Welcome back for round two of our holiday home tour! If you missed round one, which featured our entry, office and mudroom click here.
The area you are about to see, is where we do most of our living. If you are a regular follower, you’ve seen lots and lots of shots featuring this area. Most of our photos on social media, that actually feature members of our family (okay, mostly photos of E) and are not just pretty room shots are taken right in this space. While this area of our home is a work in progress, I do love it in it’s natural form, but I tend to get bored when things stay the same for too long. To keep things interesting, this Christmas, we kept the base the same, but changed up almost all of the accessories.
Come see the transformation for yourself!
To keep things from getting too busy, I used a color scheme. Since we have inherited a lot of traditional holiday decor, we went with a relatively classic holiday color scheme — red, white, and a touch of blue and gold. Then we pulled in green, with lots of greenery. I also used a lot of raw materials, like wood throughout the space. I would call the look classic rustic.
I added the blue touches, like the vase you see above, to help tie in the holiday decor to our architectural details (i.e the bookcase backings and our kitchen backsplash).
While we used quite a few colors in our design, if you find that intimidating, I recommend picking two colors that either match or tie in nicely with your existing decor.
You can find loads of holiday decor in any color. Then use a variety of shades and textures within those two colors. Doing so will create depth within your room. The room will seem effortlessly festive, instead of matchy-matchy.
These stockings from Pottery Barn Kids are my absolute favorite holiday item. Get them here.
I used somewhat non-traditional faux greenery from Hobby Lobby on the mantel to help blend my year-round plants into my Christmas decor. If I used only traditional garland, like evergreens, my more tropical plants would probably look a little odd. Given that my plants like sun, it is not an option to move them into the closets like the rest of our non-coordinating decor.
Side note: I find that if you have real plants, people don’t really notice when you throw in fake greenery. They assume it is all alive. This especially works well with succulents, and it applies all year long.
I replaced about 95% of our regular bookcase items with Christmas trinkets, both old a new. This was doable since the shelves are on the smaller side. I did not attempt this with my wall-to-wall bookcase in the office.
E loves all the trinkets spread out throughout the open concept living area. I keep everything within reach kid friendly or hard to break. She is able to play with much of the decor, with the exception of the items on the ottoman. For some unknown reason, she has never been interested in what I place there. I, in return, I do not draw her attention to the items. So far this is working for me, but it might not for you.
Villages remind both Daren and I of our childhood Christmases, so for sentimental reasons we like to show off our collection. We inherited some of the houses and supplemented with a very affordable set from Costco. Lots of trees add interest, and are surprisingly easy to find throughout town. I added a few small trees to our collection, this year, from Target’s dollar section. The more elaborate trees can be found at Hallmark.
To fill out the empty space on our ICSS Supply Co. floating shelves, I added a meaningful sign from Eco Chic Boutique. It helps remind me what this holiday season truly is about.
We tried to add simple and festive details throughout the whole space. We wanted to feel a little bit of the Christmas spirit everywhere we looked. The majority of the decor is in the family room, but we added touches throughout the kitchen and dining area too.
The deer head was gifted to me by sister-in-law from Nordstrom and is a favorite of mine. The exact product is no longer available on their site, but you can find it in white here.
You may have noticed I am a big fan of wreaths.
Wreaths are not just for the outdoors. Add them anywhere – windows, mirrors, with garland on the stairwell, your dining table to anchor a centerpiece, or even on your range hoods.
I highly recommend picking up some small boxwood wreaths, like this. I use them with candles and to dress up the dinner plates in my china cabinet.
Our tree is very much a family tree. While it is not the tree of Mommy’s dream, it is pretty magical. I would really like the Pottery Barn look – Flocked, big matching ornaments, white lights. You know the look. However, seeing the joy my daughter has when playing with and rearranging the overwhelming plastic and sentimental ornaments is worth sacrificing that picture perfect tree over and over. This year we are all about Frozen ornaments.
Last holiday decor tip of the day – Pick a style or item, like gold glitter, fur, sticks, etc. (anything really) and place it in different ways throughout your room.
I used red berries and cotton throughout our space, including in our christmas tree. This is especially handy when decorating an open concept floorpan because it keeps the eye moving and ties all the spaces together.
Hope you enjoyed the tour! Happy Holidays!
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