Impress your holiday guests (and boast the best-looking house on the block) by gussying up your front stoop this holiday season. Here are four tips from Hunter K. Margolf, floral designer at Boulder’s Sturtz & Copeland Florists and Garden Center, to help you get started:

1. Use What You’ve Got
“Your summer container gardens can be reworked during the winter using cold-weather plants and dried materials like greens and branches,” says Margolf. For the containers in the design pictured above, Margolf used red twig dogwood, fantail willow, ornamental kale, seeded eucalyptus, magnolia leaves, cedar branches, and purple winter pansies. “People see their outdoor containers as a growing season-only concept. Unfortunately, that’s a very short time in Colorado. Incorporating holiday themes will give your door some interest year-round.”

(Get more ideas for creating splashy container gardens from the Denver Dirty Girls)

2. Think About Color
“Design a color scheme that works in relation to your home’s paint colors and materials,” Margolf says. For this particular home—a Craftsman—he wanted the containers to “be true to the style and simplicity of the front door and brick…but with a bit of glamour and contrast.” The celadon green of the spruce and the chartreuse green of the fantail willow provide “pizazz against the straightforward lines and orange brick,” Margolf says.

3. Remember, It’s Winter
Choose items that will dry well and can go the distance in the cold,” Margolf says. Conifers and boxwoods, in particular, thrive throughout the cold months (with some watering). Also, anchor your containers against the wind by placing rocks in the base of the pot, under the soil. Finally, weave in some rice lights, which are more delicate than traditional Christmas lights and make an “understated accent for those dark winter nights,” Margolf says.

4. Go For Garland
We love the look of garland around a front door. But prep before you hang, says Margolf: “Calculate for swag when you measure the garland; use steel nails to secure it to the wall (they are strong and rarely leave a trace); frame the door with the branches just brushing the floor; and fluff before you hang (garland always needs a little TLC out of the box).”

(Check out the Winter 2014 issue of 5280 Home)

Cheryl Meyers
Cheryl Meyers
Cheryl Meyers is a contributing writer to 5280 Home, which means she gets to spend her days writing about Colorado’s most beautiful indoor spaces.