The only decorating I've been doing these past few weeks is for Christmas!!
Christmas is my FAVORITE time of the year. I like to decorate any room I can get my hands on. Each year, I try to add 2-3 new things to my overall look. This updates it a little, keeps the cost low, and let's me remove things that may have become dated or no longer match the decor.
This year it's a little more challenging. As you may recall, I changed my color scheme in the family room. Originally, I was going to buy all new ornaments to match the new color scheme, as well as add some new pieces. I also need to buy a new artificial tree, as mine finally died last year. Except all new ornaments gets quite spendy. Add the new tree, and it would have been several hundred dollars to get the look that I was really going for. Which I don't have. So, I took down my artwork and things that gave the room it's new color palette, and put up all my stuff from the formal living room. The snowmen theme we used in the den last year has been moved to the powder room (we don't have a den in this house). The nutcrackers have been dispersed between the dining room and family room, and it's really the kitchen I'm concentrating on updating.
Yes, I said the kitchen.
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| Apothecary Jar Inspiration |
This room I can make the most changes to for the least amount of money. I don't think I've posted pictures yet, but the color palette in there is black and white. White counters and cabinets, black appliances, and white wooden blinds. I got lucky, because this matched my existing decor really well. I put up my black wrought iron roosters, hung up my red valances from our CA house, and even had room for my black wrought iron bakers rack my best friend gave me several years. We have a glass and wrought iron bistro set picked out at Garden Ridge for the bay window area. These are all things I can't really change, so I had to think about how to make it more Christmas-y. I started with red poinsettia garland that I've had for awhile. It was easy to drape it over the windows (I love command adhesive hooks to keep it where I want it!!). I then trolled surfed the internet for ideas for my apothecary jars. That was a fairy easy design concept to find. I bought some inexpensive filler at Michael's on sale to fill the smaller jars, and I have the Christmas bulbs to use on the larger jar. I even have ribbon that I bought some time in the past to layer with if I choose. You can see the inspiration picture above.
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| Satin Ribbon Wreath |
I also knew I wanted a wreath of some type. Not a garland wreath though. I knew that wouldn't match the modern look I was going for in this particular room. I found this wonderful satin ribbon wreath on Bliss Bloom Blog and new it was exactly what I was looking for. She gives excellent directions on making this, and it's on my to-do list for sometime in the next two weeks. I see myself using a lot of 40% off coupons for Hobby Lobby over the next few weeks, so that I can stretch my budget. Did I mention that I allotted myself a total of $100 for new holiday decor for the whole house?! So I definitely need to stretch every single dollar...
I have two more projects for the kitchen, and I think I'll call it good for this year! The first is some small Christmas trees to put on my bakers rack. I have MANY ideas on this one, so I'm not sure yet what's going to make the final cut. Definitely two trees will be made from some red toille fabric and some black toille fabric. I think I need a white tree to balance that out, and I found some great ideas. I want everything to have that clean and modern look to go with the black and white, so I'm trying to avoid anything that has a country look to it. Keeping in my that clean look I'm going for, I found these on modern nutcrackers on a web site this week, that I love. Very different from my ample collection, and I really like how it would carry the look from room to room, even though the color scheme is so different. Again, I take no credit for copying on these. I found the link and the directions for these on Bliss Bloom Blog as well. I'm going to mix it up a little by painting them black, and accenting them with silver. I have three unfinished nutcrackers I picked up at Michael's (all their unfinished crafts were 50% off this week!) this week, and one in my collection that was damaged in the move, that I'm going to use for this.
I'm very excited about these projects!! I plan to have the nutcrackers and the tree's completed this weekend, so stay tuned for some photo updates!
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