A Dairing Life

Christmas Home Tour 2017

December 14, 2017 4 Comments

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Long before I started my own blog, one of my favorite things to do online, especially Pinterest, was looking at different people’s Christmas decor. Especially when they showed everything going on in their house. Those posts provided so much inspiration for different decor to incorporate in my own home. And ultimately, everyone’s house looks different, which I love! That’s why I’m so excited it’s time for this year’s Christmas Home Tour!

But first, let’s chat…

I saw this “No Makeup” House Tour challenge on a blog I like to read. The gist is that home decor bloggers show you their house without “making it up” before they snap the photos. After looking through the photos of one of the homes, I was feeling a little, well…insecure.

This person’s house in its natural state with no “making up” was the equivalent of when I try to straighten mine to take pictures of a project for the blog. I also have zero children living in my house. Whomp whomp.

So with that being said, this is my house after it’s been primped and made up. I kicked plenty of dog toys and pushed furniture out of my way in the process of taking these pictures.

It’s still not the equivalent of a supermodel, more like your old classmate that takes kinda good selfies. And it still looks worse than that blogger’s house in its natural state. Oh well, I call it home, and that’s good enough for me. I hope you enjoy this year’s Christmas Home Tour!

Living Room

I already shared some photos of my living room Christmas tree on my tree decorating post here. I adore white trees, and I’m so happy we have one in our living room. The scheme is different shades of metallic with a little bit of pale pink mixed in. It’s kind of funny how that pink came to be incorporated.

Living room Christmas decor in rustic chic metallics

I pulled out a pink taper candle because I wanted the mantel to have various sizes and shapes of candles this year. That one pink candle inspired a new addition to my living room decor! I found another pink candle and even did a really fun ombre effect on some of my plain white candles with a pearl finished champagne pink spray paint. So fun!

Mantle Decor for Christmas

This ornament wreath is one of my all-time favorite DIY projects. I put it on our front door one year, but putting it on the mantel ensures I get to look at it more often :).

DIY wreath made with Christmas ornaments

Outside of the Holiday season, we have three pictures on our fireplace wall. They were really messing up the vibe I was creating, so I took them down :). I then took smaller pictures/frames from another room, took the pictures out, and then did an ombre effect on the brown backing that comes with the frame with spray paint.

Gold, bronze and pink spray paint were the colors I chose. I love that the black frames pull in the black from our curtains, and help to make it not look too delicate. You can see the nails from the frame backing, but it doesn’t bother me. If you wanted to do a similar idea without it, you could spray paint a piece of cardstock. The back of the frame just made things easier :).

Of course, I just had to incorporate pale pink of our tree as well. Using the same spray paint, I painted maybe about six ball ornaments and nine little bell ornaments champagne pink. The beautiful pink mercury glass ornaments were passed down to me last year. I really love the end result.

White Christmas tree decorated with mixed metallics and pale pinkPink mercury glass Christmas tree ornaments Incorporate paper tassels and pink ornaments on your Christmas tree

Kitchen and Dining Room

Next up on the Christmas Home Tour is the kitchen and dining room areas. There’s not a ton of decor in my kitchen and dining room. Just a few hits here and there. Our dining, living room, and kitchen are all open to each other, so I like for the living room to be the showstopper.

I picked this little wreath up from Dollar Tree to use wherever I felt needed a little pop. It’s cute adorning the coffee bar! Cookie tins sit on the shelf. They’re empty now, but I fill them up when I make a big batch of cookies and have leftovers. But most of the time when I bake cookies we are team #cleanplateclub. 🙂

Coffee bar in kitchen decorated for Christmas

My favorite little snowed in church sits on a cake stand. I like to add cotton for an extra snowy scene. I got it from Target years ago the day after Christmas for next to nothing. It does light up, but I rarely turn it on!

Glitter and snowed covered church kitchen Christmas decor

Glitter and snow covered church kitchen Christmas decor

I keep some of my Christmas serving dishes and tins sitting out on the counter. Not pictured is the cookie cookbook I mentioned in my Cranberry Chocolate Chip Cookies post. It’s been sitting on the counter, getting tons of use!

Serving dishes and tins as Christmas decor in the kitchen

Gold glitter ornaments hang from the light fixture over our table. I made this little Merry Christmas banner the year we were married. I just simply tie the twine around the curtain rod. Little work for a big impact!

DIY Merry Christmas banner hanging in dining room

Of course, I have to add a few touches to our bar. I break out the “Cheers” swizzle sticks and change out my paper straws to match.

Christmas bar decor

How cute are these stemless wine glasses? It’s hard to see, but they say “Let it snow, drink merlot, drink merlot!”. I. Am. Obsessed. And guess what? They are a Dollar Tree score. Seriously. I can’t say it enough. If you aren’t taking advantage of that place, you’re missing out! I’m pretty sure I told every person that came to my house last year, “look at my wine glasses…they were from Dollar Tree!!!”. No shame in my game.

Let it snow, drink merlot stemless wine glasses

Trees, trees, and more trees

As I’ve mentioned here several times, I’m a southern girl. More specifically, from North Carolina. We have this little (or huge, whatever) thing called the Biltmore Estate. Let’s just say I went there for Christmas as a little girl, and from that moment on, I’ve dreamed of having a home with Christmas trees in every room.

No joke, I’m working towards it, although they are definitely not all immaculate, and I only have one full-size tree. I just think it would be cool to have a different theme to decorate for in every room. Sound crazy? (Ok, don’t answer that!).

