Décor

Your Guide to a Maine-Themed Holiday

Everything you need for a stylish season is right here in our snowy midst. You just need to know where to look or, in the case of our dreamy decorating ideas, whom to ask.

TEXT BY SARAH STEBBINS
PHOTOGRAPHED BY DANIELLE SYKES
Saco antiques dealer Erin Donovan, of Instagram’s Of the Sea Studio, is known for her coastal aesthetic, which, naturally, extends to her tree

Rising Star

Saco antiques dealer Erin Donovan, of Instagram’s Of the Sea Studio, is known for her coastal aesthetic, which, naturally, extends to her tree. She ornamented this Tannenbaum with Japanese fishing floats that reference traditional glass balls and filled in with starfish (available by the bag at crafts stores) and sea fans on wispier branches; a red-bottomed vintage toy boat is the proverbial cherry on top. On gifts, vintage nautical charts, rope, and antique-postcard labels drive home the theme. Six-foot-tall balsam fir, $60. skillins.com; fishing floats, starfish, and sea fans, @scotthay65_touchofgreyinc on Instagram

Erika Soule uses kraft paper to wrap shoppers’ purchases at her Wiscasset Rock Paper Scissors boutique

Kraft Show

Erika Soule uses kraft paper to wrap shoppers’ purchases at her Wiscasset Rock Paper Scissors boutique, and thinks the medium makes a handsome theme for holiday gifts too. “I like the idea of taking a common material and thinking, how can I elevate it?” she says. Solution: by adding a bevy of flourishes cut from kraft scraps and regular old printer paper and adhered with a glue stick. Plus: polka dots, created by dipping a pencil eraser in white paint, that culminate in a playful homemade pom-pom.

Maine-made holiday cards

Good News

Put some Maine in the mail with an artful print by a local maker. TOP ROW: Watercolor Lobsterboat Christmas, $14 for 10. emmyandolly.com; Isatopia gouache Red Bird, $4. shopmainecraft.com; Saturn Press letterpress Arctic, $3.50. thegoodsupply.org MIDDLE ROW: Woodcut Cedar Waxwings, $11 for 6. bluebutterfield.com; letterpress, woodblock, and watercolor Peace on Earth, $5.50. wingedprints.com; foil-stamped, watercolor Happy Holidays, $18 for 6. katharinewatson.com; hand-stamped Cozy Bear, $22 for 5. evenkeelcardco.com BOTTOM ROW: Hand-drawn Fox and Holly, $16 for 8. mollyocards.com; Sara Fitz watercolor Holiday Wagoneer, $5.25. daytripsociety.com

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Well-Rounded

Why hang the same ol’ red-ribboned affair when you could branch out? ABOVE 1) Dried starflowers, salvia, and hypericum berries, plus pine and juniper, punch up a balsam wreath by Portland’s Kate Hanavan Ross and Jason Aucoin. 14 inches, $100. backyardbloomsmaine.com. 2) Seeded eucalyptus, along with pine, balsam, and hemlock snipped on Valerie Mankus’s Scarborough farm, hang elegantly askew on a grapevine form. 18 inches, $75. fawnmeadowflowers.com. 3) Cypress, sumac, and dried globe amaranth, pennycress, and bupleurum, nod to classic greens, reds, and golds on a balsam round by Farmingdale’s Sarah Lutte. 28 inches, $65. lazyacresmaine.com. 4) A wire base with pine, juniper, bearberry, and a pinecone “bow,” by Biddeford’s Brianne Emhiser, proves minimalism can be merry. 24 inches, $150. stemandvinefloral.com

Hanukkah table by Kennebunkport designer/shop owner Nicki Bongiorno

Sweet Seat

On her Hanukkah table, Kennebunkport designer/shop owner Nicki Bongiorno gives the holiday’s traditional royal-blue-and-white palette a coastal twist, pairing aqua linens (the “placemats” are lumbar pillowcases!) and sea urchin soup bowls with snowy plates and star-shaped side dishes she piles with latkes. Golden tones in the fabric and twine-wrapped glasses pick up the requisite gelt, which Bongiorno scatters around the table’s showpiece: a glass menorah given to her by her dad. Linen pillows, $120–$159; stoneware sea urchin soup bowls, $65; twine-wrapped lattice highball glasses, $54.50 for 4. spacesnb.com

Maine-made ornaments

All the Trimmings

Turn your tree into a work of (Maine) art with handmade ornaments by some of our favorite crafters. TOP ROW: Sasha Lennon Pottery hand-painted stoneware Maine, $17. fitzandbennetthome.com; hand-blown glass ball, $22. cascobayglass.com; Occasional Papercraft storybook pinwheel (made from vintage children’s books), $16 for 3. handiworkportland.com; driftwood boat, $38. thirdleeco.com BOTTOM ROW: 3D birch star, $15. benoitsdesign.co; Kathy Webster hand-carved wooden California quail, $60. shopmainecraft.com; Sarah Madeira Day hand-dipped ceramic ball, $38. fitzandbennetthome.com

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winter flower arrangement by by John Sundling, of Portland’s Plant Office

Local Color

The shades in a sunset dissolving over a snow-covered forest inspired this centerpiece by John Sundling, of Portland’s Plant Office. Once you’ve defined your palette, any flowers and greens will suffice, he says, so long as you incorporate a variety of shapes and textures. Sundling used pine and fir branches to create a framework inside the vase (forked limbs are especially helpful), and determine the parameters of the arrangement. Next, he poked in large blooms (dahlias, garden roses, lisianthus), then filled in with dried stems (amaranth, globe amaranth, delphinium, thistle, winged ammobium, wheat). “They don’t need to go in water, so you can really work the angles,” he says.

Yarmouth designer Nicola Manganello took a layered approach to the mantel in her 1771 Colonial.

Layer Up

“When I do something in the holiday department, less is more is not where I go,” says Yarmouth designer Nicola Manganello, who took a layered approach to the mantel in her 1771 Colonial. Starting with a garland of eucalyptus mixed with holly, balsam, and pine clipped on her property, she wove in dried oranges and tallow berries, mercury-glass and Moravian-star lights, strings of wooden beads, and sparkly gold ribbon. Nestled above the greens, lit-from-within zinc houses cast a cozy glow. How to keep a maximalist look from overpowering? Stick to mostly natural materials, Manganello says. “A house has enough to say as far as color goes.”