Tag: Christmas home tour

Christmas Home Tour 2015

Written by Jenna on December 3, 2015. Posted in Christmas, Decorating, Seasonal, Uncategorized. 26 Comments on Christmas Home Tour 2015

Welcome!

I am elated that this day has finally arrived. I’ve been busily and excitedly preparing + waiting for weeks to give you a tour of my home decorated for Christmas… And today is the day!

I can not believe it is my 3rd year (check out 2013 + 2014) on the Jennifer Rizzo Holiday Housewalk and I am thrilled to show you lots of new spaces. If you are following along on tour (start the tour here), I am house #19 and the first on the tour for today. If you’re continuing through from yesterday, then you just hopped on over from Restoration House. Wasn’t Kennesha’s house just beautiful with all her fresh greenery?!

Amidst a big renovation (we ripped out our kitchen…), I ‘m shocked that I was able to pull ‘Christmas’ off this year. I think without this Housewalk Tour planned, decorating for Christmas would have gone to the wayside. So thank you ALL for the nudge to create this years magical space.

Without further ado, grab a cup of joe or your favorite hot chocolate, put your feet up, and enjoy.

Let the tour beginâ€¦

Our beautiful boxwood (by the way, it’s faux…) welcomes us + guests into our home. It adorns the apple green colored front door and a red burlap bow gives the perfect layering contrast.

Come on in…

Not overly large, but well-thought out + functional, our foyer is decorated with hues of golds and reds.

My approach for holiday decorating, especially at Christmas, is to add in seasonal layers amongst the everyday decor. Accessories are changed out, but our family is still hustling & bustling all day, everyday, so the main elements are still in use.

My new favorite addition to this years holiday decor is the adorable vintage red bicycle pillow created by none other than the fabulous Jennifer Rizzo. Snag one for yourself at her Society 6 shop!

The beautiful gold dresser (which holds the kids shoes) is still the main focus of our foyer. I swapped out the pictures above and added in a chalkboard printable that was created by my sweet friend Kellie – May you days be merry & bright, And may all your Christmases be white. Above it I added a simple gold glitter wreath.

Atop the dresser, I filled a large vase with branches from the yard and hung medium sized ornaments in shades of chocolate. hmmm. I love the height & ‘drama’ the branch arrangement gives our entry.

Other seasonal favorites fill the dresser top including small trees, wrapped presents, and DIY creations like the JOY ornament that I made using a gold Sharpie.

Since making our CHRISTMAS BLESSING card holder a few years back, I seem to find a ‘new home’ for it each holiday season. This year it fit perfectly in this spot of the foyer & beautiful cards from friends + family have already started to trickle in.

Pretty paper in patterns of houndstooth, stripes, and a reindeer silhouette were used to wrap presents. Then ribbon, ornaments, and rosemary were used to dress them up. I love giving a present that smells just as good as it looks…

Let’s head from the foyer to the dining room where you can finally get a glimpse of our tree…

Do you see it? Do you see it? White twinkly lights reflected in the glass… We’re getting closer…

My beautiful Craigslist-found china cabinet is draped with beautiful magnolia garland (again it’s faux) along with a simple strand of pom pom garland (sent by my friends at Minted).

I wish I could show you more of this space, but honestly it’s still kind of a construction zone. I guess I could put bows on all the boxes & add them tot the tour, but I’ll spare you, lol.

Let’s just keep looking for the lights. I see another glimpse…

There it is. Our Tree. Our beautiful Tree decorated for another Christmas season.

And the lights off for a different view without the lights…

just snagged that copper Merry Christmas garland from Target & I love it!

Yes the tree is a material object, but it symbolizes so much. It tells so much about our family.

Who we are.

Where we’ve been.

What we love.

I can honestly say, other than putting the garland + ribbon on, I had no part in the creation of the tree.

All the credit goes to these 2 …

It might not be the prettiest or ornately decorated (hands down, I know it isn’t), but I don’t care. My kids l-o-v-e decorating for Christmas and since I have control of creating beautiful vignettes around the house, they have the tree. Complete ownership goes to them!

No joke, this is me watching & enjoying as they took over…

To me, FAMILY + MEMORIES is what Christmas is about.

I’m in love with how the family room came together for this Christmas. It was enjoyable having a new palette to work with since renovating this space earlier in the year.

Again, our everyday is layered with our seasonal favorites, family keepsakes, and DIY creations…

I shared our Christmas Mantel earlier this week, but it got a slight revamp since then. Check out what’s inside the fireplace… A lot of logs that my husband laboriously cut (not, it just looks like that – tutorial coming soon).

The look of the logs gives a beautiful focal point to the fireplace especially since we rarely have a roarin’ fire going.

Our stockings are definitely hung by the chimney with care…

This space is our hang-out-do-everything room, so it has to be comfortable + inviting + functional. It’s not stuffy or inhibiting, but instead relaxing, enjoyable, AND most importantly reflects US!

A new favorite this season is this Oh-So-Warm + cute down blanket with the most adorable vintage car pattern. It’s put us to sleep many-a-nights on this sofa with the TV still on at 3am…

The Ho Ho Ho knit pillow is another addition this season and makes such a pretty layer on the sofa.

