Harness the Maine Outdoors in Chic Holiday Displays

Photograph by Dave Waddell

Taking On the Mantel

As winter sets in, garden designer Abigail Pratt, of Star Gardens, fills her 1800s Portland Federal with greenery: garlands of evergreens over doorways, vases with sprigs of fir, holly, boxwood, or winterberry in the living room, kitchen, and baths. She’s after a cozy, natural vibe — and if there are a few needles on the floor, so be it. Recently, asymmetrical mantel garlands have become her signature. For this one in her living room, Pratt wired together white pine, boxwood, cedar, ornamental grasses, and a few varieties of juniper, then poked in dried amaranth, eucalyptus, dogwood berries, and hydrangeas for color and texture; arrangements of cedar, eucalyptus, gomphrena, and pine in vintage Chinese vases serve as visual anchors. “I like balance, but not symmetry,” Pratt says. “It’s a lot of stepping back, looking at it, and going with what I feel the space wants. There is truly no wrong way to do it.”

Boxwood, dried gomphrena, @neverlandflowerfarm on Instagram; dried eucalyptus, Trader Joe’s

Photographs by Tara Rice

Land and Sea

Inspired to create a tree with a “foraged and found” theme for the living room in her 1850 Waldoboro Greek Revival, home-décor designer Michelle Provencal used dried maroon amaranth, pink celosia, and yellow tansy to accentuate the branches. Clamshell ornaments she spray-painted, then distressed by gently rubbing with a dry brush, and splatter-painted gold add subtle shine; netting for antique fishing floats stands in for glass balls; feathers and antler pieces suspended from twine and gold embroidery thread bring vertical interest; and twisty salvaged rope and scraps of birch bark serve as garlands. Provencal, who sells needle-felted ornaments through her Thirdlee & Co. line, also made the wool-and-driftwood tern topper, an homage to a John J. Audubon engraving. The key to a cohesive look, she says, is ruthless editing, then repurposing items that don’t make the cut. “I wanted to use these great fish nets for garlands, but they turned out to be dull,” she says. “So I ended up using them on top of Kraft- paper gift wrap instead.”

Six-foot-tall balsam fir, skillins.com; dried flowers, catkinflowersmaine.com; fishing-float netting, rope, @scotthay65_ touchofgreyinc on Instagram

Photograph by Dave Waddell

“The Field in a Vase”

The Charlie Brown trees she harvests on her 30-acre southern Maine property notwithstanding, wedding florist Anika Wilson, of Bad Rabbit Flowers, is a maximalist in most things. During the holidays, she applies that sensibility in surprising ways. “I like things to be wintry, but not over-the-top red and green, not too traditional,” she says. Take the planter arrangement in front of her 1816 Cape: an exuberant spray of bergamot, celosia, dried pods, eucalyptus, evergreens, gypsophila, millet grass, and strawflowers interspersed with swooping dried garlic scapes and spikes of explosion grass. For a similar look, Wilson recommends stuffing a heavy planter with a tightly wrapped ball of chicken wire to poke stems into. From there, “Don’t be afraid to put in a really big branch and see where it takes you,” she says. She aims for an arrangement that’s a bit taller and wider than its vessel, with plants of various heights and sizes. “I want it to look like I curated the field in a vase.”