DIY Christmas 2013 Stockings : Easy Ideas

This holiday season, dress up your fireplace or bannister with one-of-a-kind, DIY stockings. 

By : Brian Patrick Flynn

This green and black stocking features small, wardrobe-inspired touches. The cuff is made from plaid fabric cut to size and is attached with iron on adhesive tape, while the front showcases leather toggles normally seen on coats and jackets. Elements of apparel are excellent ways to bring couture touches to stockings bought off the shelf.

Bring a warm, tailored touch to your mantel with menswear stockings. Choose herringbone, houndstooth, check, plaid or stripes made of cotton, wool or velvet in masculine tones. Cut the fabric to size using a basic template from the Internet, then either sew the edges with thread or fuse them together using iron-on adhesive tape.

Felt is one of the easiest fabrics to work with. The stiffness of felt makes it easy to trace and cut shapes, letters or silhouettes. Hang custom name stockings made entirely from felt that are equal parts personal and poppy. To identify each stocking, cut family members' names or initials out of felt, and adhere them to the stocking with fabric glue.

Give your stocking 3-D flair with house letter embellishments. Choose a specific style stocking, then decide on a coordinating font and finish. For a classic, masculine appeal, add a tarnished brass X to a plaid stocking with gold thread and a needle. Since the thread and house letter are similar in tone, the thread virtually disappears, resulting in a seamless, tailored look.

Coffee lovers will especially love the look and feel of repurposed burlap coffee bean sack stockings. To find them locally, simply ask your neighborhood coffee house for any discarded sacks they may have in the back. Many times, the staff will be more than happy to give them away for free. Coffee bean sacks can also be found online for approximately $5 per sack.

Fabric trim is another quick and easy way to add a custom touch to stockings. Design Star season 7 contestant Britany Simon created this feminine stocking for a young girl by dressing it up with tassel trim.

Make it modern this holiday season with graphic felt silhouette stockings. Decide on a holiday shape that's easy to identify, trace it directly onto colored felt with a marker, cut it out with scissors and attach to a felt stocking body with fabric glue.

Put your old jeans to good use this Christmas as casual, farmhouse-chic stockings. Once the fabric is cut to size, consider adding another layer of interest with a holiday-inspired fabric on pockets or sewn on as patches.

Give Dad something classic and nostalgic for the mantel this season with a varsity letter stocking. Buy vintage varsity letters online, and iron them on to the front of a basic or handmade stocking, or try stitching them by hand with a needle and thread.

If you've got old sweaters taking up room in your closet or dresser, give them new life this holiday season as warm, welcoming stockings. This can be a DIY project by deconstructing the sweater, tracing a stocking template directly onto it and sewing cut pieces together with yarn. For best results, drop the sweater off with a local tailor or your local dry cleaner for a minimal fee. Knit pieces require a higher level of skill for sewing than more malleable fabrics such as felt or cotton.

The texture of burlap can instantly warm up a room and add rustic appeal to your holiday decor. Give burlap a colorful, graphic update with a painted pattern. To do this, create a stencil in your desired pattern, place the stencil on top of the burlap and paint the pattern with a detail brush and acrylic paint.

Bring a touch of classic femininity to your mantel with a women's wear-inspired stocking. Find a fashion based pattern that works well with holiday decor, and add fashion accessories such as cameos or brooches for an elegant touch.

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Favorite Fall Decorating 2012 Ideas By H. Camille Smith

Welcome the arrival of fall and Thanksgiving guests with gorgeous decorations both indoors and out.

 By H. Camille Smith

Freshen Up Your Front Door

Variegated croton in saturated shades of green, gold and red surrounded by vibrant mums and pumpkins give HGTV fan gdiveris' front entry a colorful fall pick-me-up. Both plants are perennials and can either be brought indoors to weather the winter or, if you live in a warm climate, 

Decorate With Fall Foliage

Give bookshelves, a mantel or any flat surface a auick fall fix with a sprinkling of autumn leaves. Gather pretty specimens from your own backyard or pick up a pack of the silk variety at your local craft store. Design by Layla Palmer

Company's Coming

Thanksgiving means gathering with your nearest and dearest to enjoy time together lingering over a well-set table. Ready your dining room for fall festivities by polishing the silver and breaking out the good china and crystal. Design by Sarah Richardson

Accessorize With Autumn's Hues

A tall vase filled with scarlet maple branches creates a show-stopping fall arrangement in this Manhattan living room. Hints of burnished gold in the leather occasional chair, lamp and pillow warm up this cozy corner. Design by Rate My User Patrick

No Centerpiece Necessary

A few of our easy-to-create fall leaf streamers are all you need to decorate your Thanksgiving table. Best of all, skipping the centerpiece means there's nothing at eye level to block your view of the other guests.

Take the Celebration Outside

Weather permitting, move Thanksgiving dinner outdoors. A backdrop of fall-colored leaves and crisp air will provide the perfect setting for the feast.

