Christmas Home Tour

We’ve all been working like little Christmas elves over here at Corea Sotropa Interior Design! Last week was the annual Home for the Holidays tour and our firm decorated one of our client’s homes for the event which raised money for the Kid’s Help Phone.

A few years ago, this residence was one of our Calgary renovation projects and this Craftsman-style residence was restored back to its former glory. We were really honoured to be selected to participate in this event, and to decorate this incredible turn-of-the-century home in Mount Royal for the holidays. Here is an inside look into the home as it was being decorated as well as the finished product.

Here is Cheryl, one of our associate interior designers plumping up a wreath for the windows.

Patti, our office manager, finesses the Christmas tree in the kitchen which was festooned with edible and kitchen-related ornaments.

Meghan, an associate designer is all smiles as she strings a tree with lights. What a cutie!

All of us had sparkles from head to toe!  Several friends and students from the Mount Royal University Interior Design program volunteered their time to help us decorate. It took us two weeks and countless man hours (I’m afraid to even add them up) to get everything ready. We couldn’t have done it without all these wonderful helpers! Thanks so much!

The overall color theme for the Christmas décor was shades of copper, red, gold and green. These incredibly beautiful ornaments were lent to us by Joints, a great shop in the Kensington shopping district. They carry an amazing array of festive holiday décor.

In the dining room, we dressed the archway with garland and laid some greenery on the Holly Hunt Altar light fixture. A collection of reindeer and small floral arrangements decorated the center of the table.  We found the reindeer at Homesense, the chargers, glassware and votive candles from Chintz & Company, and the red napkins from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

A small tree decorated with Christmas cookies, pretzels, popcorn, cranberries and cookie cutters was set up in the corner of the kitchen. We also laid out a candy bar behind the sink area. It was hard to keep our little fingers out of that!

The main hall was the best place for us to set up the largest tree. We used copper and gold ornaments generously lent to us by Twigs & Company. They were so generous in lending us their ornaments. We need to give a special shout-out to JT from Twigs who lent us tons of baubles, balls and boughs, and hand-crafted special wreaths in our color scheme. The house just shimmered thanks to Twigs!

In the living room, we dressed up the window with wreaths and draped greenery over the mantle.  After adding some new festive green pillows and stockings, the living room was Santa ready!

Sparkly pillows and boughs in the window dressed up the bench seat upstairs in the loft. We used garland, ornaments and ribbons on the staircase railings. The organizers used this area to set up art displays and even had artists working on paintings during the showings. It was so interesting to watch these talented people create right in front of you.

In the guest bedroom, we changed up the color scheme and went with turquoise and purple.  All these arrangements came from Joints and the Hudson’s Bay Company.

For the master bedroom, we dressed a sweet little Charlie Brown tree with copper, vintage-inspired ornaments and ribbon.  It looked so glamorous when we were finished trimming its bows.

This house has an amazing yard, and so we asked our favourite landscaping company to dress it up for the tour. JVR Landscape did my own backyard last year and they really went above and beyond our expectations for the Homes for the Holidays Tour.  They staged a skating rink area, decorated some twig trees I picked up while in Vancouver, placed votive candles made of ice up the main pathway, created extraordinary evergreen pots and even set up the fireplace area. The outside of the home was as nicely decorated as the inside!

All of us here at Corea Sotropa Interior Design were so proud to be part of this special annual event benefiting such a tremendous cause. The Kid’s Help Phone is such a valuable service providing phone counselling to youth with questions and nowhere else to turn. We would like to especially thank all the volunteers who helped decorate, those who manned the house during the tour and the organizers for pulling together a great event. Also, a big thanks to our our sponsors, Twigs & Company, Joints, Spruce it Up Garden Center and JVR Landscape, who’s generosity made it possible for us to dress this house to the nines. And of course, thank you to those who came out to support the event. Thank you so much, everyone!

Cheers,

Jacqueline