Christmas Home Tour 2013

I am so excited to bring you my Christmas home tour today! This is the first time I have ever put together a tour like this, so bear with me, OK? I finally finished my decorating, and I have the house all clean and ready for company. Won’t you please come in and stay awhile? I have coffee, hot tea and hot cocoa, so pick your favorite and let me show you around!

The best place to start is at the front door, right? I recently finished painting my entryway and my banister, so it was one of my favorite places to decorate this year. I love the way it sparkles and shines at night.

And this is what it looks like during the daylight hours.

I am currently on the hunt for the perfect rug to place in front of the door. I’ll know it when I see it!

Say hello to Snowflake Jake. He likes to greet everyone as they come up the stairs. I just had LC hang these two hooks for me the other day, so I hung a festive plaid scarf and a plaid stocking that I have had for over 20 years. I am crushing on plaid for winter right now. Sorry, Mr. 13 Year Old was a photo bomber. It happens.

This is where I hung the children’s stockings this year and last year, because we don’t yet have a mantel But very soon! LC is buying me an old rustic barn wood mantel for Christmas. It is being cut and sanded and will be ready for pickup this week! I have these rhinestone initials that I hung with each stocking. We have one for each family member, and it just so happens that LC’s name and Josefines name are the same initial, so the J is for our Swedish daughter. We are so enjoying showing her how American’s do Christmas! She is loving all of the decorations!

I have had this metal hanging basket for years, and I always enjoy decorating it for the seasons. This year, I just threw in some fresh pine sprigs and tied a plaid bow around it. I love the way it turned out! The artwork belonged to LC’s brother, and I have yet to have it framed, so right now it is just temporarily propped there. But she is just too pretty to hide in a closet, isn’t she?

When you get to the top of the stairs, this is what you see. I used wrapping paper to back this bookshelf almost a year ago. I put some fresh pine in my rain boots with some little green bows, and it is one of my favorite decorations this year.

Most of the things on these shelves hold cherish Christmas decorations that we put out every year and are favorites of my children. Especially the snow globes.

This Longaberger snowman was a Christmas gift I received from a very special person many years ago, and I will probably use it every year for the rest of my life. This year I used fresh pine and a couple of ornaments in the baskets. But I thought it needed a touch of red, so I taped a little piece of wrapping paper to the hat.

As you make your way into the living room, you pass by my console table, which is a favorite place of mine to decorate year round. I have had this table and two matching end tables for many years, and I am thinking of giving them a makeover.

I will be showing you more about what I did with some Goodwill sweaters tomorrow for Trashtastic Tuesday. Today you get a few peeks.

And welcome to our living room! This room is one of the spaces in the house that I have not started really working on yet. It is on the list of rooms to be painted. I could go on about my plans for this room, but this is supposed to be about Christmas, so I am stopping myself. Just know that it is far from the way I picture it in my mind, but it is a comfortable place to hang out with the family for now.

We always have to rearrange to fit the tree in front of the window, so it makes it a little more crowded in here, but I mean, the tree has to go in the front window, right? When I showed you my Christmas tree last week, someone called my lights over the sofa fairly lights, and I loved that description, so it sticks!

This grandfather clock was a gift from my grandparents. It is a prized possession. The vase with the branches was something I put together in the fall, but I liked them so much that I decided to keep them and hang some ornaments on them for Christmas. I love the way it turned out!

I placed some fresh pine and a little stuffed Santa in my little Longaberger basket. The lit up snowman on the bottom shelf was a gift from several years ago.

This Christmas village is a favorite of my children, and no matter how tired I get of it, they insist that it would not be Christmas without it. I usually put it on my buffet in the dining room, but this year it is on my Media table. It was a compromise, because I wanted to do something different in the dining room this year. BTW, the fireplace on the TV is something you can get On Demand, ha! Mr. 13 year old put it on there for me.

And this, my friends, is the bane of my existence. This mantle-less fireplace. Not for long though! The chaise lounge is usually in front of the window where the tree is presently. The plaid blanket on the chaise is an electric throw, sorry, I forgot to unhook the cord.

This is where I hang all of our Christmas cards we receive, and right now it is looking a little bare, but I’d guess that in the next week or so it will be completely filled! I dressed up the Pottery Barn vases on either side of the artwork with some fake snow and a couple of large red ornaments. It’s not my fave, maybe I should tie a ribbon around them?

I made these book page Christmas trees last year. Miss 17 year old bought me this glass candle holder from Yankee Candle store last Christmas, and this year I put some colorful ornaments in the bottom at her suggestion. The Longaberger basket is a special Christmas edition from many years ago.

