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Dressed in holiday style

In the air there's a feeling of Christmas, with a weekend tour featuring five homes in Falmouth and Cumberland showing off some seasonal finery.

By Ray Routhier rrouthier@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

CUMBERLAND — Callie Steuer was standing in her family room surrounded by traditional holiday season decorations – tree ornaments, floral arrangements and lights – even though it was only Nov. 18.

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Marcy Boynton decorates a tree in the family room of one of the homes of the Holiday Home Tour.

Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

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Designer Kim Connell drapes a banister overlooking the main entrance to a home that will be part of the tour.

Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

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HOLIDAY HOME TOUR

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Five homes in Cumberland Foreside and Falmouth Foreside

HOW MUCH: $25 in advance; $30 day of the tour. Free for children ages 12 and younger.

INFO: www.fineliving events.com. Day-of-event tickets available at tour starting point: St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 43 Foreside Road, Falmouth.

At the same time, interior designer Kim Connell was decorating Steuer’s living and dining rooms – hanging sashes and bows from chairs and a balcony, setting up lights and flowers, and hanging new window treatments.

Steuer got an early start on decorating this year, because she and her family are expecting a few more holiday visitors than usual. And they are expecting them earlier than usual – this Friday and Saturday, to be exact.

Steuer’s five-bedroom Cumberland Foreside home will be decorated and open to the public as part of the Holiday Home Tour organized by Fine Living Events. Five private homes in the Cumberland Foreside and Falmouth Foreside neighborhoods, mostly near picturesque Route 88, will be decorated by designers and open to the public. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 the day of the event.

At each house, there will be exterior decorations as well as interior, though not all rooms will be decorated and open. Still, it’s a chance to see inside some of the homes you might have admired from the outside in the past.

The homes include one from the late 1800s, one with water views, one recent remodeling job and two new homes. But to find out exactly where the homes are, you have to buy a tour ticket.

“Foreside Road (Route 88) is beautiful, and there are lots of people who wonder what the houses look like inside,” said Marcy Boynton, who runs Fine Living Events with Marjorie Ferris. “And we’re hoping by having designers decorate them, it well help inspire people and give them ideas for their homes.”

This is the first event for Boynton and Ferris’ company, although they hope to do more. Both women live in Cumberland, and Boynton also does some interior design work.

Finding homeowners to participate was not hard, they said.

“I know it’s the kind of thing I’d like to go to, so I thought it would be fun to be involved,” said Steuer.

Money raised from this first Fine Living Events tour will be donated to the Magical Moon Foundation, which helps children with cancer.

During the two days of the tours, there will also be events at each house. These include a visit from Santa, music by the Greely High School Madrigals and other musicians, and events focused on cooking and books.

About a dozen designers were involved in decorating interiors. Besides giving people ideas and inspiration, Ferris and Boynton hope the tour will give the local designers some exposure.

Connell, who runs Coastal Maine Interiors in Yarmouth, worked on Steuer’s living room, dining room, entry, indoor balcony and staircase. The house is only four years old but has a definite Colonial Revival feeling, with giant arch-topped windows and white paneled wainscotting on many walls, about 5 feet high.

In the entry, Connell created an arrangement of off-white bird cages, shimmering branches and white mini LED lights. She said she wanted something that people could see and that would feel festive to them, but would not block them from seeing into the rest of the house.

On the indoor balcony, Connell draped white sash material and greens. In the dining room, she had gold custom-made drapes hung to match the gold walls, and applied sashes and bows to the dining room chairs. It makes them look almost like wrapped presents.

Connell says people don’t have to just use traditional holiday colors – bright reds and greens, for instance – to get a holiday feel. Shiny colors will work, or colors that are in the same family as fire-truck red and forest green but aren’t exact matches.

She also says it might help to ask someone else’s advice, like a designer, or even just go shopping with someone else.

Besides getting ideas for decorating, people who take the tour might get ideas about the next house they want to build or buy.

Steuer’s house has an eye-popping family room that is essentially two stories high with massive windows, including arched ones nearer the ceiling. There is a floor-to-ceiling fieldstone fireplace that makes the 12-foot Christmas tree look small.

The family room opens up to an eating area with glass doors to a deck, and then to the kitchen.

The outside has an updated Colonial feel, with an arched window over the door, columns and roof dormers.

The houses on the tour vary in style, size and age, so tour-goers will have plenty to look at.

“We ended up with a nice mix of homes, and we’ve had a lot of interest from people already,” said Boynton.

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:

rrouthier@pressherald.com