Christmas Décor Tour

Hi There! Merry Christmas Time!!  I’m jumping on the blog band wagon today to share my Christmas decorating this year.  I would say it’s simple & eclectic this year, our new house is really challenging me in my holiday decorating.  I don’t have much room for a lot of stuff and I don’t like clutter so I kept things to a minimum. 
I simply put up a tree in our living room and added a few other touches to that room, the dining area and office.  I showed you all the bedroom here.  I’ve had the decorations up since after Thanksgiving but I’ve been so busy I just haven't’ had the time to post. 

Living Room

Dining Area

Home Office

You noticed even my wrapping paper is eclectic this year, Ha!  I bought several fine paper rolls from The Container Store two years ago after Christmas and just had to use a few this year.  The plain brown paper and reindeer paper came from Target this season and that reindeer paper is my FAVORITE!  I have used my gifts as décor and they are not under the tree to keep big chocolate paws off of them!
Only 7 days til Christmas!  Hope you enjoyed the little tour and I hope you are all having a great Holiday Season.  I am looking forward to some family time and get togethers this weekend with great friends!

April

Snow Scenes

I’ve been seeing little snow globe décor everywhere this season.  I just love miniature worlds like diorama's, snow globes, & fairy gardens so I decided to have a little fun and make a few snow scenes in jars and bottles I had around the house.  I picked up all the other supplies at the craft store, a great area to look is where they keep the Christmas village trees. 


These two are in my bedroom so I added a little reindeer pillow for a little more Christmas cheer here. 



I’m planning on keeping my Christmas decorating really simple this year.  I like how in this room I have just a few touches and it is enough. 

Here is the last scene, it was a bit hard to photograph but it’s a little sleigh with ornaments and trees stacked inside. 
These were so simple to make, I simply added the parts and then the snow.  I put a small amount of hot glue to the bottom or the trees to hold them in place and that was it!
I have been doing a little more decorating today and we went out to buy our Christmas tree today!  It seems so early to me but I want to get the tree up next weekend and have time to enjoy it this season. 
Have you started decorating yet?

April

Shiny Brite Wreath

Two years ago I rushed into TJ Maxx on Christmas Eve to buy these beautiful Shiny Brite ornaments I had been eyeing all season.  I felt like waiting until after Christmas may be too big of a chance so I snagged them for 25% off and bought 5 boxes of green and red ornaments. 
I typically don’t decorate with much green and red for Christmas, I like more jewel toned colors but these were so pretty…no worries, I picked up plenty of pink, purple, blue, and silver too.  I had planned to make a wreath out of the green and red from the day I bought them, however, last year we were still living with Will’s parents so I didn’t decorate. 
Traditionally I will not pull the first Christmas item out until Thanksgiving weekend but I wanted to start early on my wreath and I love it!  I am ready to start the decorating!!

This was so easy to make and it looks like it is really expensive.  To make one yourself  you will need a foam wreath, hot glue gun and glue sticks, PLENTY of ornaments (I used some cheap filler ones from the craft store), and ribbon to hang. 

I tied the ribbon on the wreath and picked a spot and just started gluing, placing ornaments  together like a puzzle. 

When you are all done you will have hot glue strands all over so I just used a hairdryer to melt them away. 
I love this finished wreath and it has inspired me to use a little more traditional colors this season!


Have you started your Christmas decorating yet?!?

April

Mirror Mirror

Happy Fall Y’all, it officially feels like cooler weather is going to stick around here.  I’ve taken down all my Halloween decorations and I am kind of of excited about Christmas decorating.  No grand plans but I am looking forward to decorating this year and setting it all up in our new house. 
I wanted to share with you this really awesome mirror that I recently painted.  It’s a bit different from my normal paint projects and it rocks!  It kind of makes me happy every time I look at it.
I don’t know which picture to start with on this, #1 because mirrors are hard to photograph, #2 the details are the best on this one…so I’ll start there.


Before this mirror was gold and it was beautiful as is but the gold was flaking and there was this reddish hue left behind that cheapened it a little.  


Once I started painting I wondered I started to regret it, the gold was very regal…the white was so bright next to the gold.

Little action shot for you…It must have still been warm out this night
Once I got all the white paint on I felt better, it really looked great.  I used the new Amy Howard One Step Paint in Ballet White and then I applied a product from her line called Dust of Ages.  I had seen a similar product to this a while back and was eager to try.  A detailed piece like this one is perfect for this finish. 
With the dust, you paint, wax then sprinkle the Dust of Ages on just before the wax dries and then buff to a beautiful finish.  Since this was the first time I had used it, it took a little getting used to and the first try I think I let the wax dry to much and I applied too little dust.  I tried again right over by applying a little more wax and then adding the dust liberally, then buffed. 
Here is a shot of my first attempt.  Dust on the left, none on the right. This looked good but I really wanted that aged antique look.

My final product.


I loved trying something new with this piece and that I was able to recreate the aged antique look of the original in a painted version. 

