If you're like most people, you don't have much time left at the end of a busy day to do anything extra. But at this time of year, you want to do something to make your home look festive and special and create the wonderful Christmas holiday atmosphere. You'll find some ideas here for quick and simple ways to add a festive look to your home without spending a lot of time or money. And you'll have time left over to really enjoy Christmas!

Add a little country charm to your Christmas decorating this year. Forego the glitz and glam for natural materials, check fabrics and homemade country style. The beauty of this type of decorating is that it doesn’t have to look perfect. The odd crooked stitch or slightly askew angel wing just shows that it is homemade and adds to the charm. Lots of these projects are perfect for children to help with too.

So you've gone through all the magazines and decorating books, and you know the general look that you want your room to have.  But you don't want to copy it exactly... so what do you do to get that look with YOUR colors, patterns, fabric, and furnishings?  This article deals with achieving the look you want with furniture.  Of course, many of us don't have the option of buying all new furniture if what we've got doesn't help achieve our desired results.  But if we understand how our furniture is affecting the look of our room, then it's easier use color, patterns and fabrics to adjust that look to what we DO want!

So you've gone through all the magazines and decorating books, and you know the general look that you want your room to have.  But you don't want to copy it exactly... so what do you do to get that look with YOUR colors, patterns, fabric, and furnishings?  This article deals with achieving the look you want with color, and we'll talk about patterns, materials, and furnishings
in the other articles of this series.