Tag: christmas 2014

Christmas Mantel

Written by Jenna on December 5, 2014. Posted in Christmas, Mantel.

Happy Friday! Boy, am I glad it is FRIDAY. It has been a heck of a week, how about for you?

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas Home Tour that I shared yesterday. Thank you to all those that left the kindest, sweetest comments – I can not tell you how great they make me feel. I am really loving how festive & warm our home feels right now and I hope I was able to convey that to you throughout the tour!

As I was putting the post of The Tour together, I was left with many more photos of the fireplace mantel. Instead of making the post miles long, I thought I would create another post on just the mantel. I am so smitten over how the mantel resulted this year, so let me show you around.

Come join me in the family room…

With our tree at one end of the room and the fireplace at the other, this is such a cozy, restful place. The mantel this year is filled with a little old and a little new.

My approach for this years mantel was to lean and layer. What do I mean? From front to back, I added height with various items that I simply leaned on each other to give a layered (dimensional) look.

I started with the stained wood backdrop and added the pretty, glittery wreath I got from Lowe’s last year. Leaning on it, I added the JOY pallet sign, which is really the focal point of the mantel. Then I added a new chalkboard printable & the oversized wood snowflake (a roadside rescue). It’s all about the layers!

The chalkboard printable is something new this year and it is a creation made by my friend Kellie. How did I create it? I saved the printable to a USB key, brought it to Staples and they printed it on blueprint paper for less than $4. I then brought it home and framed it. Easy-Peasy and it is a beautiful addition to the mantel.

For a bit of whimsy, the kids and I collected some branches from the backyard, which I used to fill a simple white vase. It really grounds the fireplace.

When I initially placed the vase on the mantel, the brown branches got lost against the orange wall. To make them stand out more, I took some white craft paint and painted them. A few minutes later, they were finished and dry.

So pretty, right?

When decorating for this Christmas, I ended up changing the place of a few of our festive favorites. One specific DIY creation that we all love & admire each year is the Christmas Card Holder. This season, I chose to hang it to the right of the fireplace and it’s already starting to fill up.

On the other end of the mantel are a few more layered-in elements that give height & interest to the overall mantel. For the last few years, my go-to favorites for Christmas are these modern cone-shaped Christmas trees from the Christmas Tree Shop a few years back. We have them in a few different sizes in white and gold. I just love how sparkly they are! And how simple, yet glowing is a bowl filled with ornaments. A 3-second creation that is beauty to the eye!

This years mantel would not be complete without a WOW. The gorgeous cedar garland truly completed this years mantel montage. I just adore how full and organic it feels. My idea of being inspired by nature this holiday season really came to fruition with this garland.

I am so grateful to my friends at Lynch Creek Farm who sent me the garland, as well as the wreath for the front door. And the smell… I can’t even begin to explain how yummy our home smells. I just wish you could dive through your screen to get a whiff.

Here is a peek at the gorgeous wreath on the front door which you can see more of in my Christmas Home Tour.

Back to the mantel…

I hung this beautiful cedar garland at each end of the mantel so it has a gentle swag in the center. On the one side, I added a pretty red + black bow and on the other side, I hung 3 stockings that I just picked up from Lowe’s.

A few more views (I told you I couldn’t stop myself from photographing & sharing this mantel)…

From the kitchen to the dining room to the family room, you can see how the fireplace is a focal point in our home and we are truly admiring this years mantel creation…

Thanks for stopping by to enjoy my home decorated for Christmas!

Have you decorated your home for the holidays yet?

Christmas Home Tour 2014

Written by Jenna on December 4, 2014. Posted in Christmas, Holiday. 29 Comments on Christmas Home Tour 2014

Welcome!

I have been waiting for this day for so long. Another holiday season is upon us and I am thrilled you are here to take the tour of my home decorated for Christmas.

If you are following along on the Jennifer Rizzo Holiday Housewalk (start the tour here), I am house #24 and you just came from Monica’s home at East Coast Creative.

Wasn’t it awesomely decorated? She has such a creative style! I am so happy to be on the tour for the second year in a row (click to see last years Christmas tour) and let me tell you… you are in for a treat!

Over the past year, I have made many changes to our beautiful abode and it has been enjoyable to put new touches on our latest additions. Without further ado, grab a cup of something, put your feet up, and enjoy.

Let the tour begin…

Our front porch + (new) front door are adorned this Christmas season with gorgeous greenery in a mix of cedars (thanks to my awesome friends at Lynch Creek Farm). The garland on the front columns & the wreath on the door beautifully surround our entry and create the most perfect welcoming feeling.

We just had this new glass front door installed a few weeks ago and even though it’s only primed – yes the brownish red color is how it came primed – I am loving how much light in filters into the front entry. I have more planned for this door (like a pop of color) but it’ll have to wait till Spring. For now, I hung this beautiful wreath and I am calling in done!

Come on in…

For seasonal decor, I don’t believe that every space needs to filled with floor to ceiling decorations. Often a few small touches, are ideal and just enough. Our entry isn’t overly spacious and with 5 of us, there is a lot of foot traffic throughout all hours of the day.

