Category: Home Decor

Winter Home Tour

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After the Christmas decor has gone away, our home seems a bit plain and our living room feels like it has gained lots of extra square footage with the absence of the Christmas tree. Since we live in Wisconsin, the winter months drag on well after the New Year. Here, warm weather doesn’t spring up until the end of April. Believe it or not, one year we got 12 inches of snow in May! CRAZY! So, the dilemma: I don’t want to leave my Christmas decor up past early January, and given our weather it doesn’t feel right to put up spring decor before late March. This is how I knew I needed to have another “season” of decor for our Wisconsin winters.

From a few Christmas clearance sales, I was able to get a variety of pine cones, flocked garlands, twinkle lights, and winter floral/greenery. I was also able to use a few of my current Christmas decor items since they are white and not exclusive to Christmas. My winter theme was coming together! The simplicity of the neutral colors with flocked greenery, pine cones to match the wood tones throughout our home, and a touch of light makes our home warm and cozy until the Wisconsin spring weather decides to arrive.

Keep reading to see how each room has been styled for winter!

Entryway
Welcome to our Home Sweet Home! On the front door hangs a wreath that I customized to take it from plain evergreen to neutral winter by using pieces from four floral stems that I took apart and arranged throughout the wreath.

Just inside the front door are hooks for guests to hang their belongings, but I also love to hang seasonal items from them as it adds to space. For winter, I chose to go simple and hung this floral basket from the center hook. On the other wall is a window frame where I hang seasonal wreaths throughout the year. I used a grapevine wreath and paired it with a thin frosted garland.

Basement
Our basement floating shelf is one of the main “mantle decor” areas in our home. On top of the shelf lies a garland with pine cones. On each side stands a flocked pine cone tree. From my Christmas decor, I kept the three wooden snowflakes as the focal point of the top shelf. Inside the shelves are two tin vases holding flocked greenery, with evergreen and pine cones surrounding some year-round decor pieces. The middle shelf belongs to my husband, as that is where he keeps his gaming system. For some reason, an Xbox is tricky to incorporate into seasonal decor! 🙂

Bedroom
I don’t know about you, but I want my bedroom to be the coziest room in the house! For Christmas, I had an evergreen garland with twinkle lights on top of our headboard. I LOVED having the soft glow of the twinkle lights on at night! I decided to keep the twinkle lights, but switched to a frosted garland with berries. On the night stands, I placed evergreen stems in tin vases beside each lamp.

Opposite the bed, I have two small trees on each side of the dresser. I debated putting these away after Christmas, but decided to keep them after removing the red Christmas ribbon. Along with the pine cone lighted garland, I added these wooden snowflake stems to add another touch of winter. On top of the dresser, I have small and large flocked trees to frame the TV. 

One of my favorite wall decor pieces is this wall sconce that is hung beside our bed. For winter, I added frosted greenery and berries. I just love the simplicity of this!

Living Room
This is my FAVORITE room in the house to decorate! It’s where we spend most of our time and where we have our “feature” wall of shelves.

At the center of our shelves is a beautiful window frame with a wreath of flocked greenery and pine cones. The smaller shelves each have a vase of neutral pine cone floral, a small winter house, a small wreath, a white metal tree, and a candle sitting in a flocked wreath. I also used some candlesticks and copper orbs to add to look. The bottom shelf holds a simple garland. To match the garland to the rest of the decor, I added 6 flocked greenery stems, and several large pine cones throughout. I love adding elements to a wreath or garland as it allows you to customize it to the rest of your decor!

On our coffee table, I use a neutral table tray all year round. Around my bath and body works candle (currently burning Cranberry Woods – I’m obsessed), I use seasonal floral. Of course for winter, I used more flocked greenery and pine cones around the candle stand. 

On our TV mantle, I kept the garland that I had up for our Christmas decor. I removed the ornaments, kept the lights (still loving that cozy glow), and added some pine cones. The wine bottle vases hold more of the neutral pine cone floral used on the feature wall.

Kitchen
Our kitchen is on the smaller side and it functions as a hub to keep our frequently used personal items, and of course the daily cooking space for my husband. Although there isn’t much room for decor in the kitchen, I try to have a few seasonal elements. Above each window hangs a frosted garland. To match, frosted floral is used in a white vase by the sink and plant stand on the island.

Thank you for touring our home this winter! After we thaw out from this Wisconsin winter, please stop by again to see what our cozy cape cod looks like for spring.

How to Decorate Your Christmas Tree in 5 Easy Steps

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It’s here! It’s time to bring out garlands, wreaths, presents, and trees for the most wonderful time of the year!

Setting up and decorating our tree is my absolute favorite part of preparing for the holiday season. My husband loves the classic, fun, look of a tree with colored lights and a mix of ornaments that have been gifted or made over the years. As much as I love a colorful, sentimental tree, the perfectionist in me prefers the look of an elegant, themed tree. 

When planning out our tree while winding up and down the aisles of Hobby Lobby, repeatedly, my ideas were going in all different directions. Do I want to use the classic red and green colors, a blush pink, all silver, all gold? Too many options – which is a good problem to have! I finally decided on burgundy and champagne for the look of our tree. I ended up grabbing two packs of the simple, round ornaments, one in each color.  

Christmas Tree Ornaments

Once our color scheme was set with the ornaments, I began to choose the other decor elements. I typically use ribbon and a few floral stems to give the tree more dimension. I also pick out a few uniquely shaped ornaments that are the same colors as my theme, such as snowflakes or larger, detailed ornaments. After spending way to much time carefully searching and choosing, I purchased glitter champagne wired ribbon, burgundy wired ribbon, burgundy berry stems, gold leafy floral, thin gold spiral stems, large and small snowflake ornaments, icicle ornaments, some glitter ornaments, a tree skirt, and to top it off a glitter star tree topper. Phew – that’s a whole lot of Christmas in way too many Hobby Lobby bags! 

