Linda Hartwell · The Designer Christmas Handbook

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Pick the way you'd like it

Most readers take both books: the Handbook shows where everything goes, and the companion shows how to make the expensive pieces yourself.

Best value · both books

The Handbook + The Boutique Christmas for Less

The Designer Christmas Handbook: 306 pages, 33 chapters, every room
The Boutique Christmas for Less: 97 pages of boutique pieces made from plain store basics
Wreath, designer bow, mantel garland, porch urn, centerpiece and tree topper, step by step
Every project priced: the store's price next to what it cost me

~~$45~~$29Both books

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The Handbook

The Designer Christmas Handbook

The trade's order of work, from the bins to the finished house
The Tree Formula Chart for 6, 7.5 and 9-foot trees
The One-Weekend, No-Ladder Plan, hour by hour
Buy / Skip / Use-What-You-Own lists with real prices

~~$35~~$19

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🔒 Launch price: $19 instead of $35 while the clock runs

Secure checkoutInstant email deliveryRead on phone, tablet or computerPrint the checklists at home30-day money-back guarantee

A word from Linda

Two minutes, and you'll know if this book is for you

I. Why I wrote it down

Every November the phone rings with the same question

“Linda, why does my tree look so thin?” “Linda, my mantel looks cheap and I don't know why.” Friends, neighbors, women I decorated for back in the nineties. I've cut back on client work, but the calls never stopped.

Here's what I tell every one of them. It is almost never your decorations. It's the order. A designer doesn't open a bin and start hanging things. We fluff first, light from the inside out, set the ribbon, then the ornaments, plain ones deep, favorites out front, and the picks last. Do it in that order and the very same box of decorations looks like a different house.

One December I walked into a client's living room in Matthews. She had a twenty-year-old tree and thirty-some bins, and she was ready to throw it all out and buy new. We bought nothing. We spent an afternoon re-fluffing, re-lighting and regrouping what she already owned. When her daughter came home she stood in the doorway and asked, “Mom, who did your tree?”

“It was never your ornaments. It was the order nobody ever taught you.”

So I wrote the order down, every room, every step, with the real prices I pay. This is the year you love your tree.

Linda

II. What's inside

306 pages. 33 chapters. Every room, in the order a pro does it.

Every chapter has the steps, a short “buy, skip, use what you own” list, and photos of how it should look when you're done.

Part One

Before You Open a Single Bin

How a designer looks at a room before anything goes up.

5 chapters

Why Your Tree Looks Sparse, and the Three Things a Designer Fixes First
Keep What You Love: Making Old Ornaments Look Collected, Not Cluttered
Pick Your Palette From What You Already Own in Twenty Minutes
The Trade's Order of Work: The Exact Sequence Pros Decorate a House In
Shop With a Plan: The Buy / Skip / Use-What-You-Own List

An artificial tree glowing from deep inside its branches

Part Two

The Tree, Start to Finish

From a flat box tree to one that looks lit from within.

8 chapters

Fluff an Artificial Tree So It Looks Full and Expensive
The Lights: How Many Per Foot, Which Warm White, and How to Light From Within
The Topper Without a Ladder: Dress the Top Section at Table Height
Ribbon the Way Designers Do It: Cascades, Tucks and How Many Yards
Ornaments in the Right Order: Fillers Deep, Favorites Out Front
The Finishing Layer: Picks, Sprays and Florals That Make a Tree Look Boutique
The Tree Formula Chart, Worked Through for a 6-Foot, 7.5-Foot and 9-Foot Tree
Skirt, Collar or Basket: Finishing the Bottom, and Two Small Trees Instead of One

A white mantel with a full garland and brass candlesticks

Part Three

The Mantel, the Stairs and the Front Door

The three places every guest looks first.

4 chapters

A Mantel That Looks Rich: Linda's Three-Layer Method
Make Cheap Garland Look Thick: Layering Two Inexpensive Garlands Into One
The Staircase Without Scratching the Banister
A Front Door and Porch That Look Finished From the Street

A set Christmas table for six with a low evergreen centerpiece

Part Four

The Table and Every Other Room

Carry the look through the whole house without overdoing it.

6 chapters

A Christmas Table That Looks Set by a Designer
The Kitchen: Christmas Touches That Stay Out of the Cook's Way
Bedrooms and the Guest Room: Small Touches That Feel Like a Nice Hotel
The Bathroom and Powder Room: The Three-Piece Rule
The Entry and Hallway: The First Thing Guests See
Small Homes and Apartments: Decorating Big in a Small Space

A thrift store shelf with brass candlesticks and glass hurricanes

Part Five

The Boutique Look for Less

Thrift finds, dollar-store basics and the real numbers.

4 chapters

What to Buy at the Thrift Store, and What to Leave on the Shelf
The Dollar-Store Basics Designers Quietly Use
Store Price vs Linda's Cost: The Boutique Look, Priced Page by Page
Faux and Fresh Greenery: Decorating on November 1 Without Drying Out or Damaging Wood

The top section of a tree being dressed on a dining table

Part Six

The One-Weekend, No-Ladder Plan

The whole house done in one weekend, feet on the floor.

3 chapters

The One-Weekend Plan: Friday Evening to Sunday Night, Hour by Hour
Decorate Without Ladders, Sore Knees or a Tree That Tips Over
Make It Look as Good in Photos as It Does in the Room

Part Seven

After Christmas

So next year takes half the time.

