Architecture Blog

Decorating our tree with deep moody hues, metallic sparkle and natural wood accents.

Decorating a Christmas tree in more subdued tones can be just as festive and beautiful as the classic holiday colors!

This year’s jewel-toned Christmas tree is my favorite I’ve done…ever. It is just so PRETTY, and I often find myself just sitting there and staring at it. 

Over the past few years I’ve been inching towards a bit of a more natural look for our Christmas tree. Well, as natural as it gets with gold ornaments and shiny garland. 😉 

This year I used mostly brown and gold ornaments, but ended up throwing in some jewel tones in dark blue and maroon as well. 

It is my most beautiful tree, and I did it without buying any ornaments. I used a few tricks to use what we had to fill her up: 

The key to this game is my tried and true DIY makeover tool — spray paint! I never fails me. 🙂 

I didn’t want to use any bright red on the tree, only the deeper tones with some brighter metal colors to glam it up a bit. 

We had plenty of this beaded garland I’ve used over the years, but it was red. Spray paint to the rescue!:

It’s not brassy at all, but a very bright and pretty gold color. I love it!

The red that did show was softened a bit, and the rest was a beautiful bright gold color. 

I got these large galvanized snowflake ornaments a few years back (I think at the At Home store), but the metal tone was leaning a little farmhouse to me: 

Thankfully the other side is just simple stained wood. I hung each one so that only the wood side showed: 

I got rid of a TON of extra ornaments last year, but still have a bunch of bright red bulbs. 

It’s looking a little brighter there in direct sunlight, but I love the dark moody blue. And I LOVE that the red comes through just a little bit and gives it them an almost iridescent look at night. 

You can see there that I kept some of the ribbons from last year. I just shortened them a bit and tucked them into the tree instead of hanging them at the ends of the branches.

I dug out some smaller bells that I normally use as bowl filler. I hung those cutie little bells tight to the branches and they are adorable: 

They are also a nice little warning system when the cats mess with the tree! 🙂 

I sprayed the outside with that metallic color, but left the red underneath for a fun pop of color:  

Those maroon berry picks are also stuffed into the branches to fill empty spots and add some color. 

I wanted to counter the shiny metallic tones with some natural elements, so I nestled some of the larger pinecones from my stash in as well: 

The beads and pinecones add some texture and interest. 

If you want to stock up on versatile holiday decor, pinecones and beaded picks like these are a great investment. They are SUPER cheap so you can get a ton for a decent price.

You can use them in bowls, garland, trees…everything! And they keep well year to year. Some of these are 15+ years old! 

The majority of the ornaments are brown and gold that I’ve had forever, with a few dark maroon bulbs that I usually put on a different tree:

Those metallic brown bulbs bring so much warmth to the tree. I’ve used those on our main tree for years.  

I just remembered I did buy some “tinsel” ornaments…we have a few dangling ornaments, but I wanted more. 

They are very thin, so bend easily. But they are easy to fix and look so pretty on the tree! 

All of the metallic ornaments and garland combined with the jewel toned additions makes for the prettiest tree I ever did see: 

If you’ve read here for awhile you know I’m not sad about the old one going. We’re getting too old to try to assemble the 12 footer. 😂

This faux tree is ten feet tall, but looks just as grand as our old one because the base is so much wider and the shape is so lifelike. 

It is simply the most gorgeous tree. I am absolutely in love with how real it looks!:

I still haven’t found a topper I love, so I stuffed a bunch of the beaded picks in at the top. 

A traditional tree skirt was never beefy enough for our big tree, so last year I made this folding wood base to cover the tree stand. Thankfully I just had to make a few adjustments to make it work for this one. 

Let me know if you want a tutorial on that! 

You want to know the most magical part of this tree? The cats DON’T CLIMB IN IT! 

We don’t know why. The new kitten hasn’t had much interest, and Colby has been following her lead for the most part. He’s ventured into the bottom branches once or twice, but the bell ornaments have alerted us. 😂

Our third cat has zero interest in this one. It’s a Christmas miracle!! 

I love that I was able to use what we had to create this gorgeous centerpiece this Christmas. Here are a couple night shots to show you how it glows!:

The combination of different textures, shine and deep colors are just the right mix and exactly what I was envisioning. 💚

I’ll be sharing the rest of our living room decked out for the holidays later this week! It’s my favorite Christmas decor yet! 

Do you change up your tree decor year to year or stay with your favorites?