This year, I’m calling my holiday open house, A Cottage Christmas Home Tour. I’m so honored to be among 46 bloggers on this Christmas holiday tour. A big Thank You to Krista from The Happy Housie who is our fearless leader!
Also, welcome if you are joining me from Confessions of a Serial DIYer.
Just a note that when you get to the end of my post, there is a list of all the fabulous bloggers.
*This post contains affiliate links
Ok, somehow, in the last month, I have published three blog posts a week. And let me tell you, I’ve been so busy that sometimes showers are scarce. All I have to say is that I’m happy that I don’t have to go out shopping very much.
Well, as you can tell, I love blogging, and I especially love it when everything comes together. This year I created a cottage Christmas home tour for you today!
Well, in between taking my daughter to tutoring, soccer practices, making dinners, and picking up my husband at the train station, I was able to decorate our home.
Doesn’t it feel like Christmas decorating is a huge undertaking every December?
Well, if you feel the same as me, then keep reading since I have a few tips that may make your decorating easier this year.
1. What is a Holiday Home Tour?
Today you are viewing my virtual holiday home tour. So, you will view my home from your computer or your cell phone and you will see it all decked out in my holiday decor.
This tour is a chance for me to share my home with you!
2. How Long Does It Take to Decorate for the Holidays?
The time spent can vary. I feel that it takes me quite a while to decorate our home. You see, I picked away at our living room for the past couple of weeks. Yes, it is a process for me and I have to think about my colors, theme, and the items I want to use. Later in this post, I share all the elements that I consider while I’m decorating my home.
3. Do You Buy New Decor Every Year?
This year, I used a few ornaments that I had in storage and I also I made quite a few. I did go out and buy some but, I mostly bought plain and inexpensive ones at Michael’s Craft Store. You don’t need to spend much to have a pretty room.
4. How Do You Decorate a Christmas Tree?
Well, this is a great question. Everyone does it differently. But, the first thing that I do is that I make sure all my tree lights are working. Then I move onto adding the garland. Once they’re both in place, I start to decorate with ornaments. My final touches are my floral picks and my filler. This year, I cut up my white boa feather garland and used them as filler. These puffs of feathers give my flocked tree a light and soft look.
So there are four things I considered when decorating my living room for the holidays.
Are you ready to find out my decorating secrets?
How I Created A Cottage Christmas Home Tour
1. Choose Your Colors
Choosing colors seems so obvious and then sometimes I can’t find a the specific color for my holiday decor. This year, after a few false starts, I got the idea to place one of my felt anemone flowers (Here is the post on Felt Flowers DIY) on my Christmas tree. Well, the minute I plopped it on the tree boughs I fell in love with it. As they say, the rest was history.
Also, my Merry and Bright Christmas tags were a mondo influence. And do you see a pattern here? Black and White and a touch of pink or blush was the color palette that I envisioned.
2. Choose Your Ornaments
I love vintage ornaments, and I collect them throughout the year. So, once my color palette was chosen, I picked out all the silver, pink, gold and mercury glass ornaments. So, when I bought new ones, I did find some that had a vintage style.
I did make some new ornaments, and I’m super happy how they turned out. So, stay tuned for a future DIY blog post.
3. Garland
When you think of garland, do you think of the kind at Hobby Lobby or Michael’s? You know the garland that has either glass or plastic ornaments on them? Well, I always try and think outside the box and this year I decorated with some pretty ribbon instead.
We have a fun antique store in our tiny town, and they have a beautiful collection of vintage ribbon. Of course, I bought some French ribbon that is in the above photo.
Well, it turns out that the ribbon came with a beautiful paper backing which of course I loved just as much. They both became my tree garland. My friend, Ashley helped me drape it on the tree. Her little tip was to move it from the front of the tree to inside and create a nice flow around and up your tree.
My other garlands in the living room are all homemade, and they include a pom-pom garland a book leaf garland. Be creative and make things, that is my motto!
And by the way, this photo is from my recent Black and White Cottage Christmas Mantel blog post.
4. Make Sure to Add Flowers or Plants
I love fresh flowers and who can resist a few poinsettia plants. Now they come in some many colors that there is something for everyone. I love the pink variegated variety, and I’ve been dying to decorate with them. And this year, I was in luck since I’m decorating in pink! (last year I used decorated our home in red for our holiday home tour).
I felt that the vintage style poinsettias fit a cottage Christmas home tour quite nicely.
5. Choose a Look, Cottage, Vintage, French, Modern, Farmhouse or Eclectic
So, this year I went with a cottage Christmas home tour. Our home is cozy and I decided to go with it, and so I used my smaller faux Christmas tree.
Ok, here are few more thoughts about holiday decorating.
- Don’t be afraid and play around with your space and decor. I shop things from other rooms and found items that worked nicely in our living room. Also, I created a few things along the way, my garlands and ornaments.
- Also, don’t be afraid to fail. If something isn’t working, let it go, and get back up and try something different. If you stress while decorating a room or space, then your creativity will possibly be blocked, and ideas will take a vacation. Ultimately, go with the flow and have fun!
- My lesson that I learned this year is that the first tree I put up was way too big for our living room. So, down it went and back in storage. I can’t forget that our little cottage home should take a cottage-size tree. Everything is cozy around here. So, I guess what I’m saying is to make sure your tree is the right size for the room.
And oh yeah, every year I place one of my kiddos favorite childhood books out. And speaking about too big of a Christmas tree, this little picture book is about a man who gets a tree that is too big for his home. It is a super cute story and you and your family will love it.
Well, I hope you enjoyed my home, and I want to wish you a Happy Holidays!
Thanks for joining me on a cottage Christmas home tour and make sure to stop by, Life is a Party!
Cheers,
Today I’m joined by some talented friends who are also sharing part of their Christmas home tour with you…
Tuesday
Sincerely, Marie Designs
Satori Design for Living
Finding Silver Pennies
Willow Street Interiors
Confessions of a Serial DIYer
Happy Happy Nester
Life is a Party
Two Twenty One
Tatertots and Jello
And the sharing continues all week long!
The Happy Housie
House of Wood
Inspiration for Moms
Town and Country Living
In My Own Style
The Turquoise Home
Amber Tysl
Deeply Southern Home
Tauni Everett
Wednesday
Lemon Thistle
So Much Better With Age
Taryn Whiteaker
Love Create Celebrate
Rambling Renovators
Clean and Scentsible
House by Hoff
A Pretty Life
Modern Glam
Thursday
Rooms FOR Rent
Shabbyfufu
Stacy Risenmay
Jenna Kate at Home
Sand & Sisal
Paint Me Pink
Place of My Taste
Maison de Cinq
Friday
The Happy Housie
Home Made Lovely
Maison de Pax
Just a Girl and Her Blog
Hallstrom Home
Jamie Costiglio
Sawdust 2 Stitches
The DIY Mommy
Summer Adams
All Things With Purpose
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- Beaded Garden Stakes DIY - May 1, 2025
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