Yuletide Vibes 

By Lisa Arnett
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How a designer decks her halls 

Interior designer Melissa Laskowski spends most of her time working in other people’s homes, but last holiday season she welcomed hundreds of neighbors into hers as a featured home on the Cup of Cheer Holiday House Walk. A fundraiser for the Naperville Garden Club since 1962, the event showcases local homes decorated for the season, with the proceeds funding community projects and scholarships. 

“I’ve been to the Cup of Cheer event many times over the years, and a friend of mine who is a member of the Naperville Garden Club asked if I’d be interested [in featuring my home],” says Laskowski, owner and principal designer at Vermilion Interiors, a Naperville-based design firm specializing in residential and commercial projects. “At first I thought, that’s a lot. But then I thought, I always decorate like this. Why not have 900 people come through our house?” 

Ahead of this season’s Cup of Cheer—which will showcase four different homes Dec. 3 to 4—Laskowski offers some seasonal ideas from her own home, which she shares with her husband, two high-school-age sons, and goldendoodle Gertie. “My approach to holiday decorating is rather than using one theme throughout the entire house, I try to look at the existing palette and personality of each room,” she says. “So I like to have the holiday decor to complement the room and not fight with it.” 

We have this blue stone porch with reclaimed brick and this beauty of a door, so to me, you have to play that up,” says designer Melissa Laskowski of her home’s front entry. “We’ve got this big door, so just a wreath on that would not have looked right. It needed garland around the entire door to give it framing and balance.” For the garland, she added faux magnolia leaves to fresh cedar greens and wound in string lights. For the square planters, she started with miniature evergreen trees for height and added fresh cypress greens, birch branches, and faux pinecones. “More is more for that because you want it to feel full,” she says. 

“When you walk into our house, one of the first things you see is our stairwell,” Laskowski says. “We designed it that way, and let’s decorate it, because she needs to be dressed for the party, too.” Several years ago, Laskowski made the switch from fresh greenery to faux cascading cedar garland. “The fresh garland was too messy, and it just didn’t last. I love decorating for Christmas at my home and I start early, so this just makes more sense.” She layered in ribbon, ornaments, and battery-operated fairy lights, plus a cluster of faux leaves on each newel post.

Laskowski’s formal dining room is a shining example of her holiday decorating philosophy in practice. “There’s calm blues and creams and lots of textures going on in there, but I’m not going to bring a red-and-green kind of color scheme into that,” she says. “Instead, I leaned into blue and white and champagne and gold.” She recently redecorated this room with velvet chairs, Phillip Jeffries grasscloth wall covering, and window treatments with tassel trim. For the table centerpiece, she used both fresh flowers with faux greenery. “You can mix and match like this so you’re not spending a fortune on an all-real one and then it just dies,” she says. “Halfway through the season, I will switch out the flowers.” In the corner, a slim faux tree with frosted branches and flocked ball ornaments matches the festive look.

“In our family room, that to me is all about personalizing [the decor] for our family,” Laskowski says. “That is where we have Christmas morning and watch movies.”

A major focal point is the extended mantel that stretches across the fireplace and entertainment center, dressed with bow- and berry-bedecked garland. Silver ornaments and reindeer statuettes complement the chrome trim around the stone fireplace. “I want this room to be about memories of the past in our ornaments on the tree, so I don’t want a formal-style tree in here,” she says. “But I do try to tie it all together with red ribbons and white lights and continuing the greenery on the mantle.” 

When it comes to the kitchen, Laskowski likes to exercise some restraint. “The kitchen does need to be incorporated as far as your holiday design goes, but I don’t think it needs to have the counters covered,” she says. “You’ve gotta be able to cook in here and put food out on your island when you’re entertaining.” She opted for two large vessels as her island centerpiece and decorated her kitchen windows and patio door with matching wreaths. 

Though the Laskowskis change the windows in their screened-in porch to glass for the winter, they don’t tend to spend much time out here during December. “But you can see this area from our kitchen, so I just wanted there to be a bit of something here,” she says. A petite tabletop tree and brown-and-white reindeer pillows add just enough wintry flair. 

Photos: Julianne Green Photography