The best holiday decorating ideas start with how you’ll actually use each room, not with the ornaments. Think about the moments that fill your season, like Christmas morning, movie night, a big dinner and houseguests. Then arrange furniture, color and comfort around those moments, and the decorations simply finish the look.

To show what that looks like, our designers styled seven real holiday rooms. Each one comes with a practical tip you can borrow, whether you’re refreshing one corner or hosting the whole family.

Corduroy upholstery is a soft, cut-pile fabric woven with raised, parallel ribs called wales. The number of wales per inch sets its personality, from relaxed and vintage to crisp and polished. Its pile also leans in one direction, called the nap, so the color shifts as light moves across it. Meanwhile, welting along the seams gives corduroy furniture its tailored edge.

Those three ideas (wales, nap, and welting) explain almost everything you notice when you look at a corduroy chair. In fact, once you know them, you can read a corduroy sofa the way an upholsterer does. If you are still weighing fabric against other covers, our guide to fabric vs. leather furniture is a good place to start.

“I want the comfort, but I don’t want it to look like a recliner.” It’s one of the most common things we hear on the sales floor, and high leg recliners are the answer. A recliner used to announce itself from across the room, with bulky arms, a low stance, and an obvious handle on the side. A high leg recliner, by contrast, sits up on exposed wood legs with a slimmer, more tailored frame. In other words, it passes for an accent chair right up until you lean back.

La-Z-Boy makes 22 high leg recliners, from classic press-back chairs to power models with headrests. Here’s the whole collection, plus how to tell which ones truly disappear into a room.

Some recliners win you over with flashy tech. The Morrison wins you over the moment you sit down. It has quietly become a family favorite at our stores because it balances deep comfort with a classic, tailored look. Do you want a recliner that rocks, reclines, and lasts for years? Then the Morrison deserves a spot on your shortlist.

Below, we cover how the chair feels and what makes it work. We also look at its measurements and the upgrades worth considering.

A reclining sofa has to do a lot of jobs. It hosts movie nights, catches afternoon naps, and seats guests during the holidays. The Morrison handles all of that without looking like a bulky theater seat. In fact, it has become one of the most requested family sofas in our showrooms.

Here’s a closer look at how it’s built, how it measures, and how you can make it your own.