A Designer's Elevated Christmas

Hitting certain milestones as a small business is cause for celebration. Last year, to celebrate how far Fig & Dove has come since its inception (and mostly, the fact that our team was not using my dining room as the packing and shipping headquarters anymore!), we decided to decorate my home in true Fig & Dove style!

We started with a dreamy white Christmas tree dripping with glass icicles and peaceful doves. To top the tree, we collaborated with New Orleans artist Kaki Foley as she designed one of the unique nest sculptures she is renowned for. We finished our creation with a warm, fuzzy alpaca tree skirt beneath. If you're wondering where all of my kids' colorful collected ornaments are.. don't worry! They had a new home on a separate tree in the playroom!

 Acrylic doves filled our tree and were sprinkled throughout our garland. A worldwide symbol of peace and hope, each of our doves is handmade by a local artist and friend - making them the perfect first ornament in our collection.

In all my years decorating for Christmas, I've only found a handful of store-bought garlands that are full enough on their own. To add depth and bulk to our cypress garland, our team added fresh magnolia leaves, spritzed with silver spray paint. The silver leaves also helped tie in the gray/blue dining room walls.

 This plaster vase from Demiurge in New York is a long-time favorite of mine - it is truly a sculpture in itself, but the real fun of this piece has always been that are so many different ways to fill it! Here, we filled it with fresh magnolia leaves picked from just down the street.

 

Since our nest tree topper from Kaki Foley replaced one of our very first creations, our acrylic star topper, we suspended a cluster of all three sizes from the light fixture above the dining room table.

This crystal nativity set is one of my favorite things to bring out each year. A gift from my parents the first Christmas after my husband and I were married, it is a beautiful reminder of Christmas and all of the blessings in our lives.

Every year, my three sons invite friends over to decorate gingerbread houses. I pre-make the houses so it's really just a candy and sugar fest, but I hope they never outgrow this! It's a beloved tradition, and a wonderful way to get to know the parents of their new friends in a casual setting.

Because we have a more modern light fixture over our dining room table, I always love to decorate this chandelier over our kitchen table. We deconstructed a piece of our cedar garland, and used thin floral wire to attached it to the chandelier. We finished it off by dangling lightweight silver ornaments from satin ribbons.

In the corner of our living room sits a table top tree - one of my favorite Fig & Dove creations! It has a perfect little Fortuny Piumette tree skirt, petite acrylic doves, and a small acrylic star tree topper. It's a beautiful alternative to a full-scale tree for those who have downsized or are traveling for the holidays.

Kaki's nest sculpture has a dual purpose - it hangs on the wall of our home year-round as a true work of art.

These winter birds figures with tiny festive crowns make me feel like they hopped onto our windowsill to escape the cold outside - and join the celebration inside! 

 I chose Fortuny's Simboli pattern as one of the first in the Fig & Dove collection because it was something I wanted to use in my own home. The fabric has an African motif that is both modern and traditional, with a silver and lavender color palette. My husband and I have Fortuny Simboli stockings, while my three boys have coordinating light gray stockings with their monograms. We layered our cedar garland here with one of my favorite floral accents - thistle! I love thistle's lavender/blue hue, its structure, and the fact that it keeps its color even as it dries.  

Our foyer shows that is just takes little touches here and there to decorate for the holidays. For one month out of the year, I add a bowl of hand-painted porcelain ornaments by New Orleans artist Logan Ledford and tie on a decorative stocking. 

Cypress is indigenous to Louisiana, and a natural choice for decorating in the South - plus it has a beautiful natural drape! Our team added the same metallic-spritzed fresh magnolia leaves as inside to tie the whole home together. The trio of acrylic doves is something we use all year long - I tend to change up the greenery of the wreath to match the season and move the doves around a bit, but they are a permanent welcoming element to all who visit our home.