Mollie Moran’s clapboard house with its picket fence presents a postcard-perfect facade in the historic district of Dedham, a classic Currier and Ives village just outside Boston. Over the course of the 22 years Moran, an architect, has lived in her 1795 Colonial saltbox, she has overseen its top-to-bottom restoration. But the house is never more inviting than at holiday time, when the village is aglow with candlelight and Mollie goes all out to celebrate the season.

Come early December, Mollie can be found making the rounds of the Boston flower markets gathering up the greenery that will transform her home into a yuletide scene that is both classic and updated. Fresh wreaths, garlands, at least four trees, boughs, and bundles of evergreens create a crisp decorating palette for inside and out. “I like using greenery for the nature-neutral contrast in my mainly white rooms,” says Mollie. “Visual repetition is a device I use in my design work and also with my holiday decorations to add character and emphasize the good bones of the house."