Christmas Home Tour {part 1}

Welcome!

Today I'd like to share a few rooms of my house, all decorated for the holidays. I got an early start this year. I dragged the bins out of our attic before Thanksgiving, so things have been decorated for a while now. But I neglected to take pictures until this week. Of course, I also waited until it was dark and rainy, thus making for poor lighting. But thank goodness for a tripod!

If you were walking into my home, I would like to think I'd offer you a cup of coffee. Or something to warm you up. But we're not coffee drinkers. So you don't want me making you a cup o' joe! But I'd probably offer you a diet coke or some water - with the option of ice or no ice {I always choose ice. It make a drink more fun.}

OK. On to the tour.

First stop is the living room.... P4870940

This bench isn't typically behind the couch. It's originally from the entry, but last winter when we painted, I moved it over to the window in this room. And now that we have a Christmas tree in that window, the poor bench has moved yet again.

The chalkboard above the fireplace is a recent addition to this room. I was inspired by House Seven. She has a similar one in her dining room that I fell in love with. So I buzzed over to Lowes and had them cut me a piece of plywood. I painted it, added some stained trim and the project was complete!

I ordered a really long strand of these micro lights on Amazon. They were inexpensive {$15 for 33 feet}, and they are DIMMABLE! So instead of being a bright light that hurts your eyes, I can dial it down to 10% and it gives off a nice glow.

And here is the tree. We are at the stage of life when our tree has no theme. The main idea with our tree is 'anything goes'. I add lights and red wooden berries. And the rest is a hodge podge of random ornaments. One of which is an old Safeway receipt that Jack looped a piece of ribbon through. It was the sweetest little ornament made by a toddler. So it still hangs on our tree all these years later.

I haven't typically blogged much about the living room, because I didn't love the room. I was tired of the yellows walls and dark furniture. But we had our main floor painted this past winter. And a few months ago, I had Dan help me switch the couches between the playroom and the living room. And I'm starting to love this room again! It's so much brighter. And much more neutral, giving me more flexibility with my decorating.

The couch is from the Pottery Barn and it has been well loved. The cushions have been jumped on. Slept on. Moved around. Thrown around. And they show the wear and tear. But it's a really comfortable couch, and I find that we sit in this room a lot more now. And last week, we added this rug from Rugs USA. It's a nice added layer of texture to the space.

I typically display Christmas cards on a little metal wall hanging. But this year, I added some twine to an old door that I have leaning against the wall instead.

Greens, ribbon and pinecones were added to the top of the door. And when a card arrives in the mail, we just attach it with a clothespin!

This year we took down our play set since the kids had {mostly} outgrown it. But we kept the cute house part of it because it had too much character to get rid of. And if no one wants to play in it, we can use it for storage. My mom had the idea to add a wreath to the door, which I love! I can look right out my kitchen window and see this!