When it comes to decorating, Stephanie McFarlin is all about bling.
Shiny silver platters, golden crowns, crystal chandeliers and glass vases adorn her Snohomish home all year long.
Add in a factor of Christmas and her house, shared with teenage sons, Logan and Dakota, and her crafty husband, James, and you have something quite stunning.
In fact, the McFarlin home will be one of nine decorated homes featured Sunday during the Snohomish Historical Society’s annual holiday parlor tour.
The McFarlin home isn’t historic.
Built in 2006, it’s a spec home in a new development outside downtown Snohomish.
Thanks to builder upgrades, numerous home improvements and creative decorating by the McFarlins, it doesn’t feel like a tract home at all.
Its front room, decked out for the holidays, serves as a parlor, formal dining room and entry all in one.
“I love anything sparkly,” Stephanie McFarlin, 47, said, pointing out two light blue, sequined accent pillows on the parlor sofa. “I just have a passion for it. I’ve always loved putting stuff together.”
The McFarlins will open not just the parlor, but also the rest of their 2,800-square-foot house, including a cozy master bedroom suite where a four-poster bed is a showcase for evergreen garlands and Christmas balls hanging from the beams.
French country and cottage styles are favorites for McFarlin, who loves to balance her twinkling accessories with rustic furniture from thrift stores and antiques shops.
Nearly every piece here is something the McFarlins found second-hand and refinished with white paint and antiquing glazes.
Paint-chipped tables, distressed chairs and old wooden dressers are the perfect foils to all things shiny.
Plush bedding, soft towels and fur throws add a touch of cozy.
Burlap-covered lamp shades edged with soft pompom trim are the epitome of McFarlin’s do-it-yourself high-low style.
“I like the beat-up with the luxury,” said McFarlin, who often sews her own curtains.
Elements from the natural world have a special place in the McFarlin home too.
Evergreen holiday garlands studded with pine cones and silver team up with bird nests and twig-filled vases. In the parlor, sea shells, corral pieces and starfish add more outdoor whimsy.
Garden themes play a role too, including rusty old urns and statuary, including a stone cherub wearing a crown of sheet music trimmed with sparkling gems.
“Sheet music is super popular right now,” said McFarlin, who would know, thanks to her part-time job as a merchandise display designer at Kusler’s Pharmacy in Snohomish. The McFarlins’ lightly flocked tree in the living room is topped with a formal swirl ribbon featuring the sheet music to “Silent Night.”
Even McFarlin’s sons appreciate her efforts, especially at Christmastime. It’s when Dakota looks forward to the real tree, the Nativity scene and all the dazzle that goes along with the holiday.
“It’s nice because she did it,” Dakota said. “I like Christmas a lot.”
The McFarlins moved to Washington from California three years ago and are still settling into their new home, which they plan to enhance with new kitchen counters and walnut hardwood flooring.
“We wanted a slower lifestyle for our boys,” McFarlin said, adding that their oldest son, 21-year-old Austin, is in college in Huntington Beach, Calif. “We absolutely love it here. It is so beautiful, the Cascades and the farmland and the weather.”
James McFarlin, who sells designer eyeglasses to eye doctors, is also active in the home’s design.
He’s embellished the homes’ two fireplaces with custom-made mantels. He also built a shelf over a parlor door, using weather-worn antique corbels and a matching piece of wood on top.
“He’s good,” Stephanie McFarlin said. “We kind of work off each other.”
Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037, sjackson@heraldnet.com.
Tips to try
Fishing for compliments: Make a festive but inexpensive statement by hanging individual Christmas balls on pieces of fishing line. Put them at different heights to create a layered display.
Tinsel town: Metallic trees look beautiful without embellishment. Instead of adding more decorations or even lights, let them stand alone to shimmer in a display of pure simplicity.
Ribbon cutting: Use decorative ribbon, preferably a 3-inch-wide ribbon with a pattern, to hang wreaths over curtain rods for cheerful window displays.
Stick with solids: Avoid prints and bold colors when choosing big pieces of furniture such as sofas. Solid neutral colors allow you to have more fun with the patterns, colors and textures of mix-and-match accessories, which are easier to change out for each season or holiday.
Take the tour
What: The Snohomish Historical Society’s annual parlor tour will feature nine homes, new and old, decorated for the holidays. Members of Somewhere in Time Unlimited, a social historical costuming group, will be touring the homes and showing off their elaborate period dresses and suits.
Where: Snohomish
When: Noon to 4 p.m. Sunday
Cost: Tickets for $15, $12 for seniors and society members, will be available at the Waltz Building, 116 Avenue B, on the day of the tour. Catch a live harp performance from 2 to 3 p.m. next door at the Blackman House Museum.
Information: See www.blackmanhouse.org/events or call the society’s message line at 360-568-5235.
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