Finished all my indoor decorating about a week and a half ago, just before Thanksgiving Day we started and I thought I would share these pictures with you. Over time, as others have shared theirs I have borrowed a few decorating ideas here and there, so you just never know what you just might see. People ask if I decorate bathrooms for Christmas, and the answer is a resounding "Yes!!!"
I love adding things to our indoor and outdoor decorations each year and believe it or not the best places to get them are from yard, garage or estate sales. You truly get one of a kind decorations that they simply don't make any more. Even antique stores are my newest novelty. I don't want what the big box stores are selling anymore. It costs twice as much and isn't made anywhere near the quality of older things.
So without further adieu, the tour of the Smith family household begins. We start where people enter our home. I have taken the liberty of collecting Christmas cards over the years because they hold so many memories and often times, people have stopped sending them. These are a few I have collected over the years.What you can't see is on most of my front facing windows are ice blue snowflake window clings I have held onto every year.
You enter the house and walk into our living room. It is where we have debates each year on where to put our 9 1/2 foot Christmas tree. We always have to be careful where it goes, because the base diameter is 6 feet round. This year my living room is all about snowmen, from my Hallmark singing snowmen to my Christmas book's I've collected over the years, these are feel like home to me.
Next you walk into my dining room which at the moment is lacking a dining room table. I have quite decided on what kind I want but I know I want it big. Seems odd, considering each year our family is downsizing and we have less and less people over but you just never know. I love hosting big family get together.
You notice the two book shelves my husband
The little houses on the top of the shelves are ones that we have handpainted each year, a tradition of my husbands that we have incorporated into our Christmas celebrations. It is nice to be able to go back and look at them to see just how far we have come in painting them.
From there our home branches into 3 different directions. Walking under the arch, you enter our family room where we spend most of our time. From the mantle decorations and garland to the stockings hung with care. Our best tip was taking a curtain rod and cup hooks and attaching it to the underside of the mantle. I don't care how wonderful and weighted your stocking holders are, they will fall off the mantle when they are filled. This way, they don't fall off no matter how full you stuff them.
Our kitchen is decorated in what I am going for a vintage Christmas look. We added a Christmas plaid curtain over our kitchen window this year and some fun vintage placemats I scored at Big Lots for $2.50 each.
On top of our pot shelves are Christmas villages I have collected over the years. I have given 14 of them away to my girls to begin their own sets now that my oldest has moved out this year and has her own pot shelves which those 7 amazing buildings look right at home there now.
One set is from Christmas Valley that Target used to sell more than 20+ years ago and the other is a set of the It's a Wonderful Life with all the buildings for that.
Down one hallway is two bedrooms, our guest room and our daughter's room. This is the picture of our guest room. Feel up to stay sometime? I love the woodsie feel of this room and the painting above the bed is something my husband bought me before we were married because I didn't have the money at the time as a single mom and fell in love with the painting. It proudly hangs in our home year round.
The wooden train was something my dad built for me. The train comes off the tracks as it pulls into the station and has a watertower and ticket booth attached. For now it is carrying some of my favorite Christmas toys. My dad actually built this for me a couple years ago when I mentioned growing up I always wanted one of the wooden trains he used to build, never imagining it would be to this scale. He never knows how much it means to me. I love vintage old toys.
My daughter's bathroom comes next and it's all snowmen, icicles and lots of icy blue. It has to be my favorite bathroom of all. I have collected the snowman pieces through antique stores over the years and who knows maybe these will all go with her when she is ready to move out.
Back down the other hallway is our office and guest bathroom. I don't currently have enough right now to begin to decorate that office space but who knows what the future brings. For now I have decorated the cubby outside the office and just before you enter the guest bath. I have my favorite Gund teddy bears along with some old fashioned blocks and bears I have collected over the years. The advent calendar is something I longed for, but for now haven't done is awhile. Perhaps next year I will work on adding events to do as a family or couple to the box.
The guest bathroom is all about pines and pinecones. I even have a custom burned wood slice my dear friend, Niki made for me to remind me that "Today is a good day for a good day." It's all about the attitude. On the top shelf are my favorite Beanie Buddies that I collected and sold with my hubby. These are ones I bought and will not part with. Love the garland, ribbon and lights around the oval mirror.
In the final hallway it leads to our master bedroom. The thing I love most about our home is that there are bedrooms and bathrooms separated by the main living areas in our home and they are isolated so we are not bothered by guests or our kids when they are visiting. Our Master bathroom is now being filled with the toys from the Land of Misfits from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. For now I have a Dolly and the Elephant. I hope to add to them over the years.
My master bedroom was just finished this year. We always pour our best efforts into where people will meet and often times neglect our bedroom but we struggled to find something that really felt like us until this year. While my husband will argue that we still missed out on the Christmas plaid quilt set that was on clearance, our love our Red and White Snowflake quilt.
We added some vintage items to our shelves and of course a wreath above our bed. Now I look forward to spending my quiet evening hours in here.
I truly hope you enjoyed my home tour and perhaps these even gave you some ideas for your own home.
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2 comments:
Your decorations look lovely. Merry Christmas!
What a treat to see your lovely home. I enjoyed it so much. You did a super job on your decorating. Some of the homes shown have been too much for me. Trust you and family are well and have a wonderful Christmas. I have not forgotten you, just neglecting.
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