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Home for Christmas: A new DIY holiday design kit wraps up the season’s decor in one festive, easy-to-use box

This is the season for fans of the most wonderful time of the year to shine. Jessica Clouatre and Brittney Vance want Baton Rouge homes to shine, too.

They are the local creative minds behind Blanc Box, a new DIY home design service launching this winter. It’s meant to help turn your living space into a winter wonderland.

The pair has been professionally decking homes with boughs of holly for more than a decade.

“I’ve always done Christmas decorating with Brittney,” Clouatre says. “We have been best friends since third grade.”

During Christmastime, she says, they decorate three to four houses a day for clients, designing trees, mantles, tablescapes and more. People reach out to them for help. “I don’t know how much to buy,” they’ll say, or “I’m not sure this looks good” or “I don’t know how to do it.”

They created Blanc Box with the DIY holiday spirit in mind.

The idea first came to them last November as they decorated trees, Clouatre says. “We were just brainstorming as we were decorating and talking about it, like, ‘We could have these different boxes, and we could do different tiers for each box. Maybe people have a smaller budget, or if your tree is smaller you don’t need as many things. We could have different options for you to choose from.’”

Brittney Vance and Jessica Clouatre are launching Blanc Box this winter.

After running their idea by a few people, they got great responses and were off to the races putting it together in time for 2020’s holiday season.

The Christmas tree is often the centerpiece of holiday home design, and so Blanc Box will offer options for customers to make their tree look exactly how they want.

From ornaments to ribbons to tree skirts—and a video explaining how to put the look together—it’s all delivered to customers’ doorsteps in white boxes.

For Clouatre and Vance, Blanc Box is an expansion of their many years working together and curating holiday design. Now, they’re giving people the confidence to design and decorate themselves.

“[Even if] they can’t afford to have a designer come in and help do it all for them, like some of our clients, people want help,” Clouatre says.

Families might also be busy and unable to take time for the potentially overwhelming and intimidating experience of decor shopping, she says. Blanc Box was born to help. “You don’t have to go to the store; you don’t have to figure out how much you need of everything; you don’t have to stress about how to cut your ribbon and what to do with it. We provide it all.”

As of press time, Clouatre and Vance expect to have fully launched the service before Thanksgiving, and they want to expand in the future.

In the meantime, holiday revelers can get a dose of their festive goodies on Instagram @shopblancbox.

Clouatre likens Blanc Box to being “the HelloFresh” of Christmas. Except instead of delivering meal kits, they’re delivering holiday cheer. shopblancbox.com


This article was originally published in the December 2020 issue of 225 magazine.