You can give your home a festive feel at anytime of the year. The trick is not to overdo it. You want to avoid too many  decorations, so things don’t end up feeling gimmicky. Tasteful updates are the best approach to mark a holiday and keep things stylish.

Here are five easy tips on decking out your home with festive flair to celebrate any time of year.

1. Get crafty on your own
 If you’re really festive, think about trying some DIY projects to make chic decorations for the holidays. The problem with seasonal or holiday decorations is that nice ones have huge markups, and cheap ones are just that, cheap. It’s hard to find something that looks great for a bargain. Lower priced goods often look hokey. The good news is that adding festive flair to your home doesn’t have to cost a lot if you do it yourself. Social media sites like Pinterest and interior design websites all offer great DIY craft ideas that look like they’re out of a designer magazine. You can start simple by attempting to make your own wreath for Fall or working on Spring plant arrangements. Sure, the first time or two things might look a little rough, but with practice comes perfection. Soon your crafts will be what everyone notices when they come over to your place.

2. Make your inside plants match the mood
So many homeowners overlook the impact of changing plants around the house. Buying some flowers and putting them in vases as centerpieces on the dining room table or kitchen counter is a wonderful way to be festive. Coordinate the colours that match with the time of year. Bright, vibrant colours in spring and warmer colours as the year progresses. If you want to be even more specific, match flower colours with the holidays as they pass. Green on St. Patrick’s, roses on Valentine’s Day, and a color mix for Easter. The best part of decorating with festive flowers and plants is that it’s subtle. People living in the home or visiting won’t see them as being there for a specific reason. Rather they’ll naturally feel more festive because of the environment around them.

3. Don’t sleep on smells
The way a house smells isn’t usually the first thing that pops into your head when you think of festive design. However, adding specific scents is a neat way to add a non-traditional flair to the season. So many people focus heavily on the way the home looks to influence how people feel inside. But how a house smells can have just as big an impact. A slight pumpkin spice scent during Thanksgiving in the Fall, or something citrus during the summer get people in the mood for fun. Scents often trigger nostalgia in people, bringing up positive memories from the past that they’ll associate with what they’re experiencing. There are so many options now when it comes to festive scents. A wide variety of sprays can be purchased in stores that correlate to the current season. You can also never go wrong with designer candles that give off inviting smells. If you’re sensitive to strong scents, buying seasonal flowers or fruits and putting them on display is another great idea.

4. Create a colour scheme
Changing colours can have an immediate impact on how your home looks and feels. Festive colours add to the mood of the season or holiday. Fresh spring colors like Kelly green, yellow, and light blue instantly make a place feel fun and vibrant. The thing with colours is that you can take it pretty much as far as you feel like. Some homeowners love switching up paint schemes regularly. However, not everyone is up for that kind of dedication to being festive. The good news is that you don’t have to totally makeover your home to add festive flair. It can be all about adding accent colours into your already great interior design. If you’ve managed to avoid clutter and keep things well-spaced throughout your home, the little color you add will make a big difference. That Kelly-green side table or yellow curtains will be the centre of attention when people come in.

5. Find somewhere to hang inspirational messages
It can be hard to think of something smart and festive to say. It’s a good thing most seasons and holidays come with slogans of their own that we can use. Christmas is an easy one, but there are all sorts of holiday decorations that involve the use of words. You can buy them on a plaque or board that can be hung or placed on a counter somewhere. If you’re really feeling it, this could be another DIY craft project to take on. Reading an inspirational message that corresponds to the season will get people in a festive move quickly. It also lightens things up in your house from a design perspective. Quirky, fun sayings placed selectively around the home add flair and keep things happy. Careful with this one though, too much and you risk getting corny. Keep it balanced. One or two in the right places is enough.

By Jules Hopkins, public relations specialist, housetipster.com