Corporate Christmas Decorations

I was asked by the head of a public building to decorate both the public spaces and the staff lounge with "seasonal" decorations. The stipulations were that they had to feature a white colour scheme, had to be non-denomational and nothing could be permanently affixed to any surface. Oh, and of course the whole thing had to be done on a budget.

The key points:

• Main level reception desk
• Main level public space
• Fireplace seating area on the third level
• Staff lounge on the fourth level

So! The first step was to gather everything the company had from storage and go through it all. The majority of it was horrible and 80's tacky. I did manage to re-use the following:

• a 6 foot artificial tree
  
• several artifical garlands
• several yards of faux white pearl garland
  
• white indoor lights
• some lovely glass ball ornaments in blue, gold, white and clear with crystal embellisments
• some vintage silver glass balls with wire stems

The client wanted some form of wreath, as long as it was white. I scored this beauty at Home Sense for about $65, not bad considering most were $85-$90. It's a very good size too, quite substantial. The client loves it, so I used the wreath at the inspiration point for the other decorations. Some of the key features of the wreath are pinecones, white poinsettias and roses, and assorted greenery. I hit up my favourite dollarstore and loaded up my cart.
I picked up:

• white satin bows
• lots of wired pinecones
• assorted greenery
• plenty of decorative floral accents
• assorted tree decorations, including a plastic star topper
  

The wreath is hanging on the wall above the main reception desk. I picked up the heftiest 3m removable hook I could find so I could hang it on the wall without damaging the paint or drywall.

The next place I decided to utilize is a small half wall in the public area on the main level. I used small clear 3m hooks to hang some of the artificial garland. I added faux white poinsettias and white peonies, wired pinecones, some assorted faux greenery, the white satin bows and faux white pearl garland. Then I wired in the vintage silver balls I found here and there.

This picture is quite horrible, it was hard to get an overview shot. I do apologize. Here are some details shots:

The fireplace lounge on the third level is blessed with a very wide mantle. I simply laid the garland across, no need to attach anything. In this area, I added some gold accents. Again, I used white flowers-poinsettias, peonies and roses. The same wired pinecones, assorted greenery for texture and some decorative floral accents with gold here and there.

The natural tones of the pinecones and floral accents echo the wood surround quite nicely.

In the staff l0unge, I had a bit more freedom. The colour scheme of the room is tones of teal blue/green, you can see the colour on the accent wall behind the tree. I saved alot of the decorations they already had-the overall scheme is tones of blue, gold, and silver with crystal accents. I found an inexpensive white and silver felt tree skirt at walmart, as well as some inexpensive blue and silver ornaments. The tree itself is more yellow-green than spruce green, so that worked well with the tones of the room.

I had some crystal floral picks I originally intended to use for the fireplace, but I didn't like the way they looked. So-I snipped apart the bunch, cut off the floral wire and bent the wired end into a loop. Hanging on the tree, they look like icicles. Very pretty. A bunch of 5 cost $1, so really they are only 20 cents each. So affordable!

The entire cost came in under $150. Gotta love the dollarstore.