Cheap & Chic: Green Holiday Decorating Under $15

With Santa on a serious budget, the last thing people want to splurge on this season is decorating their pad. Thankfully, Shoestring enlisted three A-list designers to share their ideas for creating posh parties that use eco-friendly materials and cost just pennies to the dollar.

Meet the designers: Bryan Rafanelli, owner of Rafanelli Events in Boston and Palm Beach, whose creative and cost-effective decorating tips have allowed his clients to "live out their dreams, at least for one magical night" and have been featured on the Today Show and in such wedding magazines as InStyle, Bride, and Town & Country; Kari Whitman, of KWI in Beverly Hills, whose clients include Jessica Alba, Kristen Bell, and Emilio Estevez, to name a few; and Jennae Petersen, founder of GreenYourDecor.com, a U.S. Virgin Islands native whose eco-friendly styling tips have been featured throughout the blogosphere and social media.

Here are our experts' thrifty tips, bringing together the top home trends from coast to coast and around cyberspace and guided by the universal R's: reducing, reusing, and recycling.

REDUCING

Long before Hollywood made it trendy, Kari Whitman was a crusader for green design. This Boulder, Colorado native and self-proclaimed tree-hugger was "practically born recycling," and is committed to incorporating eco- and animal-friendly products into all of her design projects—finding inventive ways to not only save the earth, but also to save money.

In order to reduce waste of both the environmental and wallet kind, Kari suggests shopping for secondhand decorations on Craig's List or at your local consignment store. "You can buy great vintage Christmas trees at swap meets and sales all year long, in white, green, and silver," she said. "It's a great way to recycle, save money, and be creative." Kari also suggested cutting costs on real greenery by asking for trash-bound clippings from your local tree stand or nursery, or by trimming down the bottom of your own tree to make room for presents. Use the leftover branches or needles to design a garland centerpiece down the length of your dinner table.

Bryan Rafanelli is known for allowing his surroundings to act as his muse, whether that means the materials he finds on hand or his clients' unique personalities. We met Bryan at a recent event held by Stop & Shop supermarkets, where he said he loves to "wander the aisles and let the products inspire me." Bryan's top tip for being fashionable and stylish on a limited budget while reducing your carbon footprint is to start by supporting "Made in America" products and buying locally. This year, he also reduced cost and waste by skipping the Christmas tree altogether and creating one out of Campbell's soup cans stacked in a tree-shaped pyramid. When the holidays are over, the soup becomes a life-affirming donation to a local food pantry, rather than a dead, brown tree on the curb. Mm, mm good.

True to the name of her website, Green Your Decor, Jennae Petersen's tip for reducing cost and waste starts at home with decor you already own. Her advice is to take old ornaments and decorations and repaint them in a monochromatic color scheme using low-VOC paints like those from Krylon's H20 line. "I'm seeing a lot of monochromatic color schemes—white in particular," she said. "As much as I love Christmas, I've personally never been a big fan of the usual red, green and gold color scheme, and it seems that a lot of other people have begun to feel the same way. Teal and purple are also great Christmas decorating colors that stray from the norm but are still festive. Pairing them with silver lends a glimmery, shiny holiday feeling."

Jennae also reduces her family's energy consumption and electricity bill by using soy and beeswax candles throughout her house during the holidays. "They use no electricity, make our home smell great and create intimate lighting," she said "They're also non-toxic, unlike traditional paraffin candles, which are made from petroleum and can leach toxins into the air when burned."

REUSING

In fashion and home design, this is the year of shiny objects, with metallics as one of the top trends. Bryan suggests embracing this year's other trend—of being a "recessionista"—by mixing and matching gold, silver, pewter and bronze in your holiday decorating scheme. "Peruse your cabinets, see what antiques and china you have, put some elbow grease into polishing them up, and save even more money!"

Taking the reusing tips one step further, Bryan recommends gathering up all the clear vessels from around your home and filling them with food to create festive and frugal tables or mantles. "Many of us are guilty of having cabinets that are overflowing with glass vases that we never use," he said. "Pull them all out (the more varied the sizes the better), dust them off, and put a candle in them for ambiance, or fill them with nuts and cranberries for guests to snack on."

Bryan also suggested using fruits and vegetables as decoration, either stringing garlands of brussel sprouts or radishes or wrapping thin satin ribbon around apples and oranges and then tying a bow at the top. "Place them around your home—very colorful, very simple, very beautiful—or line them up down the center of your dinner table for an added pop of color. I always go the "plain and fancy" route, complimenting something everyday and ordinary with a little touch of something special." Plus, as an added bonus, you'll have healthy snack food handy for your family to nosh on after all the holiday gorging!

From food to fabric: Jennae's top tip for reusable holiday decorating is to buy remnants or a single bolt of non-seasonal fabric in place of wrapping paper for gifts. "Invest your $15 in a few yards of inexpensive fabric, and it doesn't have to feature holiday patterns," she said. "Just try to find something that you can imagine being displayed beautifully under your tree. You will be giving the recipient two gifts: the actual present and a gorgeous piece of fabric they can reuse for something else. And you're completely eliminating the waste of paper gift wrap." While you're at the fabric store, take a couple of dollars from your budget and by a few yards of inexpensive fabric (not paper) ribbon or hemp twine to complete the eco-friendly look.

RECYCLING

When it comes to comfort and joy around the holidays, one thing Kari can't live without is a four-legged friend. Her tip for recycling is a bit non-traditional (and definitely not stationary): celebrate the season with a new addition into the family by adopting a pet from an animal rescue. "There is no better way to bring love and joy into a home than a rescue dog," she said. Kari's other passion, her non-profit organization Ace of Hearts Dogs, rescues dogs on "death row" from Los Angeles-area shelters before they are euthanized. Adopting an animal is not for everyone, however, so be sure to also check out her questionnaire, "Are you ready to adopt?" before bringing a puppy or kitten into your life and home.

Bryan's favorite tip for recycled holiday decor might look a little like "the dog ate my homework," and, funny enough, that's just what happened the day we met him at the Stop & Shop event. Bryan suggests adding pops of color to a white tablecloth or breathing new life into a serving tray by cutting festive shapes or liners from leftover wrapping paper, or by using what he calls 'kid confetti'. "Give the kids something to do!" he said. "Hand your kids colored construction paper and a hole punch and you'll keep them busy all afternoon making. You can them sprinkle the colorful confetti anywhere you want—on your serving trays, down your dinner table, or inside your glass cylinders."

Literally taking a cue from the recycling bin, Jennae's tips don't involve dogs at all, but rather rescuing perfectly good mason jars from uncertain ends for use as decorative holiday containers. "Turn your kitchen castoffs into beautiful holiday centerpieces," she said. "Clean the label off of an old glass spaghetti jar and fill it with ornaments in a single color or red and white mints and you have an inexpensive, unique display."

BONUS FREEBIES

We asked each of our designers about the one thing they can't live without during the holidays—the one thing that truly makes the season festive for them. Turns out, all of those things also all happen to be free!

Bryan: "Good, old-fashioned Christmas caroling."

Kari: "Snuggling with the family pet by the fire."

Jennae: "Hosting an ornament swap with my friends and neighbors."

What are your favorite cheap, chic, and green decorating tips for the holidays? Share them with Shoestringers everywhere by posting a comment!

Copyright 2008 Shoestring, LLC. Photo courtesy of Steve Meyer Photography