Making Christmas, making Christmas

This is our first Christmas in our new house. And we noticed that immediately following Thanksgiving, all the neighbors had their Christmas lights up and on. We weren't even sure that we were going to put up the tree at all, since we'll be traveling to see family. But low and behold, I came home from work one day to find that Chad dragged in the tree and 2 totes of Christmas decorations.

He put the tree up and followed with a tradition: putting the first ornament on the tree (which is actually 2 ornaments that he hooks together on the same branch). This has been an odd tradition that he started when we first got our tree in 2002.

 

Now that we have a house, I can't wait to get new ornaments for this tree. The current ornaments are rose, white and gold, and were hand-me-downs from my mom. They've served their purpose for many years, but I'd love to do something different. Maybe next year...

Next came a wreath for the front door, which I embellished with a handmade bow and ornaments (ribbon and ornaments from Michaels).

This looked so great on the front door, that we decided to do the same with some garland. (Jayda helped add the bulbs.)

 With an extra string of garland in the tote, I decorated the banister as well. (These polka-dot and striped ornaments are from Hallmark.)

Last, but not least, I had to do a little something in the dining room. (Pottery Barn trees and bulbs. Home Goods wreath.)

Living [room] with furniture

It has been far too long since I've blogged. We had been waiting on our furniture order from Bassett -- the 6-8 weeks that we were promised turned into 10+ weeks, and were beginning to think we wouldn't receive our furniture!

I first posted about our living room inspiration here. And now the furniture is finally here! A sectional, accent chair, storage ottoman, sofa table, pedestal table and media credenza.

 

Don't mind the stuff on the mantle. That was there temporarily, but is being replaced. We haven't found the perfect main piece to go above the mantle yet, but we'll find something!

We just finished decorating for our first Christmas in this house, so photos will be coming soon!

More on the master

In anticipation of our new mattress coming (2 more days!!), I have been thinking more about the potential of our master bedroom.

Before, with the seller's furniture:

After playing around with some ideas, here is my current vision for what the bedroom might become:

A breakdown of the items:

West Elm quilt

West Elm sham

West Elm euro sham

West Elm striped sheet set

West Elm throw pillow

West Elm throw pillow

Bassett Chatham poster bed (black)

Bassett Chatham dresser (black)

Bassett Chatham night stands (black)

Crate & Barrel sconces

West Elm owls

Pottery Barn mercury glass candleholders

Urban Outfitters tree

Pottery Barn casual cotton drapes (same as our dining room)

One of my favorite ideas to add more to this room is inspired by Centsational Girl. On the back wall (behind the bed), I would love to do this paint treatment similar to hers.

I'm looking forward to hearing Chad's thoughts, and figuring out when we will be able to accomplish all this. At least I feel like we have a direction! For now, all I need is a free Saturday to drive the 2.5 hours to West Elm and check out the bedding!

The King

We did it. We went out last weekend to look at king-size mattresses, something Chad has wanted to do for a very long time. We would have done this long ago if we had the room, but decided to wait until we had a house. So we went to look, and what happened?

Of course, we found something we both loved, and we purchased it. It's a Simmons BeautyRest. It will be delivered on Saturday, and we can't wait!

Uh oh. We don't have any king bedding. No king sheets! Nothing!!

For now, all we really need are some plain sheets. The queen quilt will do for a while. I don't want to rush on finding bedding.

The bedding will set the tone for the rest of the room. Right now, it is a blank canvas. A big, beige box (with a big beige master bathroom attached). So I suppose the bedding will also set the tone for the bathroom.

Here is our bedroom (with the seller's furniture):
COMING SOON

I posted recently about some bedding ideas. While I love the solid blue Tuck-Stitch quilt from West Elm, there has to be some movement and pattern. And they just so happen to have it pictured on the website along with the Winter Pine bedding set, and I love it.

Chad is a very outdoorsy kind of guy, and most of our home will be decorated with a subtle nature theme (the leaf plates in the dining room, the bird statues in the living room, etc.). And this bedding fits the bill. However, I don't want a duvet. So I'm looking at the solid quilt with some Winter Pine shams.

I still like the idea of the white and gray sheets with black furniture. And we can paint the walls, but we're still stuck with beige carpet (which we're not willing to change).

Part of me wonders if I'm so drawn to this bedding because of the red wall in the photo? I love how it looks together – but I just don't think we can handle red in our bedroom...

Dining dilemmas

I spotted these plates at West Elm...

...and instantly thought they would look great in our dining room!

We may try hanging them on either side of the mirror, above the chairs that are against the wall. They are only 8.5" in diameter, so I wanted to get a feel for what they might look like.

It could work, but they may be too small on their own. If so, one idea is to frame them in shadow boxes, similar to something Sarah Richardson did on Sarah's House 2.

If that doesn't work, the next plan is to move them to the other side of the room.

The sellers left 4 black floating shelves in the dining room.

Since we have no black in the room, a project is brewing. We are going to paint the shelves Sherwin-Williams Barn Red to blend in with the walls.

Once the shelves are painted, the plan is to add objects in white, silver/pewter, and espresso.

But that is another project for another day. For now, I may just order these plates. At $29 for the set of 4, they will make for great art in the dining room no matter how we use them!