Luxe Meets Lodge

The rustic lodge look is a perfect fit fot fall. Blending rustic textures with sophisticated finishes, it's the best of both worlds and can be as formal or informal as you like. This cottage at celebrity hideaway Blackberry Farm perfectly exemplifies the style with a custom-painted wall treatment that resembles sun-bleached pine and luxurious fabrics throughout. 

Create a Wall Grouping With Fall Flair

Shop thrift stores and garage sales for assorted small frames then fill them with fall sentiments, black-and-white photos and pressed leaves. Design by Layla Palmer

Bring the Outdoors In

For most of us, fall is the last hoorah before winter's blustery weather truly sets in; enjoy a walk in the crisp air to gather clippings of flowering plants and colorful foliage. Fill small vases with your finds and place them throughout the house. If you're expecting overnight visitors, don't forget the guest room.

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Warmly Welcome Guests

Welcome guests to holiday gatherings with a beautifully decorated entry table. HGTV fan Patrick created this autumnal display by placing golden gingko and bittersweet branches in a large sculptural vase. Pears piled in a rustic stoneware bowl, a ready bottle of wine and low dish of nuts are all reminders of the harvest. Design by Rate My Space user Patrick.

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Shop Interior Design | Orla Kiely | Mercer Street | New York | Architecture Republic

The spaces are arranged as a 1:1 cross-section of a doll's house, acting like a stage-set for customers to play out their ambitions of creating an ideal home, complete with original Orla Kiely designs. The modern, interchangeable interior street space allows for theatrical events and unusual displays while the backstage service rooms are integrated into the doll's house. Making the customer feel comfortable is a priority in retail design and the spaces are proportioned with familiar dimensions relating to a typical home. The cabinetry is designed in modules of 450mm and 750mm to correspond with seat and desk height while the interior spaces have ceilings of 2.4m as in a typical living room or kitchen. All of the furniture was manufactured in Ireland and shipped stateside, representing a tour de force of Irish design abroad. Solid dark American walnut cabinets with high gloss sprayed doors and thin metal legs occupy the floorspace. Very similar to the furniture used in Orla Kiely's own home, they reflect the quirky, retro style of her brand. Visitors to the shop are inclined to pick a room and sit down, "I'm very happy if they want to hang out," the designer says...........more

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Pavillion Interior Design | Moet Marquee | Melbourne | Australia | LAVA

A computer-model, based on the simulation of complexity in naturally evolving systems, fed directly into a production line of sail making software and digital manufacturing for this pavilion at Australia’s premier horse race. This resulted in the efficient generation of space out of lightweight material. A perforated ceiling filtered natural light, creating a sparkling and surreal atmosphere......more

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Corporate Office Interior Design | Aurora Corporate Offices | Clearwater | Florida | MESH

This 11,000 square foot office space is home to the U.S. corporate headquarters for one of the U.K.’s leading lighting manufacturer. With an open plan and private glass offices the space highlights their passion for lighting in the details. The showroom, conference room, kitchen and restrooms are shaped by contrasting pod like forms and glowing blue and white lines..........more

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Shop Interior Design | Baldwin's Men Shop | Leawood | Kansas | Hufft Project

Baldwin Denim and Standard Style are two retail concepts with one owner, but completely separate identities. For Baldwin, the look is masculine and enduring. A center table runs the length of the space and terminates at one of the stores focal points -’the sewer’s room’. Dark walnut and raw steel were the materials of choice...........more

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Apartment Interior Design | Kwong Shook Lin Residence | Hong Kong | Affect-t

The Renovation of a flat in one of Hong Kong’s exclusive high-rise buildings, the space was opened up to create a contemporary open-plan living environment as per the client’s request. The prior configuration afforded little space in the bedrooms and fragmented space in the living area for gathering.


In order to unify the disparate rooms and integrate the flat a common design language was chosen. A fluid curving space was created which could negotiate and unify the disparate spaces and odd angles of the arrangement. The vaulted ceilings in the bedrooms provide a subtle surface for reflecting the light from the exterior and interior cove lighting while hiding numerous beams in the ceiling. The sculptural ceiling in the living rooms hides numerous LED lights while directing the eye the centre of the dining table in the open-plan room.


Textures and materials interplay as wood is used throughout with the parquet flooring and bespoke oak screen at the entry causing subtle shifts in view as one enters the flat. Marble is used in the two large bathrooms with large sinks carved out of solid block and large soaking tub and shower room in glass tile. A walk-in wardrobe is a point of rest next to the bathroom and a large kitchen can be hidden behind and pivoting door. All features combine to create a feeling of movement of being carried through the space, with the clients affinity for Feng Shui the ideas of direction and energy movement were integrated into the placement of furniture, fittings, and openings to create a contemporary space which envelops the resident.........more

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