Come on over to my house! Let’s take a Christmas home tour.
OMG Hello there, through the powers of the internet you’ve virtually arrived on my doorstep!
Don’t mind me, I’m probably just shoving away the Hoover and pretending that my house is always this neat and tidy.
Several years ago Christmas was a very different affair. When it came to Christmas decor, I was all about elegance and sophistication. One year I decided on a Chanel theme – everything black and white – stunning glass baubles hand-picked from Harrods, pearl garlands, white peonies, black faux fur tinsel, topped of with baby pink miniature Eifel towers. It was dreamy.
Then my son came along. He charges through the house at 100 miles an hour and demolishes everything in his sight, like an adorable, well-meaning puppy. Let’s just say that my former decoration style, just wasn’t going to cut it with the new family situation. So, through gritted teeth the glass baubles stayed firmly in their boxes and my monochrome decoration days are well and truly numbered.
For year’s my husband had been itching to have more traditional Christmas colours. Hmm red. I pretty much hate red. Red makes me see red. But somehow, red is the colour that we decorate with these days, paired with lots of white and silver.
And don’t tell him this (ok he knows, because I make him proofread) but I have grown to love the traditional Christmas reds.
Christmas home tour 2016
Oh yes, that’s why your here. Let’s grab a cuppa and get nosey.
Because I didn’t want to overwhelm you with a million pictures, I’ve split the tour in two. Today we’ll be looking at the porch, entrance hall and hallways. On Friday we’ll take a peek at the living room and dining room.
I normally buy a plain wreath to decorate myself, but I just loved this on from Aldi for £7.99. I would say Aldi has been my best discovery this year, when it comes to budget, on trend, home decor. I’ve been consistently impressed with the quality of the items I’ve purchased. This wreath is no exception, it’s been up for weeks now (I may not have remembered to water it either) and it still looks fresh as the day I got it.
This is the view that greets you on arrival at the townhouse, at Christmas time anyway. Watch the icicle lights don’t hit you. The mini Christmas tree is a new addition this year and it is there mainly to hide a rather ugly air vent. But it looks pretty cute. I decorated it with the worlds tiniest baubles and for such a small tree, its needles were extremely sharp and stabby.
Let’s step inside to the entrance hall, shall we?
While we’re here I’ll fill you in on the plans for this room.
In the entrance hall we’ve added a few simple festive touches. No need to go Christmas crazy since we don’t spend too much time on the ground level of the house.
Taking these photo’s has reminded me how much the hall needs some colour! I would love to repaint the paneling and add some wallpaper. It’s a huge job though, as it leads up to the first and second floor hallways, which would then also need doing. It’s definitely on the to do list though.
Speaking of the first floor, let’s go up there.
I really wanted to make my own Christmas decorations this year, hence Christmas craft week if you saw it. If not you can catch up here. I was inspired by a 3 tier wreath garland I saw in The White Company store and decided to have a crack at making my own. I’m super happy with how it turned out considering the White Company version would have cost almost £300 more!
Top tip: If you’re short on surfaces to put your cards on, make christmas card bunting. We used this trick in our old house where surface space was scarce and now it serves as a great way to liven up a pretty plain-looking wall.
Yes, another big white wall that I need to add personality too. I have bought all the frames ready to create a gallery wall, so that is a little project in the pipeline for 2017.
And finally, for today’s part of the tour, here’s our take on elf on the shelf. Honestly, the official elf on the shelf freaks me the hell out. There’s something menacing about its plastic little face! I chose this slightly cuter looking elf who gets up to all sorts of mischief while my sons asleep.
It has been fun thinking up all kinds of places our little elf can appear, but there have been several occasions where I’ve realised that I have completely forgotten to move him. Then I have to come up with a reason why my son has to stay upstairs while I run around like a crazy person, trying to think of somewhere to put the damn thing and I don’t function well before coffee.
Well that completes part 1 of my Christmas home tour, but the best is yet to come. We haven’t even made it to the tree yet!
Hopefully I’ll see you on Friday for part 2 of the Christmas home tour and we can take a look at the living room and dinning room.
