Decked Out: Kyle Overby's Holiday Home

For this local florist, December is all about decorating his townhouse with antique finds, cherished treasures — and lots and lots of tinsel.
by Hampton Williams Hoffer | photography by Trey Thomas

When the bell would ring at his elementary school, Kyle Overby used to hurry straight down to Bolton Flowers in his hometown of Smithfield. There, he’d spend his afternoons exploring the blooms and agitating the shop owners until they took him into the greenhouse out back to see the orchids. He used to save up his lunch money to buy little bouquets for his mother, who always told him she loved him to the moon and back.

Decades later, Kyle stopped into a consignment store in Smithfield on his 40th birthday. There, he saw an antique diamond brooch in the shape of a crescent moon. “I knew it was my mother’s gift to me from heaven,” Kyle says.

Now, each Christmas, that diamond broach hangs on a tinsel tree in his decked-out townhouse here in Raleigh, where he’s built a life as the florist she always knew he would be: inventive, charming and traditional with a twist.

Overby, who studied horticulture at North Carolina State University and made Raleigh his home after graduating, runs the luxury floral design company Flowers by Kyle. Though he has plenty of help running the show, he sits with each couple, writes every check himself and builds unique recipes for each arrangement. “It’s like making a good soup,” he says of his process. While this “soup” is tailored to each person and occasion, it typically includes a few signature ingredients, like a pheasant feather, or one or two asymmetrical pieces sticking way out of an arrangement.

Pheasants are a thing with Overby, and they’re also rooted in his past. Atop his Christmas tree is a pheasant in flight that came from his father’s hunting lodge in Eastern North Carolina. Another pheasant, affectionately named Harold, who came from a Wilson consignment store, sits on an end table in the living room.

Overby’s Christmas decor, like his floral arranging, is a really good soup. There are wooden nutcrackers, gifted from loved ones through the years; one sports a Scottish kilt, others are adorned as soldiers and guards. An Elf on Shelf named Rose might lounge in a basket of porcelain Chinese sculpture — Overby’s partner Bill Demeritt’s daughter is 18 years old now, but Rose still causes a little mischief each December. A dish of ribbon candies sits at the ready, an homage to Overby’s grandmother, who always had them out at Christmastime. It’s her age-old recipe he uses for Santa’s chocolate chip cookies, set out on their Hermes plate.

Wedding flowers may be Overby’s bread and butter, but the holidays give him a chance to flex his creativity in new ways. He once created massive, square magnolia-and-boxwood kissing balls as statement pieces to hang from a front porch in Oakwood; he’s also known for fashioning Victorian fruit boards — outdoor decorations in whimsical shapes featuring lemons, oranges and apples. (Those have won “Best Use of Fruit” in the Historic Oakwood Garden Club’s annual holiday decorating competition.)

In Overby and Demeritt’s home, no corner is left untouched during the holidays. Vintage knitted stockings traverse the stairs and sparkling, decorative greenery tops the bannisters inside and out. Candy canes peek out from a silver goblet at the bar and from a chinoiserie vase in the kitchen. Blooms abound, and the couple are big believers in candlelight everywhere. They source far and wide for decor: from consignment stores to flea markets, they love the thrill of the hunt and are not afraid to dig (some of their artwork is salvaged from the actual dump).

A showstopper in their holiday home is the tinsel tree set out in a chinoiserie bowl on the countertop. Adorned with antique jewelry instead of ornaments, the tree’s branches sparkle with estate sale earrings and stones — including that diamond crescent brooch. “The more tinsel the better,” Overby says of this small tree, but also of the large one he decorates each year, which is hung with its own shimmering strips. “Tinsel on a tree is the perfect final touch.”

Tangible gifts play a role, too: each present under his tree sports a layered or rosette bow made from thick, festive ribbon. “My mother taught me how to do bows when I was eight,” says Overby. “I truly believe the way the package is presented is part of the gift.”

But for Overby, it might be the ornaments that bring him the most joy. “So many of them are vintage, retro finds, indented or imperfect, but they all bring back memories of our childhoods and the people we love,” he says.

The presents under the tree are as much a part of the decor as the ornaments. Overby enjoys wrapping boxes with exuberant bows in a tight color palette to complement the other holiday decorations.

A pheasant peeks from the top of the tree, one of many in the home. An antique table displays a collection of nutcrackers that Overby has found over time. Above the mirror is a garland with a mix of natural greens and glittering accents.