My holiday decorating approach for the entry/foyer space was to set the tone for the other spaces and to add a few festive layers to our everyday decor. I loved the ornament tree (small colorful ornaments hung from tree branches found in our backyard) that I created for our buffet last year, so this season I reenacted a similar idea on the gold dresser (which isn’t only glamorous but actually is functional too holding shoes, keys, and lots of stuff), and brought in a few festive favorites.

A few weeks back I mentioned my design ‘theme’ for this Christmas was to be inspired by nature. With that in mind while decorating, I was able to hone in on what made sense and to not overwhelm the spaces with non-meaningful things. The result being, we truly feel surrounded – inside and out – by many natural elements and things that we love most.

Along the stair railing, I hung a beautiful magnolia garland that I got from Balsam Hill – simple, but sophisticated. It’s artificial, but it has a realistic look without the fuss.

To the right of our entry is the office / living room. I love how the room glows in the evening with our sparkly white tree…

As you can see from the light that filters into the photo, this space is incredibly bright. I chose to display our all-white tree in front of the stair railing this year and decorated it with colorful ornaments in shades of pinks, purples, browns, and golds. It’s beautifully lit with white lights and finished off with my easiest + fastest + cheapest tree skirt EVER!

A mirror turned horizontal makes for the perfect seasonal coffee table vignette. The festive montage is topped with a few Christmas favorites including gold trees (from the Christmas Tree Shop), the light turned vase filled with ornaments, and of course Santa. Also displayed in a tray on the coffee table is a colorful poinsettia (~~fake~~ artificial) in a bright yellow vase (which I typically have filled with a fern). Pops of color all around…

As we come down the stairs each morning, this is the view we are blessed with…

As we continue on the tour, my living room/office leads us to the kitchen and dining space…

This is our main dining table for breakfast & dinner, so again the space had to remain functional for the every day, so a few seasonal layers were just enough to bring in the magic.

Above the sliding door, I added another (faux) magnolia garland and below is a simple boxwood wreath (last year from Lowe’s) hung from the door frame by a pretty gold ribbon. Hanging from the chandelier are some colorful + bright ornaments and for the table centerpiece, I used the stained wood box that I recently made and filled it with small Christmas trees, greenery, and more ornaments.

I love decorating with trays. It makes creating vignettes so easy & moving them (especially at the dinner table) is a cinch. There is no way a display like this directly on the table could be moved twice a day.

Here’s a closeup…

For the recent Craigslist-found china cabinet the I transformed, I let the color stand strong and draped a simple paper garland from edge to edge.

Using a round 1.5″ diameter paper puncher, I cut out circles from Christmas scrapbooking paper, and sewed them together with the method I used to make the crib mobile. So simple, yet festive.

The Christmas Countdown pallet tree that I made last year is still gong strong and is still one of my most favorite creations.

Here’s an overall view of the entire space…

As you continue from the dining room, the adjacent space is our family room where we put our feet up and chill. It’s a comfy space with a big ole sofa and a fireplace to keep us toasty warm.

This year we have a new (artificial) Christmas tree that is the focal point of the room. Our previous tree hit it’s life span. Of course once the old tree went curbside, the big debate of choosing between white or multi-color lights for the new tree began. Well this tree is the perfect solution… It has both! As easy as you can change the lights with a scroll of the mouse, is as easy as we can change from white to color with a click up a button. When in life, can you make everyone in the household happy??? Well I did it with this great find!

white…

and

color…

Here is the overall space with a roaring fire and all! The Mister is a master at making the best, toasty fires. Me? Not so much. I attempted to make a fire a few weeks ago and forgot to put up the flue. Enough said.

That cute, colorful yarn garland hanging over the window is a recent creation that I used this tutorial to make. I love how whimsical it looks. Here is another glimpse of it hanging on my fireplace that I shared on Instagram.

Christmas Home Tour of Jenna Burger, one of the homes featured on the Jennifer Rizzo 2014 Holiday Housewalk

As you continue in the room, our fireplace is decked out this year with a little old and a little new!

The fun, vintage JOY sign is something I made a few years ago and is a favorite of mine as the focal point of the mantel. The wood sign made of pallets is layered in front of a larger espresso stained wood sign/backdrop. A few other glittery, sparkly favorites like the wreath, trees, and ornaments are scattered about.

To the side of the fireplace, I hung our Christmas Card holder. It’s a new spot for this DIY creation and I am really loving it. The cards are starting to arrive and before we know it, this card holder will be all filled up.

Here is a separate post with more pictures of the mantel!

And that’s a wrap. Thank you for stopping by for my Christmas Home Tour 2014. And don’t forget to give a little jingle, jingle on your way out…

Merry Christmas!

I hope you take the time to continue on the Jennifer Rizzo Holiday Housewalk. Next up is the home of Between You & Me…

I wish you a happy holiday season!

You may also be interested in checking out my Christmas House Tour from last year >>>

As well as ALL the creations I’ve ever made for Christmas time (5 years of seasonal projects) in my EVERYTHING CHRISTMAS post >>>