Holiday Home Tour 2015

A Holiday Home Tour

Christmas decorating is finally done at my house this year! Last week, I shared my inspired woodland theme for my Christmas tree. I used fresh cut greenery from my yard and pinecones to carry the theme throughout the house. I also used aged copper, silver and dark rusted oil bronze for accents throughout the house to mirror the tree ornaments. I simply spray painted these items with the left over paint and voila.....a cohesive look for the whole house.

I even carried the same woodland look to the wreaths in my outdoor decorations by adding frosted pinecones and silver flourishes. I lightly spray painted the branches with white paint to look snowy.

We have an open concept living, dining and kitchen area. The kitchen is more of a galley kitchen but it has a great area for a bar and an eat in area. So come on in and let me show you around! Let's start with the living room. I already showed you my woodland themed Christmas tree last week and here is what it looks like from the dining room entryway.

Living Room

My front door is on the left of the dining room but I love the arched entryway from my dining to the living room so I wanted to show you that first. I added little touches outside of the mantle here and there in the room; mostly keeping it simple with evergreen wreaths, sprigs and pine cones.

I made this "Silent Night" sign using a repainted photo frame. I used a layering of different paints including Miss Mustard Seed's milk paint in Typewriter. After the holidays, I will be repurposing this frame to use with a canvas print of my kiddos. The door and shutters you see in the above pic was pulled from my bathroom that I will be repainting soon. I made the shutters and stained them in a dark walnut, which is one of my favorite stains!

I even carried the decorations to my packages using the sprigs & pinecones. I used epsom salt and spray adhesive to give the sprigs a snowy look, which is also how I created the snowballs.

The Mantle & Fireplace

I always say that I'm not a big fan of winter but what I really mean is that I don't like being cold! I usually complain about being cold to anyone who will listen and if you feel the same than you understand this. Some years ago, I read a funny article about winter (of course I can't remember now where I read it) but it was referencing "those people" who complain about winter from the first frost until the first signs of spring. YEP!!! That's Me! I hate being cold and the older I get the more I dislike it, which is why my fireplace brings me a lot of joy. In fact, with the fire going and a few candles lit, I don't really leave the house much, which is another story all together. If I was an animal, I would be a bear and just hibernate all season! :)

The mantle matched the tree with the same ornaments, pinecones and greenery. I wanted to use as much of what I had on hand and because I already had these cute apothecary jars and a reindeer tray I made last year; they were perfect to use in decorating.

I made this jingle bell ribbon to decorate the top of the greenery and also put some of those same silver bells in with the aged copper ornaments you see in the other apothecary jar.

One of the things I really love about decorating is that you can easily decorate by shopping your own house. With a little bit of imagination, you can recreate decor for your home. The other great thing about reshopping your home is all the money you can save! I already owned all the things on the mantle excluding the 2 deer stocking holders that I bought at Hobby Lobby at 50% off; which made the pair $15. The books and candle were from another spot in my home. The aged copper candle holders where given to me and were brass but I spray painted those along with the ornaments. The mirrored tree candle holder was a gift to my daughter and she let me use it on the mantle! :)

If you have been following the blog, you will recall that we have recently made some changes to our living room. One of the major changes was removing an outdated red couch. YIPEE! We also refurbished a bistro table and chairs in our eat in kitchen. By doing those few things and moving furniture around, our home started to reflect more of the style that I love; which is French Country. I love the "vintagey" (I'm sure that's a word) things that I have collected over the years because they tell a story. I equally love gray and creams which are predominent in my decor. I'm still adding and tweaking as I go along, but I am happy with the progress so far.

I'm a true believer that your surroundings should bring you peace and joy; just like the holiday season. That also means surrounding yourself with people that make you feel that same peace, joy and love as well.

In the winter especially, I like to use plants, flowers, or evergreens in my decorating. I reminds me that winter won't last forever and it's a wonderful touch to any home by bringing nature inside. That's why I added little touches of green throughout the house and dining room like the hand crafted fresh evergreen wreaths. I made these wreaths from clippings from the trees in my backyard. The branches are plyable and bend easily to form the circular shape with green floral wire. I hot glued the additional smaller sprigs to hide the exposed wire, then attached the wreaths using the same ribbon from the tree. I faux-painted these shutter doors a long time ago but just recently moved them to my dining room. I think they add a little more interest to this small space. What do you think?

Dining Room

I made a chalkboard sign for my console table using an old wooden photo frame. I cut a gypsum board for the chalkboard part, then hand painted the quote. It is a quote from one of our favorite holiday movies, "Elf". It reads...."the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear". We watch this movie during the whole year and quote it all the time, saying...."Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?", and when my son leaves to go back to college we say...."Bye Buddy, hope you find your Dad"!!!! Aren't we silly? If you have watched this movie chances are you also have used these same quotes. When I think I'm being funny even though maybe no one else does, I also say this quote..."I laugh at my own jokes, so you don't have to....but you probably will, cause I'm hilarious!" Wink, Wink!

This frosted pinecone spray is placed on top of my black hutch. Now, I thought I got a photo of the hutch too, but out of my whopping 188 photos I took, there was no such luck. The chippy looking sconce is one of my favorite vintage looking pieces so it it deserved to look pretty with some extra flare for the holidays!

I didn't really decorate a lot in the kitchen because I had a lot of other decorations going on so I didn't feel like it was neccesary. That being said, I wanted to show it to you anyway so that you could also get a feel of the open concept.

This is easily one of my favorite areas of the house, maybe because I'm in it a lot cooking. But I love my newly refurbished bistro table and chairs, along with my coffee/hot chocolate bar. I started stocking and decorating the bar just this week so I don't have any pics of it yet. But, if you want to take my word for it....it sure is cute and festive. :)

I did however use this snowman tray and a few fresh pine sprigs to add some cuteness for the photo shoot! Sometimes the littlest touches have the greatest impact!

This last picture I wanted to show you is one looking at the tree from my kitchen! I think it feels so cozy! I truly enjoyed decorating this year! I know that sometimes it can feel like such a chore to decorate the whole house only to take it right back down in a month! Maybe I will just have to leave it up a little longer this year!!! :)