Mary Engelbreit Home Companion
FREE E-Newsletter Sign Up Customer Service

Text by Mary Forsell • Photography by Matthew Millman

There’s no better way to brainstorm holiday decorating ideas than to use a real home, believes Margo Tantau, creative director of Midwest and its Seasons of Cannon Falls line. Every year, Margo and her crew transform the company’s River House, an 1868 Italianate grand dame in rural Minnesota.
   To highlight artist Charlotte Lyons’s soft sculpture snowmen and trees, Margo created a pastel tableau on a mantel, “Layering is the key here,” says Margo, who contrasted the beige of an ironstone platter against the white of vintage milk glass. “We kept it spare on purpose to play up Charlotte’s work.” In this pale, nearly monochromatic setting, a bright ball wreath by artist Elissa Brenner stands out like a new bicycle on Christmas morning.

hatching ideas
(a) Perching the tree on an old chicken incubator lends whimsy. Round boxes, gold ribbon, Midori. Rug, Digs. (b) Susan Guggenbuehl sculpted the prototype for this glittery skater figure out of clay.

sweater weather
(c) and (d) “I made my first snowman from an old cashmere sweater as a gift,” says Charlotte Lyons. The fuzzy fellow generated the Sweet Mountain Holiday Collection, which also includes yarn ball ornaments. (e) Connected by a ribbon, Charlotte’s felt heart-and-home ornament evokes vintage keepsakes made from sewing box scraps. “I imagined children in a farmhouse making gifts for their family.”

River House Holiday page 1 | 2
  Stumble It!
archive »

The Butlers Did It
The Butlers Did It
A designer's rural Ohio home is a sparking lab for holiday adornment| read more »

Festive and Fragrant
Festive and Fragrant
When it comes to inventive floral arrangements and holiday atmosphere, this designer thinks "outside the vase"| read more »

Who's On Third?
Who's On Third?
Joan McNamara, exuberant owner of Joan's on Third in Los Angeles, invites us to her loft for an intimate family gathering on New Year's Day| read more »

Pumpkinpalooza
It's a Halloween carving party in a converted Oregon barn--and you're invited| read more »



Home | Customer Service | Free E-Newsletter | Privacy Policy | About Us | Copyright | FAQ | Sitemap | RSS