Cozy Christmas Home Tour Part Two with easy holiday decorating ideas from our dining room, kitchen, foyer and front porch.
Do you rearrange your furniture every Christmas trying to find the best place for your tree? I always do. It’s refreshing to change furniture for the season and give a space a new look. Yesterday I talked about how much I love the openness between our living/dining room zones now. I’ll probably keep it set up like this after the holidays are over! Our living and dining rooms are definitely where I’ve focused our holiday decor. That doesn’t mean I completely ignored the rest of the house. I added a few other festive pops here and there. Today I’m sharing simple seasonal changes we made in our dining room, kitchen, foyer and front porch.
Today I’m joined by some of my friends who are sharing their Christmas home tours as part of the Seasonal Simplicity series. Next up on today’s house hop Judy’s holiday home at Life is Better at Home. Be sure to head over there to check out her beautiful simple elegant outfit for the holidays!
Yesterday I shared our cozy Christmas living room. Be sure to visit here for all the details...
I also mentioned that I recently gave this area a complete refresh with a new paint color (Benjamin Moore’s Halo). Then I brought some New olive green velvet drapery from Amazon. Finally, I installed a full-wall wallpaper mural in our dining room! I also rearranged the dining table so that it runs in the opposite direction across the room. We love this new layout in our house! It’s kind of crazy how we’ve never tried this before.
dining room
Our dining room is open to our foyer, living room and kitchen and sits in the center of the house with no direct natural light. This year, we placed the Christmas tree against the long wall that connects the living/dining areas. Placing it here this year makes a great focal point as well as a natural divider between the two areas.
Maybe you saw my article last week with all the details about our Scandi neutral Christmas tree decor? if not, You can read it here.
Doesn’t placing the table this way make it feel more open and approachable?
This is the mural I’ve been hinting at! My sister-in-law helped me install it a few weeks ago, and it completely transformed this place. Well, that, along with rearranging the furniture. This dining room seemed really depressing and dark to me before, as it gets almost no direct natural light. Now, it looks fresh and alive with a new paint color and mural. It was really quick and easy to install.
I shared mine DIY installation tips in this article When I installed a similar mural in my oldest son’s room last spring. I ordered both of them PhotowallAnd it’s a very affordable way to give your space a completely new look and feel. You can find this particular mural here.
In keeping with the mural and our mineral painted vintage china cabinet, I’ve once again gone with a non-traditional Christmas color scheme of blues, greens and pops of earthy/beige tones.
Simple touches like vintage-style giant bells and beautiful wooden trees give the space a subtle holiday feel without being over-the-top theme-y.
That long console table was a hand-me-down from our in-laws years ago and I painted it with off-cream chalk paint. I’m tempted to strip it now and bring out the natural wood, but that’s a project for another day. It sits between the living and dining room in front of our rattan sofa when the two spaces were more closed off from each other.
kitchen
I have admittedly kept things pretty clean and simple in the kitchen until now. I just switched out our wreath on my vent fan cover with a blue and neutral Christmas wreath, added a Christmas printable above the wooden shelves, and added some simple holiday touches around the sink. I keep the rest of the space very clean and open so we have room for all the things that come with Christmas…treats, baking, etc.
I’m thinking of bringing out my tiered trays and making a tea/hot chocolate station again for the season. This one was one of my favorites from a few years ago.
Foyer
When the mural was up I moved it from the dining room wall to get a new painting in our front entry. I still want to make some changes and paint this space, but for now I made a simple wreath printable for the holidays. I also added some subtle seasonal decor touches, but kept things fairly low-key here as well.
PS – I’m adding these Christmas wreath printables to my free printables drive for all you email subscribers!
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Just sign up for my email list and you’ll be sent information on how to access them from my password-protected Google Drive….
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Front porch
Finally, yesterday I was sharing how I kept the color scheme and overall Christmas design style a lot simpler and more consistent this year. One area of departure is our front porch. Since our new house is white with black windows, I think the white, black and red Christmas touches are fun in this space, even if they don’t relate to the interior color scheme.
I added cedar boughs, dogwood branches, faux berries and pine cones to my existing outdoor pots to create a simple Christmas greenery display. This pairs well with the various fun outdoor accents I have, which I’ve been slowly collecting over the years. Vintage sleds and snow shoes are my favorites. I DIYed that peace sign years ago when I first started blogging; It was a Pottery Barn knockoff of the time.
A vintage Christmas bulb wreath I made while living in the cabin and building this house adorns our front door. It’s still my favorite, though I may add a swag of cedar boughs to the back before the week is out. It will give it a little more presence on our 8′ entry door.
you can learn Here’s how to make a wreath like this in my article.
Well, that’s it folks! The back type, finished with my entry porch… I hope you’ve found a few inspiring ideas to help with your holiday decorating this year.
And remember, this week I’m sharing as part of the Seasonal Simplicity Christmas Journey. I’m joined by a few friends who are also sharing their home tours. Details below!
Today sharing with me…
The Happy House / Life is better at home / in the lakehouse / Deeply Southern Home
She gave him a go / This is our joy / Inspiration for Moms
Sharing on Tuesday…
The Happy House / Rambling Renovators / This is simplistic / Modern glam
Life is a party / Confessions of a Serial DIYer / Clean and fragrant / Paint Me Pink