What do you guys think?  Is it a beauty or what! 
Hope everyone has a great week!  I’m fighting the urge to decorate for Christmas!!

April

New Paint New Dresser

This past weekend I started painting a dresser I found at my favorite thrift store a few weeks back.  It was a pretty quick paint project and I have been wanting to get my hands on this style dresser for a while now.  I just love the style and the simplicity of it.

The coolest part of this project was that I tried a new paint line by Amy Howard at Home.  I had recently heard about this paint from my friend Renee over at The Refined Relic.  Renee  gave it a good review and it’s about $12 cheaper than the two I’ve been working with.  I picked it up from a store I stumbled upon a few months ago in my work travels, Coastal Fog in Greenville, NC.  I started following Coastal Fog on Facebook and saw that they picked up the paint line about a month ago and so last week I was in Greenville again and picked up a can in the color Selznick Grey.  It is a fabulous color!  They are very knowledgeable about the paint line and I cannot wait to try out the other goodies in the line like the lacquer spray paint, the milk paint and the Dust of Ages (up next)!  This paint that I tried is similar to the other chalk paint lines that I have used in the past, a one step paint. 
If you are in the Greenville, NC area and want some serious home décor inspiration go run to Coastal Fog!  Industrial Chic is how I would describe the style, seriously beautiful décor and they offer DIY classes for various projects. 
Back to the dresser.  Here is the before.

All gussied up by my front door now.  I loved styling this one.

I will be selling this one.  I can’t keep them all!  But it sure is tempting. 
Other than painting I replaced the top knobs since it was missing one and I love these glass ones I found at Hobby Lobby.  They went perfect with the bottom pulls

What do you guys think about this quick makeover? 

Hope you all have a super fun Halloween tomorrow!  We are not expecting a lot of trick-or- treator’s in our new neighborhood but hoping we get a few!  I’m off to painting a mirror next, stay tuned!

April

Country Grey

I’ve had this table since I was in college.  My Mom and Dad gave it to me one year for Christmas and I have always loved the versatility of its size.  It can be a sofa table, occasional table or console table.  It was Perfect in our first house in the foyer.

In the brief stay in our last house it fit perfect in the dining room but the color always bothered me next to my dark walnut table.

In our current house it fits perfectly in our dining room space where we have a large blank wall.  Still the color bothered me, it just didn’t fit anymore with our darker woods and painted furniture pieces.

I knew I wanted to stain it and I wanted more of a driftwood or grey  look.  Minwax has a new color called Country Grey so I gave that I try.  I always forget how rewarding staining furniture can be until I do another piece.  I am not a fan of stripping the old away but the new finish totally changed the way this table looks. 

There is still lots of color in the furniture here but now all matches a little better.  Just today I finished hanging up a bunch of pictures and now I feel like this side of the dining room is done! 

This side…still a work in progress.  You’ll notice I painted a mirror too…hate it, still trying to figure out how to make it better.

Loving more grey tones with warm wood in here.  Now I just have to find some money and then I will be buying a rug and a new light fixture!

Happy Sunday!
April

Halloween At My House

If you know me or have been following this blog for long you know I LOVE Halloween!  Through the process of moving I have not decorated for TWO years!!  I had lots of fun pulling out my old decorations and buying up pumpkins at our state farmers market this year.  Here is a little house tour of my Halloweenies as I like to say.



The porch was the most fun to decorate because we have this really wide front porch now and it called for lots of pumpkins.  They are a mixture of real ones and fake ones that I already had.  I made sure not to ignore the side where we walk up so I can enjoy them everyday!  I may decide to add spooky spider webs as we near Halloween but for now this feels fun and cheerful.

Inside I found that it is hard to use a lot of decoration because our new floor plan is so open to the living rooms so I created a couple of fun vignette's.

This is a small little Dollar store candle holder spray painted black.


Surprise for you here,  this is a table makeover I haven’t even shared yet.  I’ll be sure to show you the before pictures soon.


I think this little pumpkin in the center was my favorite find at the farmer’s market, it has the coolest colors.

Lastly I have a cabinet of curiosities in my dining room.  I pulled together spooky Halloween décor with ironstone and glass for an intriguing look. 

I just love tying the spooky decorations and the fun colors together at Halloween.  It was also fun to decorate a new house and use my old stuff in new ways.

April

Office Chair

I finally finished the last piece I had from an estate sale my Mom went to last Summer.  The one thing I really wanted from the sale was this really cool old office chair.

I waited a long while before I decided on what to do.  Our office was looking pretty drab with all the brown from the desk, shelves and chair so I decided to paint it white.  If you are looking close at this picture you are getting a sneak peak of the thrift store file cabinets I painted.  The office is still a work in progress.  I’m wanting window treatments, a rug, etc., etc. the list never ends. 
Here is the same chair in white now.

I used ASCP in Pure White with clear wax.  I did distress the chair a bit to bring out some of the old charm.

Now if I can just get the office finished. 

Happy Weekend!

April