3 chapters

Linda's Pack-Away System: Labeled Bins So Next Year Takes Half the Time
Edit Your Collection: From Thirty-Three Bins to the Ones You Use
January Without a Bare House: Turning Christmas Into Winter

And at the back of the book, ready to print

The 25 Designer Christmas Rules
Decorator Words in Plain English
Room-by-Room Checklists
My Christmas Inventory and Budget Ledger
Linda's Priced Shopping List
A Note on Decorating Safely
A Final Honest Word

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III. The honest part

What you won't find in this book

I've watched the same advice go around every year. Here is what I left out on purpose.

“Throw out your old ornaments”

Never. The ones your kids made and the glass ones from your mother are the heart of the tree. Chapter 2 shows how to make them look collected, not cluttered.

Seventy-dollar ribbon

You won't be told to buy designer ribbon by the roll. I show what I actually use, where I buy it and what it costs.

A brand-new look every year

The stores want you to start over each season. This book starts with what is already in your bins and adds only what fills a real gap.

Ladders and heavy lifting

The topper and the top section get dressed at table height, then go on the tree. Feet on the floor, the whole weekend.

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Everything that comes with your copy

The Designer Christmas Handbook: the trade's order of work, tree, mantel, staircase, front door, table, every room~~$19~~

The One-Weekend Decorating Plan: day by day, bins to finished house$9

The Tree Formula Chart: lights, ornaments, ribbon yards and picks per foot of tree~~$12~~

Buy / Skip / Use What You Own lists with real prices, plus my dupes for the boutique look~~$15~~

The No-Ladder Method: topper and top section dressed at table height$7

Linda's Pack-Away System: the labeled-bin plan so next year takes half the time$7

Printable checklists and palette cards$9

Total value~~$78~~

You pay today$19

Get the book · $19 Get both books · $29

30days

My 30-day promise

Read it within 30 days. If it's not for you, email us and you get every penny back. No questions, no hard feelings.

IV. From the same kitchen table

The Boutique Christmas for Less

The Handbook shows where everything goes. This one shows how to make the expensive pieces yourself for a fraction of the boutique price. Every project has the real store price, what it cost me, and step-by-step photos. 97 pages.

The full boutique wreath from a plain store wreath
The one designer bow that goes on everything
A thick mantel garland for a fraction of the pre-lit price
The tall urn arrangement for the front porch
A low table centerpiece that looks florist-made
Boutique ornaments from plain dollar-store balls
The oversized tree topper made from picks and ribbon
Thrift-store brass and glass made Christmas-ready
The staircase swag set
Gift wrap that looks like a department-store window

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V. About Linda Hartwell

A note from the author

I'm Linda Hartwell, and I'm from Charlotte, North Carolina. Every room I've ever decorated for a living has been within a short drive of here.

I started out in the early nineties dressing furniture-store showrooms. It was the best schooling I could have asked for. I learned that a room looks expensive because of how things are placed, not because of what they cost. A sofa with the right lamp and the right pillows sold by the end of the week. The very same sofa pushed against a wall sat there for months.

Then for close to thirty years I ran my own small residential design business. Every November my calendar filled with holiday work: trees, mantels and staircases for private clients, model homes and a few local boutiques. Most of my clients did not want to spend a fortune on something that comes down in January, and I didn't blame them. So I learned to make a room feel rich and finished with thrift-store finds, dollar-store basics and whatever was already up in the attic.

I remember standing in a client's den with her late mother's glass ornaments laid out on a bedsheet, and her telling me, a little embarrassed, that she figured they were too old-fashioned to use. We hung every one of them at eye level on the front of the tree. That was the year I stopped believing anybody's decorations were the problem. If you love it, it's beautiful. It just has to go in the right place, in the right order.

I'm no TV decorator, and I've never had a magazine spread. I just stood in a lot of living rooms in November, with real families and real budgets, and I've made every mistake in this book myself at least once.

I've cut back on client work now. But every year the calls keep coming from friends, neighbors and women I decorated for back in the nineties, so I started my YouTube channel to answer everyone at once. And this fall I finally had the time to sit at my kitchen table and write the whole order down, the way I'd walk you through it if I were standing in your living room with a cup of coffee. That's this book.

“If you love it, it belongs on the tree. I'll just show you where.”

Linda HartwellCharlotte, North Carolina

VI. Questions

What people ask me before they order

I'm not much for computers. How do I get it?

Press the red button, type your email and pay. A few seconds later an email arrives with a button that opens your book. If anything goes wrong, just reply to that email and it comes to me.

Is this a printed book?

No, it's a digital book you can read on your phone, tablet or computer the minute you order. You can also print the whole thing, or just the checklists and the Tree Formula Chart, at home.

I already have dozens of bins. Is this going to tell me to buy new?

No. The book starts with what you own. Part One helps you pick a palette from your own bins in twenty minutes, and the shopping list only covers real gaps, with a Skip column for everything you don't need.

I'm in my seventies and I don't do ladders.

Then this book was written with you in mind. The topper and the whole top section get dressed at table height before they go on the tree, and Chapter 29 covers decorating without ladders, sore knees or a tree that tips over.

My tree is old and pre-lit. Will this still work?

Yes. Chapter 6 shows how to fluff an older artificial tree so it looks full again, and Chapter 7 covers how many lights per foot, which warm white, and how to make the tree glow from inside.

I live in a small apartment.

Chapter 23 is all about decorating big in a small space, including a slim tree, windows and two small trees instead of one.

Can I buy it for my mother, my sister or a friend?

Of course. Order it with your email and forward the download email to her, or print it and tuck it into a Christmas card.

Money's tight this year.

I understand, and that's why this book is built on what you own, thrift finds and dollar-store basics, with the real prices. And if it isn't for you, you have 30 days to get a full refund.

What if I don't like it?

Read it within 30 days. If it's not for you, email us for a full refund.

Your whole home, decorated like a designer did it, in one weekend, with what you already own