Designing your own Christmas porch pots or table centerpieces can be lots of fun. You'll be guaranteed to end up with unique Bettendorf holiday porch and table decor, you can use any colors or styles you like, and you'll get your creative juices flowing! We've got a few guidelines to help you create gorgeous, Instagram-worthy, original winter porch pots and Christmas centerpieces that you can be proud to show off. Pick a Theme or Color Scheme If you've got an overall theme for the Christmas decorations you already own, then its probably best to stick with that theme or tie in coordinating elements so your overall decor is cohesive. If you tend to use a different theme or style outdoors, then go with that. A theme could be a conceptual idea, like "vintage" or antique holiday style, or you could build around a particular element, like burlap or a specific color. If you're not sure about your theme, pick a feature color or color scheme instead. Not sure what colors go well together? Pick your favorite color and visit our garden center to browse our holiday decorations. We can help you find complementary shades, or find fun ornaments of the same color for a monochromatic look. As you start to put items featuring your color side by side, you'll begin to notice what other colors look good with your feature color. Consider adding a touch of gold, silver, or bronze to your palette. Metallics add sparkle and glam to holiday decorations. Choose Feature Items Choose a few feature items for your holiday arrangements. Our eyes are naturally drawn to groupings of objects. While we like symmetry and balance, like two similar porch pots on either side of a door, our eyes are more attracted to odd number groupings. We expect the classic symmetry of a pot on either side of the door or centerpieces evenly spaced on a long table, but within those arrangements, groupings of 3 elements tend to catch our eye. So, choose odd numbers of feature items for your holiday arrangements. For porch pots, you could choose three large pine cones, or three oversized Christmas tree balls, or three birch branches. Layer It Up Layering your elements is also important for catching the eye and leading it through an arrangement. You can layer vertically and horizontally. For most holiday arrangements, you'll want to follow the classic planter theory for a balanced design: thriller, filler, and spiller. In a porch pot, this translates to drapey "spiller" greenery or bows hanging over the edges, "filler" elements like evergreens, pinecones, berries, or ornaments, and "thriller" items like tall birch posts or spikey dogwood branches. You should also layer front to back—tallest items at the back, medium height items in the middle, and shortest items at the front. The same principle can be applied to centerpieces, just on a smaller scale. Your spiller elements in a centerpiece may not spill over the edges much, but they'll be your bottom layer, the foundation supporting your feature elements and taller thriller element. Vary the Textures Including different textures in your arrangements also adds visual interest and helps encourage the eye to explore each element. Again, stick to odd numbers of textures. Choosing three different textures of greenery, like long needle pine boughs, fluffy fir boughs, and glossy green cedars, will make for an attractive combination. Also, consider the textural contrast of your feature items. Something like burlap can be a great complement to metallic elements, or bright colored features. Add Lighting Consider winding some twinkle lights into your holiday arrangements. With the sun setting so early, our porch decor can be out-dazzled by our Christmas lights on the house and trees in our yards. Adding twinkle lights makes your porch pots eye-catching and helps them stand out and compete with the Christmas lights. For your porch pots, make sure you use lights that are safe for outdoor use. For centerpieces, use a battery-powered set of twinkle lights on tiny wires. You can tuck the battery pack into a plastic sandwich bag to protect it from spills, and then hide it in the back of your arrangement, or underneath. We hope we've inspired you to try designing your own holiday arrangements. If you're still not sure if you can pull off a great design, our staff can help you select items that will look great together, and work well with our Bettendorf climate. If you're confident in your skills and just need some inspiration, we've got loads of eye candy! Stop by today to take in all the cute stuff we have in store.