DESIGN : Creating a Perfect Yule Sight : Interior designers are sprucing up their own homes and businesses for the holidays. They say decorations need not be expensive to look attractive.
Interior designers who make their living by decorating are already well on their way to creating a bit of holiday ambience in their own homes and office spaces.
For 32 years, Robert Haller has raided garage sales throughout the San Fernando Valley to gather the trains and teddy bears that he displays every year in his Toluca Lake penthouse condominium.
“I’m hitting the garage sales now to add to the collection,” said Haller, an interior decorator for Brown, June and Towill in Studio City. “Every year, I put out more than 100 Christmas bears.”
Bears line his mantle and staircase, and Haller sets up a complete village around his house with a train track running through it.
He also puts up at least three trees--sometimes one atop the roof of his condo. One tree is usually dressed up in a Victorian motif of gold ribbon and red lights. He has at least two open houses a season to show off his place, inviting more than 300 people.
To decorate inexpensively, Haller suggests making food ornaments, such as popcorn garlands or cookies, but warned, “Don’t do it if you have dogs. I tried it one year with my mischievous cocker spaniels and they ate all the ornaments up.”
The Fireside Patio of the Green Thumb Nursery in Canoga Park was transformed into the Christmas Shop by Betty Fraley, who spent a weekend hanging wreaths on the ceiling and decorating the eight trees in the latest colors that decorators expect to be in this season.
“Jewel tones and purples will really be in this year, not the traditional red and green,” Fraley said. A takeoff on the red and green motif is a burgundy and deep hunter green, she said.
Jan Fenske, who owns the Decorating Den interior design store in Canoga Park with her husband, Den, said she plans to pick up a few dozen poinsettias and a 12-foot noble fir for their Hidden Hills home.
“We have an elaborate family decorating tradition that dates back for generations in my family, since before the 1900s,” said Fenske, whose tree usually has more than 500 decorations that were passed down through her family. “My husband and I were both only children, so we got everything.”
Some of their recent Christmas bulbs are animated and moving, making the tree literally come alive. She puts up a snow scene in the house with animated dolls such as deer, carolers and people in a sleigh. On Christmas Eve, they have a party and sing carols accompanied by their player piano. Also, Fenske is a collector of Santa Claus figures; one giant stuffed figure is set up in their store at 7500 Topanga Canyon Blvd. She finds them at flea markets throughout the Valley.
For thrifty decorating, she suggests filling the house with poinsettias. Fenske buys them for no more than $5 each when they are in six-inch pots and uses them to line the walkway to her house.
“Buy them at markets where they have foil around the bottoms and sometimes you can add a nice plaid ribbon,” Fenske said. “I get them right after Thanksgiving, and some last me until May.”
“We put quite a bit of energy into decorating our house, and if you do that, then it really gives you a holiday atmosphere and keeps you cheery all through the season,” Fenske said.
Practical Tips
Interior decorator Jan Fenske, owner of the Decorating Den in Canoga Park, offered these practical decorating and safety tips:
* Keep live trees away from a fireplace or heating vent. A fire extinguisher should also be moved into the room where the tree is set up.
* Prevent cut, live trees from wilting quickly by putting 7-Up in the tree pan instead of expensive tree-saving liquids. “Simple 7-Up--not diet, the stuff with sugar--will help keep the tree green and full. It’s better than water,” Fenske said.
* Anchor the tree to a hook in the ceiling with fishing line to prevent the tree from toppling.
