How to make a home look like Christmas

By Jura Koncius
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 17, 2009
In early December, the shingle-style Gibson Island home of Erin and Gregory Pitts gets dressed for the holidays in the natural colors of this small island in the Chesapeake Bay.
"The colors of my home are a reflection of my surroundings," says Erin Paige Pitts, an interior designer with three small children. "Blues from the sky and water, the grays and silver of driftwood, and the natural cream of sand and shells." For Christmas, her house is filled with armloads of fragrant greens and branches she cuts nearby, mixed with shells and blue and silver balls. "Everything in the stores is red and green, but personally, I feel more comfortable with neutrals and blues," she says.