Happy Holidays! Is it snowy in your neck of the woods? Here in Denver we got a lot of snow this past week and it put me in a jolly, Christmas decorating mood! And just in time, too, because today I’m participating in the Very Merry Christmas Home Tour blog hop with some of my favorite bloggers, hosted by Lovely Etc.
Love Christmas? Love to peek inside other people’s homes? Then you’re in luck, because all week long you can tour over 20 fully decked out Christmas homes! AND to make it an very merry holiday for one of you, we’ve joined together to give away $500 cash! Be sure to stick around for the details at the end of this post!
If you’re new here – WELCOME! Thanks for stopping by! I love all things modern and colorful, so I have a lot of fun with my Christmas decor, and I can’t wait to show it to you! If you like what you see, be sure to sign up for updates at the top right of this page to have stylish decorating, DIY, and organizing projects delivered straight to your inbox! And if you want to see how our home looks the rest of the year, take the full home tour.
Remember that snow I mentioned? I managed to catch a quick photo of it before it started to melt away…
I just love the way those red lanterns add a pop of bright color to our front porch for the season, and combined with the teal Christmas tree pots, they provide a sneak peak at the color-scheme inside the front doors.
I covered the giant canvas painting above our entry table with the lyrics to “White Christmas” and my favorite – black and white stripes! You’ll notice that the black and white stripes show up throughout the tour!
I picked up a cute table top Christmas tree over the weekend, but the burlap base just didn’t fit in with my decor. I replaced the burlap with some black and white striped fabric and red ribbon, and I love how chic it looks now!
I filled our lamp base with red, silver and teal ornaments, and finished the entry table with two framed photos of my boys visiting Santa this year and last.
Turning to the left, you’re in the living room. That “picture” on the wall, is actually our framed television! {Read more about the tv frame in this living room post.}
Across from the chairs, the couch is decked out in cozy pillows, and tucked in the corner behind the couch, we added our narrow lodge pole pine Christmas tree. This was our first Christmas tree when we lived in a condo downtown, but we’ve just been storing it the last few years. This year, Scott suggested it would fit perfectly in the corner of the living room, and I love it!
To keep the tree kid-friendly {since we have a 2 and a 3-year-old running around the house}, we simply wrapped the tree in some black and white striped ribbon. I had picked up a black and white striped felt basket at Michael’s last weekend that I planned to use for some of the kids Christmas books, but it turned out to be a perfect fit for the base of this narrow Christmas tree!
As I have done for the past few years, I am once again displaying some of my favorite glass ornaments in the living room windows. I love the way they catch the light safely out of the reach of little hands!
For a quick update to our floating shelves, I added a few red candles, and replaced a few of the picture frames with red and white snowflake frames featuring some of my favorite pictures from Christmases past.
On the coffee table, I swapped out the fall pumpkins for red and white ornaments in our tic tac toe board, and that other “thing” is our Christmas card display. Since we are still waiting for cards to start arriving in the mail, I simply filled the card holder with color coordinated scrapbook papers for the early weeks of the season. {Click here to see what it looks like when it’s full of cards}.
The yarn wreaths on the front doors hang back to back with the green wreathes on the front porch side of the doors.
Since the sun shines through the frosted glass doors creating shadows from the outdoor wreaths, hanging two sets of back to back wreaths is a perfect solution.
This year, we wanted it to not only look like Christmas…we also wanted it to sound like Christmas, so while we were shopping for the records to cover the ceiling in the boys’ under stair playroom, we also picked up some 45s with great Christmas music!
Rounding the corner from the entry way, you find yourself in the kitchen. I’ve been getting my craft on with two new projects in here.
I bought nine paper mache cones for just a couple of dollars each at Hobby Lobby and painted them in various shades of teal, and then added one navy blue and two red to tie everything together.
That monogram wreath above the fireplace is my other new creation, and I’ll be sharing the tutorial for that next week!
I hung the wreath from some black and white striped ribbon {I told you you’d be seeing stripes everywhere}. Now that I’ve hung something above our kitchen fireplace for the first time, I’m afraid its going to look so empty when the wreath comes down after Christmas!
At the opposite end of the kitchen, I’ve kept the decor on the sideboard pretty simple.
I sat out my Christmas tree tea light holder, but am using it to display mini teal and blue ornaments instead of candles.
And the red HO HO HO letters are a quick and easy project that saves big money. Very similar letters were selling for big bucks from a major retailer last year!
