2013 Christmas Home

I’m a little…well, a lot…behind this year but I finally got my act together and am showing you our house all fancy and decorated for Christmas. The link-up parties have come and gone but its always fun to post this so I can remember what I did the year before! There are a lot of pictures and just a few comments so if you have a question, please leave a comment below or send me an email.

My favorite part of the whole house…a lot of wine and champagne was drank in here this season!

Wrapping paper from Ballard Designs, burlap ribbon from Hobby Lobby and tree skirt from Pottery Barn…I prefer modern in my home design but traditional at Christmas is my favorite.

I copied Wisteria’s holiday catalog, using red instead of blue. I love the many functions of this giant clam shell.

The coffee filter wreath from 2010 has held up so well – who would have thought?

The dogs favorite spot – by the OSU tree, looking out the front window.

Santa Max and his little elf, Carl, hope you all had a fantastic holiday season! See you in 2014.

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2012 Christmas Mantel

This weekend it was in the 70’s and no matter how loud I blared Christmas music, I just couldn’t get into the holiday spirit. I finally forced myself off of the couch to decorate and hoped it would help me. It is still too warm for Christmas but I am feeling more festive now with a decorated mantel!

This picture from Pinterest was my inspiration for this year’s mantel. Red plaid and black/white is my overall inspiration for 2012 Christmas but this picture served as the starting point for the mantel.

Here is my version of the inspiration picture…if anyone can tell me how I can get the glare off of the tv, I will send you some flowers! The silver reindeer flanking the tv are from Pottery Barn way back when. It was a great day after Christmas purchase. I think they were 75% off or something ridiculous like that. I love them!

The Craigslist chair I made over usually sits on the right side of the fireplace but since that is where our tree goes, it has a temporary home on the right. (Come back next week to see our trees!) Carl loves this red blanket from Target – it really is so soft – and the black/white pillow is another clearance find from Pottery Barn many years ago. I love incorporating burlap into just about anything and love it at Christmas (check back next week to see it in our trees) so my Ballard Designs-inspired Mr. and Mrs. pillows work out perfectly here.

I got these carnations from our local grocery store for super cheap. They were fresh in this weekend so still need to open up before really getting big and beautiful. Carnations seem to get a bad rap since they are so cheap but I think make a great impact when clustered together like this! I’m also not usually a fan of red, blame it on an overdose of using it too much in our last house, but love it at Christmas.

The mercury glass votives, both the small and large ones, are from Target. I got the small ones two years ago for $1/each and the bigger ones are a find from this year and are $5/each. I’m glad mercury glass continues to stick around – I can’t get enough! The candles used in the small votives are the fake 3 for $1 from the Dollar Tree. They have the best battery-powered candles!

The garland is from a local nursery (TLC if you are local) and was only $10 for a 7 foot piece. This is a mixture of different greens so it is cheaper than others but I love the mix of different textures and types of greenery. It keeps it fresh and interesting because you don’t know what you will actually get when you lay it out!

It is always a challenge to decorate underneath our large TV but since I like simple and clean, this layout works really well. It keeps things low and classic since I can’t go too crazy with the space above or below. This area always looks better with a fire going too but there was no way I could turn it on with 70+ temps so just imagine pretty orange/red flames in the middle! Hopefully this weekend we can finally turn it on.

I’m linking up with The Lettered Cottage today. Click over to see more holiday mantel inspirations:

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2011 Christmas Home

Welcome to our home, 2011 Christmas style! Thanks for joining me in a little look around our place. This is only our second year in this home, so I’m still trying to figure out where everything should go and what I want it all to look like – so fun to make little changes each year though, right? I’ve made some updates from last year’s decor and I love how our house feels right now!

We kept the single strand of lights around the bottom of the roof but added two cute little lighted trees on the front porch that look so great flanking our front entrance. It still makes me so happy to see our house lit up at night – Christmas lights are my favorite! We worked out our kinks with putting up lights last year (our first time ever) so this year was so smooth and very painless…maybe this means I can convince a certain someone to add to the lights next year?? 🙂

When you walk in our front door, this is what you see – my distressed Salvation Army buffet and a cute little vignette that is festive but not cluttered. I think I went too over-the-top in this area last year and ended up taking a lot of stuff off of the top of the buffet after I posted about it. This year I’m loving the blank space on the top, makes me feel more calm!

I wanted to keep some elements from my year-round decorating so I wouldn’t have to put everything away so I layered things throughout the house, like my coffee filter wreath on top of the jute-wrapped monogram I hung on the mirror during the fall. I used the free Keep Calm printable again. I think some people are over this but I still love the saying!

On the side of this buffet are the two lanterns I got for Christmas last year. I use them all of the time and love moving them from space to space! Right now, they are filled with snow and mini, sparkly ornaments surrounding the two candles. In keeping with the rest of the Christmas decor, I used white, green, silver and natural elements in this area. Simple and pretty is really making me happy this season!

Our dining room table has that same feeling of simple and pretty. I wanted a tablescape I could actually use when people come over. Too many times I have to take off the centerpiece before serving a meal because there isn’t any room for people’s glasses or you can’t see over it for proper conversation!

The mix-and-match plates layered on our wedding china are a perfect touch of whimsy in such a formal room. We are not formal people so I wanted to keep it light and fun in this room too. For a full look at our Christmas dining room, please click here.

On the buffet in the dining room, I filled a tray with cinnamon pinecones (smells amazing!) and layered in a large pedestal vase filled with snow and silver ornaments – the easiest vase fillers ever. The NOEL sign I made last year was updated with some burlap wrapped around the canvas to cover up the red that I’m not crazy about this year. The jingle bell mason jars I made last year also fit in perfectly with this year’s decor!

Our living room is so cheerful and delicious smelling this year. We put our live tree in this room instead of our dining room this year and I got a fresh cedar garland to lay on the mantel. I love how warm and cozy this room feels with so much fresh greenery! Our tree is on a timer and always surprises me when it clicks on each night – makes me so happy to see it all lit up. (I’ll show you a full post on our two trees this week, come back to check it out!)

This is my most favorite mantel I’ve done! I love the simplicity and prettiness to it. The green, white, silver and burlap all tie together so nicely. My heart always feels so full and happy at Christmas since I get to see so many family and friends at parties and gatherings – this is how this year’s mantel makes me feel. Happy and full of love without being too much or too stressful. Exactly what I wanted! (Click here for a full post on this year’s mantel.)

Our sofa table got in the Christmas spirit this year, too! My mom let me borrow one of her Nativity scenes (I really want one of my own but don’t know what I want just yet) and it fits perfectly here. This set was made by an artist in Alaska using reclaimed wood – it is gorgeous! I layered it in a tray purchased from Hobby Lobby last year and love the way this looks. Its weird to see how different this area looks compared to last year at Christmas and how much my style has changed in just one short year!

Thank you for visiting our home this Christmas! This time of year gets to be so stressful and so hectic – I hope you’re taking time to relax and enjoy what Christmas really means. I know I’m making a big effort to do that and simplifying our decor this year helped so much. Merry Christmas!

Kelly’s Korner Christmas Show Us Your Homes

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