Christmas Comes in Full Color at This Designer's Home

Color and pattern aren’t used as accents in Monica Burt’s home—they’re the main attraction. Each room is lined with a bold wallpaper and spelled with a scheme of energetic blues and greens and plenty of her signature magenta pink. When the holidays come around, the same palette applies.

“I don’t really like the traditional colors for pretty much any holiday, so I like to go beyond the green and red,” says the interior designer, who shares her exuberant holiday decorating—including trees for holidays throughout the year—on Instagram.

The first of November (as soon as the Halloween trees come down), the Christmas trees go up in Monica’s 1970s home near Chicago. “I figure out where each tree is going and decorate it, then I can design the rest of the room around the tree,” she says. “I have moved fully decorated Christmas trees before and it’s not fun.” She spends about a month decorating for Christmas, slowly adding, rearranging, and editing until it’s all just right.

Although she assigns a theme to each tree and room, one constant prevails in both her everyday and her holiday decor—rainbow gradients in bold colors. In the dining room, this plays out on her table, where each place setting features a different-color stack of Fiestaware. In her daughter’s room, there’s a line of nutcracker toys on the dresser, and in the living room, an ombré forest of bottlebrush trees marches down the mantel en masse.

"If you don't want to use Christmas colors, don’t use them,” Monica says. Traditional reds and greens are rarely found together in her home, but there’s no shortage of cheer. Mixing everyday objects with more traditional items in the same color palette helps Monica achieve her festive vignettes.

In addition to her colorful displays, Monica decorates with as many secondhand pieces as possible. “Their imperfections make a place feel more like a home,” she says. So on every surface and tucked into shelves that hold vintage Pyrex and colorful books year-round, she displays her various Christmas collections: Santa mugs and figurines, holiday village houses, and glass, ceramic, and bottlebrush trees.

Monica’s most-prized collection is a set of her grandmother’s ornaments displayed on a shelf. “I don’t want to hang them on a tree because it’s too risky,” she says. “Our Christmas tree fell over when I was younger, so these are all that’s left.”

Looking at Monica’s shelves is like playing I Spy—with each glance, you discover another treasure or two. Vintage Pyrex, books, and various artworks are the year-round foundation. She adds a roundup of color—coordinated trees, ornaments, ceramic houses, and other figurines when the holidays come around.

Monica’s husband, Brandon, and their two daughters get in on the festivities too. Brandon loves to prepare the big Christmas Eve feast, and the girls decorate trees in each of their rooms, the playroom, and the basement. It gives the kids a place to let their creativity out and do whatever they want, Monica says. After all, they’re why she decorates for the holidays. “My kids are always so excited for Christmas Day, and they love all the decorations,” she says. “To see their faces and watch them get excited is just so special.”

Christmas comes in December, but Monica thinks about it year-round. She's always on the lookout for decorations she can add to her bright and bold holiday repertoire. In February, she may find a hot pink wreath, in June, a teal garland. In September, she puts pen to paper and plans a decorating theme for each room.

Monica transformed her brass light fixture into a holiday version of a crystal chandelier shimmering with Shiny Brite ornaments and hot pink satin bows. The holiday touches make the fixture an instant hit—and focal point—as you walk through the door. She uses upholstery thread to tie the ornaments to the chandelier because it's strong but thin enough to not distract from the display.

One of Monica’s collections is her ceramic Christmas trees. Some are vintage pieces found at thrift and antiques stores; others are new from Walmart or Target. “It’s always hard for me to put them away,” she says, so the pink ones stay out a little longer and make the transition into her Valentine’s decor.

Monica uses pink and light-blue ornaments to decorate the white trees in her dining room. She used to sell vintage ornaments on Etsy and has been collecting Shiny Brites and antique pieces from thrift stores and estate sales for years. Guests call dibs on their place at the table based on their favorite-color dishes.

Monica’s daughters’ rooms each get their own layer of holiday decor. The two girls take after Mom, wanting to fill the rooms with special things, like the pink tree and rainbow nutcrackers proudly on display.

Monica’s advice for layering hues is to pick a focal point: It could be artwork, a throw pillow, a Christmas tree, or often in her house, wallpaper. She then uses it to inform the palette for the rest of the room. If each room has complementary colors, the quantity won’t feel as overwhelming. The green paint on the cabinets is pulled from the splashes of the same shade in the wallpaper. The powder room also receives a few holiday notes with a felt garland and red metallic reindeer.

If there's one thing Monica doesn't shy away from, it's Christmas trees. Twelve fully trimmed trees go up each year in the Burt home. Forty ceramic and glass trees glimmer on display. More than 250 bottlebrush trees are scattered throughout, and 117 of them form the seamless rainbow on her mantel.

To create the floating bubble effect, Monica clusters three to five same-color ornaments together with silver pipe cleaners. The key to making the colors blend more naturally is to combine ornaments with variations of finish (glossy, matte) and size. To get the ombré just right, Monica laid out the clusters of ornaments on the floor before attaching them to the tree.

Styled by Jennifer DeCleene