange-peel roses this year that were the perfect accent to our perennial fresh-magnolia leaf wreath designs. They were equally as fragrant to the nose as they were delightful to the eyes.
As you can tell, our partnering and the pleasure of decorating this Historic Landmark treasure is a LABOR of Love that we take on each of these past (5) five years and yet what keeps our design-interest is the opportunity to give-back to our community that supports us so. It is always fun to learn from our past, and honor traditions of times gone by to bring historical treasures alive with the Christmas Spirit as if the Maynard-Pearson’s were still living in this now historic home. We thrill to design & create period-specific compositions that would have been utilized when North Carolinian’s were rebuilding after the antebellum era of the Civil War and moving towards the lush, gilded age of the Victorian Era. Our Maynard-Pearson House (c. 1870) is a much beloved, City of Apex and the Greater Triangle’s Historical Treasure of North Carolina. We relish perfecting ways to Herald the Christmas Season at one of our most cherished local landmarks with just the RIGHT amount Historical Flair of Southern-Charmz.
Below you will find event pictures from Southern-Charmz Interiors partnership at the 28th Annual Apex Historical Society’s Holiday Home Tour – see we told you we’d bring you just a little bit more Christmas Magic into your New Year:
Merry Christmas from www.southern-charmz.com & AHS’s 28th Annual Maynard-Pearson’s Holiday Home Tour. Come on in, the fresh pineapple of hospitality beckons…!
Southern-Charmz Interior 5th Annual Christmas Designs for the Landmark Maynard-Pearson Home for the Apex Historical Society & their 28th Annual Holiday Home Tour. It is always a delight to learn and experiment with new techniques in Holiday designs with Fresh Evergreens & Fruits and Natural Elements.
- Southern-Charmz Interiors 5th Annual Post-Bellum Christmas Designs for the Maynard-Pearson Landmark Home (Circa 1870) / Apex Historical Society’s 28th Annual Holiday Home Tour.
Merry Christmas from www.southern-charmz.com & AHS’s 28th Annual Maynard-Pearson’s Holiday Home Tour. Come on in, the fresh pineapple of hospitality beckons…!
Fresh evergreen wreath of Hospitality. This gorgeous Christmas wreath is delightfully comprised of fragrant boughs of Frasier fir, cedar and magnolia leaves. A true Southern-Hallmark of Hospitality sitting front and center and beckoning everyone up the front porch and into the parlor. A trio of freshly peeled orange peels fashioned into roses anchor the fresh pineapple. These orange-peel roses represent the coming of Christmas and the combination of the pineapple and roses delightfully welcome the festive Christmas Season.
Front Door Post-Bellum/Pre-Victorian Christmas Designs by Southern-Charmz Interiors. What a delightful fresh evergreen display of Cedar, Magnolia, Frasier fir, Conifer, pampas plumes, fruits and feathers. The side supports feature a new technique of ribbon-folding of magnolia leaves which offer another texture to a Southern Christmas Staple…the Magnolia Leaf. This anchoring technique over rows of conifer and cedar allows a showcasing center portion to display a bed of billowing pampas plumes and crisscrossing strands of freshly strung cranberries.
Who wouldn’t catch the Christmas Spirit with this assemblage of fresh evergreens & fresh fruits all tied up nicely in bows…..Do you feel the Christmas Magic, yet?
Close-up of the door crescent and Fresh Evergreen wreath. The evergreen wreath consists of fresh Frasier fir, fresh magnolia leaves and fresh cedar. A hallmark of Hospitality, a fresh pineapple, sits snugly in the middle and invites everyone to come in. A trio of freshly cut orange peels were fashioned into rosebuds and arranged to represent the Holy Family for Christmas. A silk apple-green ribbon curled in mirror-fashion completes the wreath and is ready to usher everyone into the Holiday Season.
The Christmas Spirit abounds throughout the Maynard-Pearson each December. The evergreen fragrance welcomes the Christmas Season and quietly beckons visitors to sit a spell and enjoy the delightful festive porch.
Angled view of the front door Christmas Designs showcasing fresh fruits and evergreens. Christmas is coming…!
Front Door Post-Bellum/Pre-Victorian Christmas Designs by Southern-Charmz Interiors. What a delightful fresh evergreen display of Cedar, Magnolia, Frasier fir, pampas plumes, fruits and feathers.
Angled view of the front door Christmas Designs showcasing fresh fruits and evergreens. Christmas is definitely on its way…!
Front Door Post-Bellum/Pre-Victorian Christmas Designs by Southern-Charmz Interiors. What a delightful fresh evergreen display of Cedar, Magnolia, Frasier fir, Conifer, pampas plumes, fruits and feathers.
Southern-Charmz Designs for the front porch this year include fresh cedar and white pine porch swags with a lemon accent along with a fresh magnolia leaf wreath with fresh fruit accents of green apple, cranberries and fresh orange-peel roses. Don’t you just want to sit with a nice cup of hot chocolate on this porch?
Evergreen topper close-up of the center magnolia crescent & side topper portions. This year’s Christmas design showcases a variety of delightful Holiday fruits & evergreens consisting of: fresh magnolia leaves and boughs of cedar & conifer along with fresh fruits and wired fresh cranberries fashioned into flower petals and swags.
This delicate, but charming fresh magnolia leaf wreath welcomes passers-by with a happy collection of Holiday fruits and foliage. Made of layers of fresh magnolia leaves, this traditional wreath is accented with a green apple and two fresh orange peels fashioned into roses on either side. A trio of fruits used as a welcomed harbinger of the Christmas Holy family.
Fresh Magnolia-Leaf Crescent with Christmas Design Accents of Fresh Fruits & Feathers. Individual Cranberries and strung cranberries compliment a center assortment of a large green apple, two green limes and two fresh orange-peel roses. Peacock & pheasant feather accents were added for additional color & flair.
Delightful Evergreen Christmas Spray consisting of fresh Cedar, Magnolia, Conifer & White Pine, pinecones, green & red apples, lemons and pears.
A close-up of the cranberry petals and cranberry boughs welcoming in the Christmas Season at the Historical Maynard-Pearson House.
Close-up of our delicate, but charming fresh magnolia leaf wreath welcomes passers-by with a happy collection of Holiday fruits and foliage. Made of layers of fresh magnolia leaves, this traditional wreath is accented with fresh fruits: a green apple and two fresh orange peels fashioned into roses on either side nestled on a bed of cedar sprigs and a grouping of fresh cranberries. The trio of fruits represent the Holy Family and/or the Trinity as we festively look to celebrate the true spirit of Christmas.
Cranberry flower petals with a large green apple center nestled into gorgeous boughs of cedar and magnolia evergreens to Celebrate Christmas!
Charmed A.S.A.P. (As Southern As Possible) 