So with that being said let’s head upstairs on the Christmas Home Tour for a glance at my different trees!

Master Bedroom Tree

I told you guys how much I love Hallmark movies. The best location to watch one? In your bed with a hot cup of tea before bed. Even better? Under the glow of a Christmas tree!

We purchased this cheap little tree one year because I kind of hated that we didn’t have a “traditional” tree in our house. A lot of people give us Christmas ornaments for Christmas, but they are typically red, traditional ornaments that I didn’t know where to put!

This tree is special because it has quite a few gifted ornaments. I just love getting ornaments for gifts because I honestly think of that person every time I look at it. So special! Of course, we have some NC State ornaments (go State!) as well.

Felt mouse Christmas ornament Traditional red and gold Christmas tree

Game Room Tree

Next up on the Christmas Home Tour, we have our game room tree. The game room is my husband’s room where he has a bunch of nerdy things set up that I don’t know how to use (ha!). I honestly don’t even know how to work the TV. This room looks so different than the rest of our house – charcoal walls, black furniture, and punches of bright neon colors.

To tie in with the bold scheme, I put this super cute silver tinsel tree on this side table, and hang some brightly colored ornaments on it. It’s really simple but packs a big punch. I love being greeted by this tree when I go upstairs!

Silver tinsel tree with brightly colored ornaments

There’s one simple box under this one, as well as our NC State stocking. I wonder if Santa is going to put anything in there this year?

NC State stocking under a silver tinsel Christmas tree

To play off the masculinity of this room, I added a few black and gold gift bags. I created the “Thankful” design on this Etch-A-Sketch for Thanksgiving, and thought it was appropriate for Christmas as well!

Etch-a-sketch as Christmas decor in a game room

The last tree I’m featuring on the Christmas Home Tour is probably my fav. My little old, white tree. This was the first Christmas tree I bought when I was out on my own, and it’s seen better days. But I love the fun, festive colors and ornaments. My favs are a glass ballerina, and a cupcake!

White Christmas tree with whimsical ornamentsGlass ballerina ornament on white tree Playful cupcake ornament on white tree

The room behind the white tree, which I affectionately call the “Sugar Plum” tree, is our guest bedroom. Here’s a little peep. I’ll be posting a DIY for that headboard on the blog soon!

Navy blue guest bedroom decorated for Christmas

These little stockings were hand sewn by my mom many years ago.

Navy blue guest bedroom decorated for Christmas

Entry Way and Exterior

I guess I should have shown the exterior and entryway of our house first on the Christmas Home Tour since it’s what you would see first when visiting. Oops. I guess you can think of it as the last thing you would see as you were leaving.

I absolutely love the way we do our lights. We couldn’t get a good picture of it, but you get the idea. Our lights are strung up on the inside of our windows. I wanted our lights to make a big impact, and neither the hubs or I am going to get up on a ladder and do the whole Clark Griswald thing #nothappening. I’ll do a tutorial for this next year since it’s a little late in the season for a project like this now.

Christmas lights on the inside of windows so you don't have to climb a ladder. Genius!

I absolutely love our wreath. It’s a pool noodle (any guesses from where?) wrapped in yarn with handmade felt flowers. I love the big contrast it makes with our front door.

This yarn wrapped wreath is made with a pool noodle!

These sweet little lanterns sit just inside the door. White Christmas lights are accented with pine codes in the large one, and there’s a candle in the smaller one.

Lantern with christmas lights and pinecones

Our entryway dresser is decked out with bottle brush trees, from, you guessed it Dollar Tree. The apothecary jar held desserts at our wedding, and now holds Christmas ornaments! I like to repurpose decor, and I think this paper leaf wreath that was on display for fall, makes a nice addition to the entryway.

Entry way decor for Christmas

Bottle brush trees from Dollar Tree!

DIY paper leaf wreath

A simple lighted wreath sits in our home office.

Wreath in home office chair for Christmas

And a little doggie sits on the couch, happy that this Christmas Home Tour is over! Phew, that was a doozie!

Bella the chipin is ready for the Christmas Home Tour!

Seriously, stop taking my picture mom.

What theme does your Christmas decor have? Is it all one theme, or all over the place like mine? 🙂

Stay Dairing.

BTW – I know I’ve thrown a lot of Dollar Tree stuff at you, but honestly, it’s one of my favorite places. If you can’t get out to the stores, they’re currently offering $4.95 flat rate shipping from now until December 16th.

As always, make sure to sign up for my newsletter to stay up to date! There’s exciting things coming!

 


A Dairing Life

4 Comments

  1. Reply

    Natalie

    December 15, 2017

    Everything looks amazing! I love how the whole house is decorated and brings a little Christmas into every room. The outside picture is perfect.

    • Reply

      A Dairing Life

      December 18, 2017

      Thank you so much Natalie!

  2. Reply

    Tammy Littlejohn

    December 14, 2017

    Stunning Daire! I love all of it! I love the stories behind each and every room, tree and decor! You are one talented gal! Side note, my favorite Christmas decor is ALWAYS my tree! So many memories, ornaments gifted to me or other family members, ornaments the kiddos made. Like you I think so fondly and remember each ornament and the one that gave it to us! I often sit and cry when I decorate my tree! 🎄🎄🎄

    • Reply

      A Dairing Life

      December 18, 2017

      Thank you! The memories are always the best part of this time of year!

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