Lisa Mende Design: Guess Who is in QC Exclusive December Issue?

If you guessed me, you are right! I know it isn't cool to promote yourself, but I was excited to be included among such a stellar group of Charlotteans, so I simply had to share!

Thank you to QC Exclusive Magazine for featuring yours truly in its December issue.

QC Exclusive is "Charlotte's Guide to the Good life" . The December issue is chocked full of goodness like "The Best Holiday Menu Ever", and articles on Julie Tassy of Ella B. Candles and Ede Graves of The Classic Attic. I was especially excited to read about artist Ken Youngstrom, whom I have admired for a while. If you haven't finished your Christmas shopping their "Ultimate Gift List" for men and women is pretty amazing. It is one of the best I've seen since all the items are available here in the Queen City. It's worth picking up for Kent Graham's "Festive Feast" recipes alone! I can't wait to try his brussels sprouts recipe. And if you are a Carolina Panther fan, the article on Steve Smith is pretty amazing. It highlights The Steve Smith Family Foundation and the good work it does in helping others.

Steve Smith is one of my favorite Panthers, so I was excited to see him featured. I admire him for using the adversity in his early life to motivate him to provide for others who are less fortunate. It's a great article. There is a handsome photo of him too!

My article in the magazine is about " The Holiday Table." I think it is important to set a special table for your family for the holidays. My article shares ways of decorating the table with ease. "Keep it simple" is my motto. I share tips and local sources for everything I used. Of course, if you don't live in Charlotte, most of the items I used are available from Crate and Barrel, West Elm and Homegoods or Michaels, so you can find the same items online or in your city.

We started with the dining room of a house I did in Chapel HIll, NC. As you can see I chose to juxtapose an old tin chicken feeder for the centerpiece with crystal candlesticks, wood and flowers. Each place setting had it's own bouquet of flowers. The color scheme in this room is russet, grey and citron, so the typical holiday red and green just don't work. This table was set for any event from Thanksgiving to Christmas. I actually changed out the centerpiece for large antique mirrored urns, pillar candles and greenery and votives for the Chapel Hill Historical Tour Christmas Open House. The mantle was draped in fresh blue fir greenery garlands and arrangements of fresh fruit were on the sideboard.

I think took the same elements used above and changed out the place mat and linens to create various options for holiday using the atypical color scheme. The idea is to match your holiday decor to your color scheme not the expected red and green.

Here is a variation of the original place setting using snakeskin chargers, a white grasscloth placemat and charcoal gray linen napkin. The options are endless so I had to really just pick a few to share so I chose the more simplistic options. Holiday decorating doesn't have to be time consuming, expensive or complicated to be pretty.

If you read my blog, you may recognize this room as my own dining room. As you can see my decorations are far from traditional in this photo. Typically for the holidays, I try to create a new look with a fresh color scheme. Guess what I'm cooking up for this holiday season?

I'll show you in a blog post in a week or so.

I would love to see your decor! If you will email me pictures, I will put together a post using your photos for the blog. Just email them to me at Lmende@gmail.com

Make sure you pick up your QC Exclusive to see the rest of the article. If you don't live in Charlotte but are interesting in QC Exclusive you can subscribe here. You don't have to live in Charlotte to enjoy QC Exclusive you just have to enjoy the finer things in life.

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