A Classic & Handmade Holiday Home Tour
/
Holiday Home Tour
Hi there. I’m excited to share my holiday home tour with you again this year!
Remember last year when I realized my house was sort of like the Home Alone house because a lot of my year-round decor contains shades of green and red? Well, I thought I should take it one step further this year, so I got rid of my leather sofa and brought in a vintage velvet green sectional to improve my holiday decorating game. If a velvet spruce green sectional doesn’t say Merry Christmas, what does?
Though the sectional really helped improve our home’s festive feel, it did mean that we had to get rid of our giant coffee table box (it’s now for sale at the shop!) where I stored my Christmas decor for two years. Now the holiday decor will go back to the attic in January. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.
Now with my green rug + green sectional, Christmas decorating is a breeze.
I plan on using these dried oranges for gift wrapping! (Daly here. I really look forward to my Christmas gift with these oranges on them! Super excited about that, Palms!)
We bought a new stocking for baby Jack. However, after participating in House Sparrow’s Knit-Along this year, I want to attempt to knit new stockings for our family. Anyone know of a good pattern to follow? The simpler the better for me!
I Christmased up this fall wreath with holly, juniper, and baker’s twine. Bada-bing, bada-boom.
I kept some of Caroline’s holiday art last year and was excited to display a few select pieces like this Christmas tree hand print.
During the fall months, i had relocated one of my fall landscapes from my mudroom art wall into my dining room and it got me thinking that I wished I had a winter landscape to emphasize for the holidays. I soon realized I did in fact have a winter landscape, but it was a bit larger than the autumn one. I didn’t let this stop me though and now this winter giant is front and center this season! This is one of the first pieces I ever bought back in graduate school ten years ago.
My bestie made me this set of holiday napkins last year!
Sometimes fresh clementines in a vintage basket is the perfect winter centerpiece. It’s also what Caroline and Jack will get for Christmas–we’re going vintage style on their young selves. Am I kidding? You tell me.
My husband has been working on this Star Wars puzzle for a couple weeks. I really love talking with him in the evenings as he does this (instead of watching TV together). Maybe we should always have a puzzle going. Do you all do puzzles in the winter? Maybe during another season?
I’ve enjoyed creating tiny Christmas vignettes throughout my home again this year.
Given the artwork position, I relocated the winter forrest scenes to the weird built-in cubbies and added an orange slice for the sun…or moon. (Daly here. My favorite thing is the orange slice sun/moon.)
This tiny log cabin incense burner is one of my favorite gifts from Daly not only because I can make my home smell like a wonderful chiminea, but because I can place tiny trees and deer around it! SO ADORABLE.
Asking for a friend–where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever put a tiny Christmas tree? (Daly here. This may be too personal of a question, Palms…)
Handmade Holiday Decorations
This year I realized my large juniper bushes in my front yard are legit gold mines. I used a bit of their clippings last year, but this year we went crazy with them. My husband and I trimmed the bushes with reckless abandon so Daly, Holly (Shop Manager!) and I could create wreaths, garland, floral arrangement filler and general greenery accents around our homes and others’ homes. We also harvested our holly bushes and Daly’s rosemary bushes. Nothing makes me happier than realizing that not only will our bushes look better after we trim them, but I can use their clippings to craft beautiful things! After creating multiple wreaths from our fresh juniper, I donated all of my old fake wreaths. Daly proclaimed that “From Fake to Make” is this year’s holiday decorating motto! Do you too have holiday decorating mottos?
What my juniper bush clippings became with just a little crafting.
Dried orange slices + juniper bush clippings = my holiday heaven.
I even stuck my juniper clipping above my living room window as a sort of garland. It makes the room feel super cozy.
I did the dried orange garland craft again this year. It really is a fun and easy holiday craft. This year I did a better job of soaking up the juice pre-oven, and I waited to string them until the next day so I was much more successful compared to last year.
My new-to-me red striped canisters feel festive this time of year. Especially when paired with vintage green bottles, dried oranges and, you guessed it, juniper clippings.
More tiny trees!
Who drinks out of a Santa head mug daily during the month of December? ME.
The Santa mugs are still going strong this year. After Caroline broke her original mug last year, a nice reader sent her a tiny vintage Santa mug replacement and so she’s back to enjoying her milk out of Santa’s head. Thanks again!
My trusty red striped grain sack (from the first year we owned Retro Den) graced the eat-in table this year. And a branch from our weird holly tree-bush plus a succulent and a snowman head makes for a festive eating experience.
Happy holidays, friends!
