Wreaths, garland, and greenery for Atlanta homes

The daytime photo above shows a brick traditional with a wreath on each front window and roofline lights ready for the evening. The wreaths repeat at the same height and size across the facade, which gives the house a calm, even rhythm even before the lights come on. This is the look many brick traditionals in Alpharetta and Johns Creek, and the brick colonials of Brookhaven and Buckhead, suit best.

On a house like this, the greenery and the roofline answer each other. Wreaths below, a warm-white line above, and the brick in between. Many of the larger North Atlanta houses add a tall window above the entry that lights a two-story foyer. A single wreath hung there, sized to that window rather than to the ones below it, gives the center of the facade a focal point from the street.

Front porches with columns call for a different approach than a flat facade. The white porch pictured has garland wrapped up the columns, which draws the eye upward and makes the porch the center of the display. On the deep porches of Craftsman bungalows and Victorian houses in Inman Park and Virginia-Highland, garland along the rail and up the posts often looks better than lights on a roofline that is partly hidden by the porch roof.

We measure column height and rail length so the garland arrives cut to fit, without slack gathered at the base.

The entry is where a display is seen from three feet away, so it needs the most care. The door pictured is framed with garland and flanked by lanterns. A garland frame running up both sides and across the top gives the door weight and presence, and a wreath at the center completes it.

On Tudor revival homes in Morningside, with their arched doors and stone surrounds, we follow the arch or leave it clean and hang one well-proportioned wreath. On a formal colonial door with a fanlight, a straight garland frame keeps the symmetry. The tall paneled doors and double entries common on newer homes in Roswell and Cumming take a heavier garland and a larger wreath, or the greenery looks undersized next to the door.

A lit wreath on the porch, like the one pictured, keeps the entry glowing after dark and ties it to the rest of the display. We light greenery with warm-white mini lights on the same timer as the roofline and trees, so the whole house comes on at dusk together.

Greenery comes down with everything else during January takedown. Lit pieces are checked and stored with the strands, labeled by location. Pair it with wrapped trees for a front yard that reads as one composition.