On a typical day, most things that sit on the coffee table get knocked off (thanks to the busy hands of a 17-month old), but for the tour I jazzed it up with gorgeous gold glitter cone trees + a few of our holiday books we love to read as we countdown to the BIG 2-5!

Along with our special keepsakes to decorate with, I also love incorporating elements from nature. Cut branches and greenery are all around us so where I can, I’ve layered branches + greens on the bookcase tops, the mantel, and in front of the TV…

And on the windows I added three small boxwood wreaths. They are just the cutest…

Lots of old mixed in with a few new festive treats, like this pillow that I just couldn’t resist from Target.

There is a definite reindeer ‘theme’ this Christmas…

Well there you have it. Thank you so much for taking the tour of my home decorated for Christmas. A lot of thought + love went into this years seasonal space, but important of all it’s meaningful to our family.

I hope I’ve inspired you with what I’ve created + shared.

Now on to the next house, At the Picket Fence, which is stop #20 on the Holiday Housewalk Tour.

You are in for a treat…

Thank you to Joss & Main and Good Housekeeping magazine for partnering with this years Housewalk Tour. Also a big shout out to Garnet Hill + Lowe’s, who I collaborated with for this years Christmas spaces. Their decor is gorgeous and I love showcasing their beautiful goods in my home!

Merry Christmas

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 >>>

Christmas Home Tour 2013

Written by Jenna on December 4, 2013. Posted in Christmas, Decorating. 35 Comments on Christmas Home Tour 2013

Surprise!

A secret that I’ve been keeping for too long can now be shouted from the rooftops.

I am one (#17 to be exact) of the 25 homes on the amazing Jennifer Rizzo Holiday House Tour. I am so excited not only to show you around my home but to be amongst a great group of Bloggers who are opening their doors this Holiday season.

If you’re new here, you just headed over from the house tour by Vanessa of At the Picket Fence. Wasn’t it amazing?! She has a beautiful home and opened her doors for all to see in the Creating a Meaningful Home series earlier this year. She is just the sweetest person ever!

Ok, well let’s get this tour started. Are you ready?

Welcome. Grab a cup of coffee (or tea, if you prefer) and stay awhile. Let me show you around.

The new addition to this year’s Christmas decor is our new white Christmas tree. Wanting to have a bling, bling pretty tree, this new beauty sits in the blue room, a.k.a. my office / family room. With the dark hue on the walls, the white tree with varying shades of gold & brown ornaments, is the perfect contrast. This room is a favorite of mine in our home because of all the light that comes shining through from dawn to dusk. The filtered light accents the golds + my new disco ball just right!

The coffee table got a quick festive makeover by using a round mirror as the centerpiece topped with a montage of Christmas favorites – gold trees, ornaments, the light turned vase that I created earlier this year, and of course Santa.

Also on the coffee table is my newly created Nate Berkus knock-off wood block candle holder. What do you think? I love how it adds so much height to the vignette.

Transitioning to the dining room, I used a few similar ideas by using another mirror – the clock turned mirror – as the dining room centerpiece topped with more gold trees (that I scored from the Christmas Tree Shop last year) and a small tree adorned with miniature ornaments.

Simply, but elegantly set, our Christmas table is filled with a whole lotta candles – one of my favorite items to decorate with.

The buffet is set with treats for all to enjoy. As I shared earlier in the week, the sidebar / buffet in the dining room is filled with varying sized glass jars, ceramic houses, and other festive decor. My favorite element of the space is the charlie brown tree with colorful ball ornaments. Okay, well it’s really not really a charlie brown tree, but instead branches from my backyard put into a glass jar to bring height to the overall space. It would make a great table centerpiece too.

Also in the dining room is my kids favorite part our home tat the Holidays, the Christmas Countdown Tree that I made using pallets and leftover scraps of wood. It’s such a whimsical, colorful handmade creation!

Heading over to the last space in our home, the living room. Our hang out space…

And there is a peak at our other Christmas tree… The tree that is filled with our family’s sentimental ornaments that we’ve collected, made, and bought over the years.

The main wall of the living room features our mantel and it’s totally decked out for the Christmas season. A large wood panel is set as the backdrop with my newly created vintage-inspired J-O-Y sign as the focal point.

Other pretty festive elements adorn the fireplace and the creme de la creme are the felt + dropcloth Christmas stockings that I made a few years ago.

Another handmade element that we love + adore is the Christmas Card Holder where we treasure and enjoy all the cards and photos that family and friends send throughout the Christmas season. How do you display cards sent to your family?

Well that’s the end of the tour. I wish it wasn’t over, but I really hope you enjoyed our home decorated for Christmas.

Hasn’t the Holiday House Tour been fabulous?! We’re only on day 3 of the tour, and there are many more houses to see. So don’t stop here! Grab another cup of joe and head on over to my friend Roeshel’s house at The DIY Showoff. She is an amazing creator and surely won’t disappoint. ENJOY and Merry Christmas!