Blog | Nixplay

With the holidays just around the corner, there’s a lot on everyone’s mind.

What gifts should you buy?

Which of Grandma’s cookie recipes should you make?

What food will you serve at your annual holiday party?

And last, but certainly not least, how should you decorate?

While we can’t help you much with the other questions (except to suggest our brand-new Nixplay Iris frame as a perfect gift for Mom), we can share these great holiday decorating tips. Not only are they all bound to make your home instantly feel more festive, but they’re also all relatively simple to put together.

Christmas ornament centerpiece

Create a sophisticated centerpiece for your holiday table by taking a serving platter or cakestand and arranging traditional Christmas ball ornaments on top. Bring some nature indoors by adding sprigs of evergreen branches or holly or large pinecones.

If you prefer, you can use a glass bowl or vase in place of the platter and tuck a Christmas bow in near the top of the ornaments.

Christmas ornament “chandelier”

Another good use for your extra Christmas ball ornaments is to hang them together from the ceiling to create a false “chandelier.”

This Real Simple tutorial explains in detail how to construct your chandelier using 16 ornaments, a hook mounted to the ceiling, reusable adhesive, and ribbon. Basically, you’re tying ribbons to the hook and tie your ornaments on the ends in layers, cutting your ribbons a few inches shorter for each layer. Make sure the ornaments stay put by using adhesive to stick each one to its neighbor.

Vases and bottles filled with greenery

For simple, easy decorating, take a clear glass vase or bottle and fill it with a sprig or two of greenery. Larger vases can hold pinecones and holly branches as well.

Mix things up by choosing vases in a variety of sizes and shapes. Vintage and oddly-shaped bottles can work well, too.

Glassed-in holiday scenes

If you’ve got any holiday decorating miniatures, like bottlebrush trees, reindeer, birds, etc., you can create an adorable holiday scene inside a glass apothecary jar.

To start, fill the jar about 2-3 inches high with Epsom salt, which makes great fake snow. Then arrange your trees and other miniatures inside. Some fun ideas to make your jarred scenes more stylized include lightly spraying your miniatures with gold spray paint or dusting your trees with glitter.

Holiday playlists on your digital frame

Your digital frame can easily become part of your holiday decor – all you have to do is create a holiday playlist. A silver Nixplay Iris will integrate beautifully into a holiday theme.

You can include candid images of your family and friends during the holidays, portraits that you’ve taken for Christmas cards, and even holiday-themed nature or home photography. Wintry landscapes, cozy fireplaces, and lit-up Christmas trees are great complements to the more personal pictures of you and your loved ones.

Hurricane lamp lights

Create soft, glowing lighting for your mantel or table with Christmas lights and hurricane lamps.

You’ll need a few bottomless hurricane lamps of varying heights and several strands of Christmas lights. Coil the lights inside the hurricane lamp, running the plug and socket ends of each strand out through the bottom of the lamp. Connect the strands together before plugging the last one into your wall or an extension cord.

DIY wreaths

Storebought wreaths can be lovely, but if you’ve got a bit of time on your hands, why not create a wreath that’s totally unique? There are plenty of options ranging from the incredibly easy to the very advanced.

On the incredibly easy side, consider:

• Spray painting a grapevine wreath white, to add a wintry look
• Hot glue faux Granny Smith apples or lemons into an evergreen wreath

If you’re looking for something more involved, try:

• Creating a recycled Christmas card wreath with old Christmas cards, a stencil, and a styrofoam wreath
• Construct a wreath out of Christmas ball ornaments of varying sizes, felt, and Styrofoam

Decorating for the holidays doesn’t have to be complicated. Any of these ideas can instantly take your decor up a notch and make guests feel welcome. For more decorating ideas, read our post “How to Fit Digital Frames Into Your Office.”

Aside from your house, your office is where you spend the most time each week – so why not make it as pleasant as possible?

With just a few easy steps, you can take your office from a cold, corporate enclave to a warmer, cozier space where you actually enjoy spending time.

1. Add some color.

One issue many offices have is that their color scheme falls into one of two categories. There’s the cold, futuristic black, chrome, and/or white color scheme, which takes all its cues from the technology in the office rather than the living, breathing human who works there.

The other is the blandly neutral color scheme, which conveys that while a person does indeed work there, it’s not any person in particular. While they do usually use warmer hues and feel a bit more welcoming, there’s still nothing personal about them.

If your office fits into one of these two categories, you can change that very quickly. All you have to do is add some color into your space. A bright red pencil cup, a pretty green blanket thrown over your chair, a glossy blue vase – any and all of these small accessories can make a big difference.

For a real pop of color, try adding brightly hued flowers to your office. Whether they’re fresh or faux, flowers instantly make a space feel more alive.

2. Throw down a rug.

Patterned or solid rugs can make a huge difference in your office space. Not only do they cover up ugly institutional carpet or cold tiles, but they make the space feel instantly warmer and more welcoming.

Use a rug to establish your office design at large. If you have room, arrange a settee and small coffee table on top of a larger area rug. If your office is smaller, you can use a runner to highlight a walkway, or place an area rug underneath your desk.

3. Display personal photos.

Photos of your family, friends, or travels will make you feel more connected to your life outside of work, and serve as a reminder to prioritize your work-life balance.

But since you don’t want to plaster your entire office with framed photographs – that will look busy and distract you from your work – a digital frame is a great option.

With a WiFi Cloud Frame like the Nixplay Iris, you can create photo playlists, which let you display the photos you want, when you want. Family and friends can also send their images directly from a smartphone to the frame, which can give you a nice connection to the ones you love on those days when you have to work late.

For a warmer feel, choose the Nixplay Iris in Peach Copper or Burnished Bronze.

4. Adopt some plants.

If you’ve got any natural light in your office and calendar reminders on your phone, you can take care of a plant – even if you don’t exactly have a green thumb.

Pick a low-maintenance variety like English ivy, aloe, or pothos, and set a reminder on your phone for when to water. That way, you won’t come back over the weekend to a sad-looking, brown version of your formerly beautiful plant.

Another option is to grow some herbs in small pots on your windowsill, if you have one. So many herbs are lovely to look at, and produce pretty flowers if left to grow on their own. Pick colorful, decorative pots to add a pretty design element to your space.

5. Invest in real art, or at least real frames, for your office walls.

Prints are all well and good, but if you really want to take your decor farther, hang some original artwork on your walls. That doesn’t have to mean spending thousands for a piece – you can often find beautiful works, especially smaller-sized ones, at local galleries or estate sales.

If you have prints or photographs that you love, buy some real frames to hang them in. It will give your artwork a more polished, finished look.

Spending time making your office feel a bit more like your home away from home can make your working hours both more pleasant and more productive. For more decor ideas, check out our post “Gorgeous Home Accents to Spruce Up Your Home for Fall.”