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space matters: holiday homes around the world (part 2)

Here’s the second part of our “holiday homes around the world”.

Yesterday, I took you to Europe (Germany & Austria) and Australia. Now, let’s go to USA to peek into the homes of Fallon Akers from El Paso, Texas, Melanie Renn from San Francisco, California, and Alyn Carlson from Westport, Massachusettes. Thank you very much for sharing!

And to all of you, Happy New Year! See you in 2010!

(p.s. move your pointer over the pictures for the captions/notes.)

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Fallon Akers is a sewer from El Paso, Texas who loves 50s-60s vintage stuff. She also maintains a blog and an etsy store. In the style that she knows best, she filled her home with all handmade and vintage goodness for Christmas. Her “soft” tree ornaments are quite unique. I also love her pillows! Very pretty.

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Melanie Renn of San Francisco, California is also a lover of vintage decors. She has Christmas ornaments saved since the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Her collection is more on the classic side–figurines of angels, reindeers, swans, snowflakes, and real lead tinsels–each having a sort of magical character. What I also love about her collection are the stories that accompany every ornament.

Read more about Melanie’s holiday decorations in her blog here. She also maintains a group called h ♥ m e  in flickr that pools photos of the nicest homes.

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From a classic Christmas home, let’s check out a fun and quirky take on holiday decorating.

Alyn Carlson of Westport, Massachusetts is a graphic artist, designer, and actor. Her graphic design works can be found in her website here, while her designer hats can be purchased in etsy here. Alyn also has a blog where she shares her daily musings.

Her home for the holidays is decorated in a different way, veering away from the usual images of Christmas. She made a “Dr. Suess Christmas tree”, with all sorts of trinkets that create a whimsical, cartoon-like image. There is also a quirky gold wreath reusing old headless Barbie dolls that seem to be doing a “James Bond Gold Finger Radio City Music Hall thing” according to Alyn. 
 

space matters: holiday homes around the world (part 1)

Technically, Christmas is already over. But not here on Design Folder (nor in Manila, for that matter, haha)!

For the benefit of our readers abroad, Christmas/the Holiday season in the Philippines “unofficially” starts in October, peaks in December, and ends in January (i think after the feast of the three kings).

So, to extend the holiday celebration, I’m taking you to a Christmas design trip! Thanks to my new-found flickr friends, I got a peek at some of the lovliest hoiliday homes from different parts of the world. Seriously, their designs brought so much inspiration to me!

First up, sharing you the homes of Anita from Austria, Ivy style33 from Germany,  and Sarah from Australia.

(p.s. move your pointer over the pictures for the captions/notes)

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Anita Dawoodi is a home-styling blogger from Graz, Austria. She writes mostly about her daily design inspirations in her blog 1richtungsblog.com. But this time around, I’m blogging about her!

In spite of the snowy weather in Austria, her home is all warm and cozy, decorated in the classic silver, gold, and white Christmas fashion.

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Ivy style33 is a freelance decorator and interior design consultant based in Germany. What I especially like about her style is her extensive use of whites. Love, love whites! Check out her blog here for more photos of her work.

For Christmas 2009, she combined whites with hints of earthy colors and organic textures to decorate her penthouse. Her handmade ornaments are just adorable!

See more of her handmade goodies at her etsy shop here.

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From Europe, let’s go to the land down under to visit Sarah’s beach cottage home.

Sarah from Australia loves all things vintage and cottage. She just adds a modern twist giving it a clean crisp pallette. Her decorating philosophy is to create a beautiful home without spending a fortune. She does this by using her skills as a thrift-junkie, decorating with what is available and seeing beauty in ordinary things.

This year, she created a dollar-free holiday home using pieces of driftwood her boys found at the beach and combined them with glittery ornaments and some white seashells. Her alternative Christmas decors perfectly complement her white cottage home.

Check out her blog where she chronicles her adventures of living by the sea.

Watch out for the second part of the feature tomorrow!

space matters: a very merry vintage christmas

Before we take a break for the holidays, we would like to leave you with a peek at the lovely home of Gene and Ache Florendo.

Ache (or Ma’am Florendo to me) was my professor/adviser in college. Because of a feature in MyHome magazine, I learned that she has a penchant for collecting antique decors and does holiday decorating with so much passion. With that in mind, we were quite curious to see for ourselves how she puts together her home during the holidays.

True enough, the Florendo house sports a nostalgic look for Christmas with their vintage trinkets and decors. Every corner of the house shows off an array of cute Christmas-y ornaments. From the foyer, living and dining areas, down to the kitchen, the interior spaces are all rendered in the familiar holiday colors of red and green.

Their Christmas tree is filled with multicolored lights and the most adorable collection of handmade figurines.

At the bottom of the tree is a “Christmas Holiday Express” train railway setup. This triggered me to sing the old Coca Cola jingle “Holidays are coming…. Holidays are coming,” in my head all throughout the shoot, hehe! Ache told me that it’s one of Gene’s collections. Yup, collections with an emphasis on the “s”! Apparently, her husband also shares the same love for collecting interesting thingamabobs. (We’ll reserve that for a different post)

Their decors are not just limited to the nook of the Christmas tree. Tabletops, curio cabinets and shelves allover the house feature Christmas tableaus with a whole range of Santa Clause ornaments, unique antique finds (we especially love the vintage sleigh and the mini sewing machine), and mini Christmas trees.

In contrast to the contemporary, trendy decorating styles that we often see, Ache’s take on creating a classic Christmas atmosphere at home has an element of nostalgia and sentimentality. Her home actually made me feel like a kid again, bringing memories of how I eagerly anticipated the celebration Christmas during my childhood.

I’m sure these pictures are already making you feel the warm Christmas spirit!

So, from all of us here at Design Folder, we wish all of you, dear readers, a very merry Christmas!