Matthew Bees Keeps Holiday Decorating All in the Family

Designer Matthew Bees collaborates with his mother to give her Alabama abode plenty of holiday cheer.

The den area plays into the season’s traditional reds and greens. As a rule, Bees never incorporates holiday décor that strays from the existing color palette of a room.

Text: Lauren Gentry Walker
Photos: Laurey Glenn

When interior designer Matthew Bees’s mother called on him to help transform his childhood home, he took on the project with more than a little hesitation. “My father built the house for my family in 1986, and it’s the only home I’ve ever known,” he says.

All in the Family

All in the Family

All in the Family

When his mother called on him to give his childhood home a redesign, designer Matthew Bees worked to create something storied and layered with a modern freshness. Bees also returns to the home each year to liven the interiors with holiday cheer. In the living room, the space’s traditional colors play host to a treasured collection of Christmas decorations, including a towering tree filled with vintage glass ornaments.

All in the Family

The dining room mantel was given gilded leaves and a pair of heralding angels.

All in the Family

Photo courtesy of Annie Schlechter. The neutral kitchen is kept calm and light with creamy cabinetry and minimal décor.

All in the Family

In one of the home’s guest rooms, a pair of red lacquered wreaths are hung with dark, grey silk ribbons.

All in the Family

All in the Family

A gilded bay leaf garland highlights the floral found in the guest bathroom’s wallpaper.

All in the Family

In an additional guest room, cedar wreaths with gray-blue berries are tied with velvet ribbon, while a white pinecone wreath hangs on the headboard.

 

“Growing up, my mother would often indulge my design whims by allowing me to rearrange entire rooms.” While Bees claims these experiences planted the seeds of his future career in design, he also knew that his mother—like so many Southern mamas—would expect nothing less than exactly what she wanted.

Bees was challenged with creating an abode cozy enough for a person to be comfortable living alone in while also allowing enough space for hosting family, friends, and the occasional party.

He began the project by taking most of the house down to the studs. The dining room ceiling and doorways were raised, windows added, and moldings upgraded. When the time came to address the interiors, Bees asked his mother to make a list of items she wanted to keep before he started his process. “I believe she offered only five things she wanted me to reuse,” he says.

The use of plenty of color was imperative, but the rooms also needed to remain light and airy to keep everything comfortable and livable. “It’s important to weave color from room to room,” says Bees. “I have never liked a stark break from one room to the next.”

The opportunity to apply his hard-earned knowledge and lessons learned to the place where his first design experiments began is a privilege not lost on Bees. The creative collaboration between mother and son resulted in a tailored, beautifully arranged space the duo can be proud of and continue to tweak and perfect together. And when it comes time for Christmas decorations? “My mother loves the holidays, but the décor has always been my responsibility,” says Bees.

The designer begins the festive process by looking for ribbon and other details that match the fabrics and finishes in each of the home’s rooms. His mother has an extensive holiday collection, so Bees loves that they never have the same décor two seasons in a row. He typically begins planning the next round of decorations as the current season’s is being packed away— which is always after Epiphany. This way, most of the items are ready to be displayed as the boxes are taken out of storage. “Things are always moving, joining new collections, and being presented in different ways,” he says. “What would be the fun in the same look every year?”

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