Hanging Tips
Clark Harris of Roswell-based Innovative Construction recommends these tools when decorating outdoors:
- Use Tapcon screws and a masonry drill bit to hang wreaths, garland or other items on a brick surface. Drill into the mortar joint, instead of the brick, in order to avoid cracking the brick.
- Select a basic nail if using adhesive, but it's best to leave it up throughout the year.
- Use a screw with siding, since a nail can damage siding.
- Wedge a piece of wood into a void between stacked stones and install a screw or nail.
From mailboxes to the roof, homeowners can transform outdoor spaces into a winter wonderland during the holidays.
There’s an array of new ways to adorn the home, and you can tweak last year’s decorations for a new look. Here are seven ideas for decorating your front exterior, yard, porches and decks for the holidays.
1. Go with garland
Drape fresh garland around the front door, or on a porch, fence or outdoor fireplace mantel. Choose from cedar or mixed cedar garland, Fraser Fir garland or white pine garland (starting at 69 cents a foot at Pike Nurseries). Another option is to string together shatterproof ornaments to make colorful garlands, said Sarah Fishburne, head of trend and design at the Home Depot.
2. Light up with LEDs
Energy-saving LED items include a battery-powered LED artificial wreath from Pike Nurseries ($29.99) and LED acrylic gift boxes for the front yard from Lowe’s ($54.90 for a three-pack). Try twisting lights such as the Martha Stewart Living 50-Light LED Warm White M5 Light Set ($10.98, the Home Depot) to spell out holiday words such as “JOY” on a wall or fence.
3. Bring on the burlap
Add a ribbon and burlap to a mailbox, or weave it into a wreath. This year, Fishburne spray-painted burlap with aqua and silver to tie around plants and weave into trees.
4. Enjoy those ornaments
Fill a plant container, watering can, hurricane candleholder or other outdoor items used year-round with shatterproof ornaments and greenery.
5. Embrace the inflatables
Inflatables out this year tie into movies such as “Star Wars” — with Yoda, R2D2 and Darth Vader — and “Monsters University” ($29.98 for 3.5-foot inflatables, the Home Depot).
6. Make fireplaces festive
Add holiday-themed pillows to seating areas around a fireplace, or tie ribbons to the backs of chairs, Fishburne said.
For the back porch at the Home for the Holidays Designer Showhouse and Marketplace in Atlanta (atlantaholidayhome.com), which runs from Nov. 15-Dec. 8, designer Steve McKenzie added orange and sea green pillows and fabrics to the Grange outdoor furniture and mercury glass orbs in bronze and sea green. Birch logs in the fireplace serve as candleholders. “I believe you can use any color palette for the holidays as long as you do nice, pretty bows and candles and the mercury glasses,” he said. “I don’t think you have to peg it as a red and green holiday.”
7. Meld in metallics
In addition to gold and silver, hues of cooper, bronze and champagne are becoming more common in holiday decor, Fishburne said. She also suggests spraying terra cotta pots with metallic paint and filling them with poinsettias. Some homeowners also paint their front door metallic.
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