PepperHarrow Holiday Style Guide
We love to celebrate the holiday season here on the farm with a simple, rustic flair, inspired by the gorgeous scenery and wildlife that surrounds us. From cozy, plaid blankets around the campfire, to seasonal greenery wreaths adorned with dried flowers, every detail harkens back to country holiday celebration. Holiday decorating can be simple and tasteful by using paired down decorating techniques that won’t break the bank that will make your space look warm and welcoming for the season.
Recently, we were featured in The Inspired Room on Instagram for our signature farmhouse wreaths with rustic bells. Our lush wreaths were handmade with fresh noble fir boughs, and were peppered with dried eucalyptus leftover from weddings on the farm held during the summer months. We love repurposing materials and using as much as we can forage from our own property as possible. (More on some of the things we forage on our property to come.)
After that post, we had questions from all over the country about the ribbons we used for these gorgeous wreaths. as well as the bells. As with most of our decorating, it was very simple, but elevated. Are you ready to know just how simple they were?! The ribbons were pieces of fabric torn down the bolt and tied neatly to match the neutral buffalo plaid theme on the Flower Cottage. The torn edges give more of a natural look to these gorgeous wreaths, which compliments the all around organic nature of the wreaths and the surrounding country setting. Also added to these gorgeous wreaths were the now highly sought after, antique bells, which look like something from an old-time holiday scene. The bells can still be found here. Aren’t they gorgeous?
Each early winter we spend time walking around our property, gathering materials for wreath making to add little extra, what we call ‘sparkles’ to our seasonal wreaths. What types of materials do we look for? Well, native grasses are one of the top things we look for. We’re surrounded by prairies of switch grass, Indian grass, and little blue stem to name a few. We also gather rose hips grown on invasive multi-flora roses, empty seed pods from milkweed, red dogwood branches and any other pretty natural colored branches, such as birch, because we love those gorgeous catkins so much. We’re such foragers, we even take the kids camping in the summer months and do a little pine cone collecting as a fun family activity during our time spent enjoying the outdoors.
Dried flowers are making a huge comeback this year and have been incredible popular with our customers and with our retail customers like Des Moines Mercantile. We love this trend! We use a ton of dried flowers for our wreath making workshops and for our custom made wreaths from the farm. Running a successful flower farm, there’s always extra flowers to set aside to dry and we dedicate time each week to making sure some are set aside just for this purpose. We always end up using all of them this time of year, especially for our now famous, ‘Rainbow Wreath’ that was a hit last year and continues to be a fan favorite this year.
The inspiration for the wreath came from one of our wreath making classes, where a local creative told us she was going to use ‘all the colors’ for her greenery wreath and needed yellow flowers to add to it. We ran to our drying barn immediately and pulled down some dried Lady’s Mantle and we snipped a few sprigs from our yellow arborvitae bush. The finished wreath was so pretty and inspired the final design we made ourselves, shown below.
This month, we were featured in The Cottage Journal Magazine in the Garden Pleasures section, which features some of our decorating style. Don’t miss the little details, such as the dried apples and oranges you’ll see, as well as the pretty peacock feathers we added to our wreaths to make them look extra gorgeous. Below is a little peek at the feature, but you can see photos of our design throughout the publication.
We’re honored to be featured alongside our talented fellow flower farmers, as well as our friends and upcoming book publisher, Bloom Imprint. Be sure to check out the blue barn, decorated with lush greenery and red bows to celebrate the holiday season. So inspiring and oh so stunning!
To learn more about how to dry oranges to use in holiday decorating, view our instructional here.
Creating a warm, comfortable space is what we’re all about during the holiday season. Can you tell? We love to make magical experiences that make our guests feel cozy and comfortable, like they’re at a home away from home, so we’re always are sure to setup a warm beverage bar with coffee or hot chocolate. Guests love this little addition and it’s a great way to welcome and warm themselves after coming in from the cold winter elements. Everyone loves this tradition so much and hey, who doesn’t love to add all of the special treats to their hot chocolate?
Other ways to make your space inviting to guests is to add greenery on shelves, use it to decorate a holiday table, or any space! We love making simple garlands and other little embellishments with simple greenery. To check out how to make a simple greenery garland, check out an instructional video on how to make your own here. Making a simple greenery swag to adorn your fireplace mantle, drape over your windows, doorways, or over your bed is a perfect way to add holiday shine to your space. We love taking old branches from the timberland on our property, adding string to hang it and adding greenery. It has a very rustic, organic look that we love to use to decorate in our old farmhouse.
Also, don’t forget candles. Candles create a simple magical, warm effect and take very little effort to put into decorating. They do all the work! So if you don’t like the mess greenery can sometimes make, pair your style down to just include candles to add sparkle. We love using hurricane candle tumblers in gold to add a bit of extra warmth to our space, which. We love finding new, seasonal decor at Pottery Barn, like the plates and candles shown below.
Other inspiring ideas are to add fresh florals to your fireplace mantle for a dramatic effect. This is the perfect addition, especially if you’re hosting any special parties throughout the holiday season. We were inspired to try this statement piece after seeing stunning creations by Philippa Craddock, an inspiring and talented English florist.
Our little Flower Cottage is one of the highlights on the farm. During the winter, we use the inside as an art studio, where we paint and have a space to be creative. The outside is used as a backdrop for family photos throughout the holiday season and as a lovely backdrop for group photos for our wreath workshop attendees to use for a nice holiday photo opportunity.
Each year local photographers come out the farm for the Flower Cottage to shoot family photos for the holidays, engagement sessions, and senior photos. Who wouldn’t want to use this cute space as a perfect backdrop for photos? It’s a fun space to create in and the outside is the perfect little backdrop for photos.
Are you inspired to get decorating for the holidays yet? We know we are! Bring on the all the greenery, twinkle lights, candles, and hot chocolate. We’re ready to get our holiday vibe on, starting now. We can’t wait to share our decorating style with you for this season!
XX Jenn and Adam