Now let’s decorate our tree!

1. Lights
Once the tree is set up, it’s time to brighten things up with the lights. We love to add twinkling lights to give our living room some extra sparkle. We typically use three strands of twinkling white lights and 4 strands of regular white lights. To turn the tree lights on and off, we use a combination extension cord/foot switch. It allows us to keep the lights plugged in and a quick tap of the foot on the button turns the lights on and off easily.

Christmas Tree Lights

2. Ribbon
Next, I add the ribbon. When putting the ribbon on, I start at the top and wrap it around the tree in a gradual downward fashion. The wire in the ribbon is very helpful to shape the ribbon so it appears flowy as it runs throughout the tree. When using two colors, I always alternate the two going down the tree.

Christmas Tree Ribbon
Christmas Tree Ribbon

3. Floral
After the ribbon is in place, it’s time for the floral and gold swirls! For this tree’s theme, I have about 20 of the berry stems, 20 of the gold leaf floral, and one package of swirls (contains about 50 stems). I place the elements throughout the tree so each is spread evenly. I have found that the floral with longer stems are easy to place sturdily in the tree. 

Berry Christmas Floral
Gold Leaf Christmas Floral
Gold Swirl Christmas Decor

4. Ornaments
Now, it’s time for ornaments! I placed them around the tree to have an even mixture of colors, textures, and uniquely-styled ornaments throughout.

  • Christmas Tree Ornament
  • Christmas Tree Ornament
  • Christmas Tree Ornament
  • Christmas Tree Ornament
  • Christmas Tree Ornament

5. Topper & Skirt
For the finishing touches, add your tree topper and tree skirt!

  • Tree Topper Star
  • Christmas Tree Skirt

And here is the finished product! I love how it turned out!

Christmas Tree
Christmas Tree
Christmas Tree

Everything on my tree is from Hobby Lobby. You can’t beat their prices when all things Christmas are 50% off! Happy decorating! 

Christmas Bedroom Decor

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Deck the halls with boughs of holly! Yes, all the halls, including the bedroom! This season was the first time I decorated our bedroom for the holidays, and I am so glad I did! In the past, I’ve kept the bedroom decor more neutral year-round, but this year I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add more Christmas decor to our home. Having the holiday colors and lights in the bedroom gives it a cozier feel!

Our king headboard is a great staple bedroom piece. It’s a beautiful shade of beige that goes with everything. The tufted headboard also provides the perfect “ledge” to set garland on. In the garland, I wove some string fairy lights to give off a tiny amount of light. The soft glow that the lights create is so pretty that I may never want to take them down!

Headboard/Bed frame
Nightstands
Garland
Lights

I bought two different throw pillow covers to put over plain pillow inserts. The burgundy pillows are 20×20 and the snowflake pillow is 18×18. I prefer to buy pillow covers because they are easier to clean, interchangeable for every season or holiday, and easy to store when not on display. The burgundy covers are SO soft, and the snowflake cover is perfect for the Christmas and winter season!

Snowflake Pillow Cover
Burgundy Pillow Covers
Throw Pillow Inserts

On each nightstand, I have cute little trees that everyone has been loving from the Target Dollar Spot. Cute little Christmas trees for $3 each?! Yes, please! I also found two matching Rae Dunn signs – “Merry” and “Believe” – to sit beside the trees. It’s very simple, but I love how these items match the red from the throw pillows and stand out on the white nightstands. 

Trees
“Believe” Wood Sign
“Merry” Wood Sign

Who else decorates their bedrooms for the holidays or seasons? Describe your favorite bedroom decor in the comments below! 

Creating A Fall Tablescape

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Although you will find a few garlands, a Christmas tree, and us rocking out to the occasional Christmas song, I will be bringing back the fall colors for our Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving gatherings at our house in the next week. Pumpkins and garland go together right?!

Since being in our home for only a year, we haven’t really had the opportunity to host a formal gathering. So I am excited for us to host and to put together a formal tablescape!

While planning for the table settings and centerpiece, I knew I wanted to keep the overall look of the table neutral, as shades of white and beige pair so well with the warm Thanksgiving and fall colors. And, who doesn’t love neutrals! I actually styled all of the table decor around the placemats. They were the first item that I purchased when the Hobby Lobby fall decor hit the shelves. I loved the simple, fall look of them!

Next, I found my table runner at Home Goods. They had so many different colors with added festive details that would be perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but I opted for a neutral color so I could incorporate it into other seasonal tablescapes throughout the year.

I also chose to incorporate a set of striped napkins, navy and beige. To add some color to the place settings, I found these cute orange pumpkins at Hobby Lobby to set atop each napkin. 

Last to my tablescape were the plates. I did buy new plates given that we were hosting a formal meal for the first time in our house. Our previous ones were purple. Yes, purple plates. I bought them when I was living in the city as a single gal. So, the time came for hosting, and I figured that it was the time to upgrade. These white plates are from Ikea; I’m all about finding affordable items, and these plates are great quality! 

As for the centerpiece, I used white pumpkins, all from this year’s fall decor at Hobby Lobby. You can never have too many pumpkins! I styled them among two fall candles and some floral to bring in another subtle touch of color.

And voila! We have a completed tablescape perfect for a fall gathering of friends and family. I love the way the colors work together while keeping an overall neutral feel. Now all that’s missing is the food! 

Happy dining everyone!