That black leather chair is my favorite place to sit in the room. It is just so darn comfortable! I have been thinking I should probably get something a little easier on the eye one of these days, but I love this chair! I have a wintery sheepskin throw from Pottery Barn hanging on it with a little Santa pillow to hide some of the ugly.

I purchased my glittery copper deer last Christmas and I just love her! I know you can see that cord in the background where my fairly lights are plugged in. Come on people, this is real life, and I have a cord showing. Sue me!

Another little peek at the Goodwill sweaters.

I also love the way the tree looks during the day.

This is looking the other direction in the living room, back toward the dining room.

How about we head into the kitchen. But first, a quick kiss under the mistletoe, at least on the cheek? Too weird huh? We don’t know each other well enough, yet… I kid, but Mr. 5 year old certainly likes the idea of it!

I am still loving the way my cabinets look since we painted them, and my painted subway tile backsplash. This room doesn’t even hardly look like the same room as it did when we bought the house. This room is mostly a mixture of hand made things my children have made throughout the years. I hate not to put it out, and the kids love seeing it each year.

Let’s start in the little back door nook. I painted this door black in the spring. I bought the red ornaments hanging in the window and the wreath hanging on the door from Target on the day after Christmas last year. I put some fresh pine on the top of the bottom window.

I had a hard time getting the wreath hung, and I know the way I hung it doesn’t look pretty, but at least it is sticking. It is with double sided command tape. I need to cover the tape with some cute washi tape or something. I used some plaid ribbon to hang it from. The Christmas train on the door is a product of Mr. 5 Year Old.

I have had this snowman for several years. It helps catch any draft coming in under the door. And the little rug was a project Mr. 13 Year old brought home from school when he was little.

My dad made me this snowman several years ago. I put the plaid ribbon around the neck because the old ribbon was looking aged and worn.

I wrapped some red ribbon around my two little plants in the window sill. I made those café curtains myself last winter.

The Santa on the left side of the shelf was something one of the kids made, and the little wood slice reindeer are ornaments Mr. 5 Year Old has made at the Christmas tree farm the past two years.

I hung fresh pine branches from my pot rack again this year, and loads of handmade things from the children.

The glass vase is filled with tiny ornaments, and the gold bell was a gift from my grandmother. It always hung in her house when I was growing up. You can pull on it and it plays music. It is very old, so it only gets one or two pulls per year now. I prettied it up a little with some black and white plaid ribbon this year.

This is the island under the pot rack. I have had the little runner for 3-4 years now.

This jar is a candy jar, and I put some fresh pine and a little Christmas sprig in it.

I made a cute little mini cocoa station on the counter next to my $5 Goodwill canisters.

Last but not least is my dining room, after you… I think my dining table and chairs is due for a makeover, what do you think?

The table runner is new this year. It was a Pottery Barn splurge from our Christmas shopping trip last weekend to Pittsburgh. I made this centerpiece. I’ll show you more about it in a later post.

I bought this sheepskin last weekend at Ikea for $9.99, great buy!

This is the other side of the dining room, which is also our office. this is where all the blogging wonderful-ness happens. My burlap wreath has a new Christmas look, I’ll show it to you more up close and personal soon as well. We purchased some shelves to hang over the desk at Ikea last weekend too, so we will be hanging them after Christmas. This sleigh holds all of our wrapping paper and some Christmas ribbon.

Some fresh pine in the window sill.

And this is my Christmas buffet. You can also see a glimpse of the chandelier (that needs rehung over the table). I bought this sparkly garland last Christmas and I re hung it here this year.

The lighted branches are new this year, and they add the perfect touch to this room. The rest of the décor on this table are things I have had, but I like the way these all look together on the buffet.

I think it has a woodsy theme, with a little sparkle and glitz.

These little sparkly star things were purchased last year.

This buffet is one of my favorite places to change out each season.

Wow, that about sums up my first Christmas home tour! How did I do? I am no professional by any means, but I love my house when it is all decorated for Christmas, and so does my family. and that is really what Christmas is all about, right? If they are happy, so am I! If you made it all the way through this tour, thank you so much for sticking with me, and I hope you come visit again very soon!

I’ll be back over the next couple of weeks to show you some up close and personal details of different parts of my décor, but there you have it in a nutshell! Have a great week! Last week before Christmas break for me. Now that’s what I’m talking about!Link Parties:

Sunday
DIY Showoff

Monday
The Dedicated House
Minette’s Maze
Rain on a Tin Roof
Between Naps on the Porch
Uncommon Designs
Home Coming
A Stroll Through Life

Tuesday
View From Five Ten
Home Stories A to Z
Cupcakes and Crinoline
Coastal Charm
Homework
Our Delightful Home
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
cozy Little House
Cedar Hill Farmhouse