In the long window above the kitchen table, I created an indoor snow flurry with hanging felt snowflakes.
The kitchen/mudroom space even got a Christmas update with some red and teal pillows. And how great is that giant bag that my mom made for me? It’s perfect for Christmas shopping and for delivering gifts.
On the counter adjacent the bench, I once again created a coffee and hot chocolate station complete with lots of flavor and add-in options.
Last year we counted down the days to Christmas on our kitchen chalkboard wall, but the backward numbers {counting from 25 to 1 was a bit confusing to the boys}. So this year I’ve put a simple calendar on the chalkboard wall and we’ll cross the days off one by one, starting tonight.
I am totally crushing on the red and teal decor throughout the main floor, but get ready for a new, bold color combo as we head down to the basement, where our big tree is located!
Orange, gray, and white certainly isn’t a traditional Christmas color combo, but I couldn’t love it any more! I really love the way our tree turned out, and best of all, we don’t have to worry about the kids breaking anything or getting hurt! I’ll be sharing all the details about our tree next week!
Last year, we bought the boys a ride-on Thomas the train with a round track. We set it up in front of the family room couch for Christmas morning…and it’s been there ever since. The boys ride the train almost daily, so we’ve just left it there. I decided that if Thomas is going to be a fixture in the room, he might as well get in on the Christmas spirit…so he is now sporting a festive wreath around his face.
The orange wall above our fireplace mantle creates the perfect backdrop for my white feather wreath and my collection of DIY textured Christmas trees and flat, painted Christmas trees.
Last year, I added the glittery dollar store snowflakes that hang from the ceiling, and this year I picked up some sparkly, white pom pom stems that I’ve arranged around the base of the trees. The glittery silver monogram stocking pins are another quick and money saving DIY project.
At the opposite end of the basement is the boys play area. Above the boys’ toys, I’ve strung up my chalkboard banner and spelled out a little reminder that Santa is making a list and checking it twice.
Below the banner is the dollhouse that I created for the boys last Christmas. It’s an off-the-shelf dollhouse that I transformed into our home’s mini-me. {I shared the full dollhouse tour and all the DIY details just last week and I hope you’ll check it out!} Since the boys enjoyed putting up our Christmas tree so much, it seemed only right that their dollhouse should have a tree as well!
The last stops on the Christmas home tour are upstairs on the second floor, so let’s head on up…
At the top of the stairs is an open sitting area where we often read books with the boys before bed. Since this space is part of the boys’ nightly bedtime routine, we decided to give it a little Christmas makeover this year.
I swapped out the art in the frames, replacing them with four free Christmas printables that I found online and converted to black and white {clockwise from the green frame; Reindeer Names; Car with Christmas Tree; Ho Ho Ho; and Geometric Reindeer.}
I picked up the agate-topped side table over the summer without knowing where it would go, and I recently tried it out by the black leather chair in the hallway. I really love the way the colors in the agate pick up the teal, greens and blues in the space!
This would be a prettier picture if you weren’t looking right at a toilet…but this is real life, so just overlook that if you will…
As you’ve probably noticed, the black and white stripes continue up here as well – with a striped blanket on the back of the chair, and the black and white cabinet that we use for extra storage for the boys space-challenged bathroom.
Each of the boys has their own small Christmas tree, which come with the added bonus of also serving as night lights.
I framed the photo of Cooper’s visit with Santa, and even tied a little bottle brush tree to the top of his red mini-Cooper! {See more of Cooper’s ombre striped nursery.}
In Beckett’s vintage preppy bedroom, his tree sits on top of his tweed storage trunk.
I gave Beckett my old Fisher Price record player from the 80’s, but his collection of records dates back to when his grandparents were kids. Seasonal favorites include Rudolph and Mickey’s Christmas Carol.
Finally, I also framed Beckett’s Santa photo, and added a couple of bottle brush trees to the top of his bookshelf.
It’s so much fun to see the boys experiencing the Christmas spirit this year. They are so excited for all of the events we have coming up this month, and they love having a few of their very own Christmas decorations in their rooms.
Thanks for taking our Christmas home tour. As a reward for making it through all those photos, be sure to enter for your chance to win $500! Who couldn’t use a little extra Christmas shopping money?!
Don’t forget to visit the rest of the homes on the tour – there are some amazing homes here! Catch a sneak peek from the photos below and follow the links to see everyone’s homes.
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Blue i Style {you are here}
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
