Christmas comes but once a year, but for Alex Redgefield, it is never far from his mind. Redgefield, an interior designer, puts his Over the Top design company into focused action in November and December, spreading elements of Christmas cheer through nearly every room of the homes of about a dozen of his regular clients. Redgefield, who said he has to remind himself when it's okay to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (even though by Nov. 5 he's been filling his workdays with it for at least a week), loves the holiday, embraces it, and helps his clients do the same.
"I always loved Christmas. I live my life with glitter on my face," said Redgefield, a native Lexingtonian who has worked in design for xx years. "I sparkle everywhere I go. In November and December I'm just doing Christmas."
Redgefield did his first professional Christmas decorating job before he even got into interior design. At 21 while working at the Hampton Inn on Elkhorn Road, he decorated the hotel's Christmas tree. Now Redgefield mostly focuses on residential dÈcor, spending 10 months of the year on things like furnishing rooms and picking colors, and the last two months of the year creating and spreading tangible Christmas wishes, then packing them away safely until they reappear after Halloween.
Redgefield's design style can be traditional, reserved, or modern, but when it comes to Christmas, he lives up to his company's name. There are no limits. His Christmas designs are big, brash, and over the top.
"My Christmas has to be pretty flamboyant," he said. Unlike designing someone's day-to-day living room or bedroom, Christmas dÈcor only has a short time to make a statement. Redgefield's statements are loud and clear. "It's pretty crazy. It's not done until its overdone. This time of year it doesn't have to be practical; there are no rules."
Christmas shopping for Redgefield starts long before the Halloween dÈcor comes down. Each January he attends the gift market in Atlanta to get ideas and to buy the first round of dÈcor for his clients. He reuses many materials year to year, but regardless of the calendar, he is constantly looking for inspiration or a little something to pick up that will end up in a holiday tree or display. By Halloween he has purchased between 100 and 120 boxes of garland lights, 200-300 standard strings of lights in various colors, and untold rolls of ribbon to cascade down trees, stairwells, and across mantles.
Armed with his Palm Pilot, an assistant, and his creativity, Redgefield will bring his first bag of Christmas goodies to a home Nov. 1; he will decorate at least six days a week through Dec. 12. The Palm Pilot includes a catalog of clients' existing Christmas dÈcor, plus notes on how long it took to put up and take down decorations the previous year, and how many strings of lights it took for each tree. After the five-week whirlwind assembly is over, he'll get a few weeks to breathe before returning to every home to take everything down and pack it appropriately so it's fresh and ready for reuse the following season.
Redgefield isn't creating new trees and themes from scratch each year. This year's tree ornaments might reappear on next year's banister. The dining room theme might migrate to the family room or to a mantel, and any holiday related collections owned by his clients will be utilized.
"He is able to take what I had from previous years and just made it look so different and magical," said Kimra Cole, who works with Redgefield throughout the year to outfit her home on Fielden Drive. "We have added a little bit and changed a little every year, but most of the base stuff is the same. He comes up with something creative to do every year that's utilizing most of the same items. He surprises me using my existing items in new ways and I'll say, 'wow, I would never have thought of putting that there.'"
For example, the Coles purchased a large court jester on a trip a few years ago. Redgefield found some smaller jesters in complementary colors, and in 2005, the whole gang of them appeared on the Cole's largest of five Christmas trees in their home; this year the six-foot tall jester will be cruising down the banister that last year hosted Santa and his sleigh. Santa will get some fresh ribbon and move to another room in the house.
That constant change from year to year, and a whiff of the season in every available spot, is part of Redgefield's goal.
"I like to have a little kiss of Christmas, a little touch in every room," he said. "I just want to give it a little peck. I don't think you have to go crazy with it in all the rooms, but when you walk from room to room I like to have a little something."
Main rooms and centerpiece trees, however, get a great big smooch from Santa, courtesy of Redgefield. This year he has taken a life-sized peacock, and placed it in a client's 10-foot tall Christmas tree. In addition to the bird, there are peacock feathers shooting out of the top of the tree, plus jewel-toned ribbons and ornaments surrounding the centerpiece. Another tree he recently dressed has, he estimated, a thousand red ornaments with a huge spray of gold stars, "like a big explosion," he said, coming out of the top. And that's just two of his 2006 trees. Many of his clients have multiple trees; kids trees, mom's tree, dad's tree, the family tree, the centerpiece tree, you name it, Redgefield will find a theme for it. "I'll put anything through a tree," he said. "The tree I did today, I put this giant papier-mache nativity scene in the middle of the tree and billowed out the gold silk netting like it was a cloud, then I did the tree with angels all over it. Its also got large gold horns, trumpets, and musical instruments, and little bells, so when you move past it, you hear little bells ring."
Sometimes these themes come from the client. Diana Ross, who lives in Gratz Park, has a sweet tooth, so this year she has a new "sweetie pie" tree that is decorated with cake, cookie, dessert, and sugar plum ornaments. Redegefield collects nutcrackers, so last year his personal tree had 220 nutcrackers on it, from the three-inch tall variety to the two-foot tall one that hung from the ceiling as the tree topper. This year one of his lucky clients will get use of the nutcrackers in their own home.
At the end of the season, Redgefield and his clients miss that kiss of the Christmas season that he's bestowed on their homes.
"It's horribly depressing for me when I take it all down," he said. His clients share his sentiments. "It's here for a couple weeks, then it goes away," said Kimra Cole. "It's magical every time that it reappears. The house looks very empty after Christmas when all the decorations go down."
Christmas decorating tips from Alex Redgefield
• Garland lights give you three times the light on one strand of lights. They are particularly good for mantles, banisters, and exterior lighting.
• Don't change the entire theme of a tree every year; switch out the ribbons or the lights to give it a fresh look.
• Artificial trees are much easier to manipulate than real ones when setting larger objects amidst the branches.
• Group collections together for more impact.
• Hang wreaths on hooks in an attic or basement so they will be fuller when you reuse them the following year.
• Pack all glass items in paper and make sure not to over pack the boxes to prevent breakage.