Redecorating on a Budget
Welcome to our outdoor Christmas Home Tour!
My favorite Holly Tree.
We used red and white lights on the trees, garland around the porches and wreaths on all the windows and front door.
I love how the fireplace and patio area turned out. I used clipping and inserted them into the dirt in the pots. I used magnolia branches, pine, and boxwoods.
As you can see, this is my favorite time of year!
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Welcome to our Christmas Home Tour. Sit back with a warm drink and enjoy some of our favorite Holiday decorations. I love pulling these decorations out year after year. It brings back such lovely memories of Christmas past. We also try to add a few new touches along with some favorite vintage finds. I hope you all enjoy!
This is our family room tree. We go each year to a farm and choose the largest tree we can find. This is where Santa leaves all the gifts.
The view from upstairs… I like watching the boys look over the banister on Christmas morning!
We leave cookies and milk for Santa on this fireplace Hearth.
This is a vintage sled that my husband and I bought before we were married. I just spruced it up with some pine branches and ribbon and sprayed everything with a light dusting of snow.
I like to use some of my favorite vintage finds on the Family room Christmas tree like these Shiny Brite ornaments! I love finding vintage Holiday decorations. I also have the milk glass light bulbs that I will show you in a later post. They are one of my favorite Christmas items.
Next up is my foyer.
I put garland around the front stairs. I also add snowmen on each step. I got this idea from a dear friend that uses Nutcrackers. Thanks Debbie for the great idea!
This is the mirror by my front door. I add the large pinecone every year. I like the simplicity of it.
My tech guy Gman made the snowman in art class and my Best Friend gave me the lovely Santa for Christmas last year!
When my oldest two boys were younger, I would let them pick pick out a special Christmas decoration. My youngest still carries on this tradition. This Santa is something my middle son picked out. I added the vintage plate above in the alcove and the garland with winterberry.
Next up is my Kitchen Christmas Tree. I love this tree, it is an oldie but a goodie. I decorate this pencil tree with all the boys’ handmade ornaments and gifts from school.
This is my tech guy when he was in preschool! I miss those days!
Also in my Kitchen is my handmade Christmas Countdown sign that I showed you here.
I love these vintage reindeers that I found at a consignment shop.
My dad made me these reindeers when I moved into my first apartment…many years ago! I love, love, love them!
Finally, a sneak peak at my outdoor decor.
I hope you enjoyed our Christmas Home Tour.
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This past week has been a mad dash to get all of my Christmas decorating done. Today I am sharing my front door wreath. I got this idea from a magazine last year. So easy and super cute!
Come back this weekend. I will be doing my Christmas home tour.
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We have finally finished our interior decorating for Fall/Halloween. I love digging through the decorations that I have saved from year to year. It brings back memories of when all the boys were little. The decoration are not fancy but they are special. Most of them were picked out by the boys when they were still being pushed around in the stroller. I remember when my oldest was just a tiny little thing and he did not speak for the longest time but every morning when he came down and I sat him in his highchair for breakfast he would use sign language for light which meant he wanted me to turn on the Halloween Village lights that I had sitting on the kitchen counter. I still pull that village out every year and he is a Freshman in College. So here are a few of my Fall/Halloween decorations that we enjoy from year to year.
I love this pumpkin. It has such a pretty glow but my favorite thing in this photo is a picture of my two oldest out trick or treating with me and my dad (which you can see in the corner of this photo). Love it!!
This is my Halloween Tree that we decorate every year. If you look close enough you can see the pumpkin at the base of the tree that my youngest made when he was in preschool. He is now in 4th grade (he is my tech guy that I refer to in my blog)
This is my fall mantel that I showed you here (where you can learn how to make the chalkboard banner). So some old favorites mixed in with some new DIY decorations.
Remember the flea market that I mentioned here? Well I found this…
And turned it into this…
and then this…
This is one of the Village pieces I was talking about earlier…not the fanciest but so special to me!
Up next will be the exterior of the house. I like to do the pretty Fall decorating but I promised my youngest that we could do “scary” outside this year. I guess Fall flowers and pumpkins do not count for scary
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We made a quick trip to the island home this weekend and did some work on one of the bedrooms. It is still a work in progress but we have come a long way. This is where we are now:
On this trip, we painted the dresser with Annie Sloan Chalk paint Emperor’s Silk. It used to look like this:
now this…
I have to say that was a quick an easy process. I like the pop of color and I don’t have to hear my youngest say that I paint EVERYTHING white!
We also painted the two stools at the foot of the bed. We used the Nautical Signs. I think it looks cute. Again, adding more color!
They used to look like this:
We just taped off the nautical signs… same process as we used here.
I am still reworking the accessories. You can probably tell I keep switching out the mirrors. Once I have more time at the house I will finish off the room. I am just so, so , so excited to be rid of the blue floral wall paper. I cannot even explain the amount of wallpaper this house had when we bought it and pictures DO NOT even come close to showing you how it really looked. All I know is that I will never ever use wall paper…ever!
So this is what it used to look like…..
and now it is looking like this:
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We have been working on the kitchen. When we first went to view the home, the kitchen had formica counter tops and pickled oak cabinets. It was very well maintained but just seemed so outdated to me and I couldn’t wait to get started on the kitchen revamp. Here is what we have done so far.
The first thing we did was paint the cabinets a bright white. The small island was painted grey. The main counters are done in 
The island is done in Silestone Tao. I liked the contrast between the main counetertops and the island.
We would still like to add a subway tile backsplash and I need to add some accent pieces. So far I am very, very happy with the way it has turned out.
This is what it looked like when we went to view the home (I got the photos from the real estate brochure).
So after seeing this, I still wanted this house. I dreamed about this house for months after we went to see it. I knew one day it could look like this:
And I love it…It is one of my most favorite places to be and I am always sad when it is time to leave!
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This is what the living room looked like when we went to view the home. I got this picture from the real estate brochure.
I fell in love with this home but knew that I wanted something that was lighter and brighter. I wanted it to feel more like a cottage on the water. So this is what I came up with so far.
First, we took down the heavy drapes. I replaced them with burlap panels which are very casual. Then we painted the walls a light blue. It makes it look like the room extends out to the water.
We found this fireplace surround at the same place that I found the desk which you can find here. I love it. It reminds me of the one in my grandmother’s home. It took us forever to strip the seven layers of paint off of it. We also replaced the mirror.
This is a goodwill table that I sprayed white. The table cost $15. I placed a basket underneath it with all of our blankets for getting cozy during storms and for movie nights.
This room is so light and airy. I hope you like it as much as I do.
