A BERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS

I like a good pun, don’t you? When I needed a name for this blog post, I was trying to determine what the name of the color was in our Holiday decor….wine? merlot? burgundy? I chose Berry just so I could name the post “A Berry Merry Christmas”. HA!

Once again, I am participating in the Winter Eclectic Home Tour Hosted by Jessica Rey of Domicile 37 (thank you for having me!) I cannot believe it is Christmas time already. I feel like I just put away our holiday cheer into those big plastic totes and tucked them away, but here we are again. I have a love/hate relationship with decorating for holidays. I hate bringing more items into a room as it often makes it feel cluttered. On the other hand, I hate removing my precious items because so many of my decor finds are very special to me. This year I tried to find a balance by swapping out a few things and keeping it overall very minimal.

While our normal holiday styling is usually pretty neutral, I was inspired by a CB2 holiday ad and wanted to use this rich berry color within our home.

I reached out to the owner of Willow and Star Flowers, Allyson Wells Podell, for some guidance on finding the winning combinations of flowers. With her help, I landed on a mix of anemones, naked seeded eucalyptus, tinted eucalyptus, poppy seed pods, and scabiosa seed pods. I threw in some preserved burgundy stems I had leftover from thanksgiving to add some depth and additional color. All but two of the flowers on the tree are real (preserved) but I did have to rely on good ole silk for the tinted eucalyptus and anemone. I would love to grow my collection of preserved flowers and to build on this for next year!

Underneath the tree are my favorite gift boxes from Target. These have been around for years and come in different colors each season. I used some lush berry and green velvet to garnish the simple boxes and all lay on this faux fur tree skirt that I have been using for years.

I wanted to keep our mantle very simple this year. I draped my favorite cedar garland asymmetrically to give it a bit of uniqueness and kept the stockings to one side this year to avoid the clutter of 5 stockings (yes, the dogs have stockings!)

Faux LED candles adorn the top along with some velvet ornaments from Hobby Lobby. While our tree did not have any traditional ornaments, I use them within the mantle and to fill bowls.

Generally I don’t decorate our railings/entry too much since it is not being renovated. However, since we have these beautiful new railings, I thought I might as well. The pictures will show the reality of a reno in the background but hey, it’s real life!

Well, folks, that’s all I have to share with you thus far. To say we are behind with filling our home with festive goods would be an understatement. Sometimes life just happens and you have to go with the flow. I am shooting to finish up our holiday decor over the weekend and I will share the rest with you via good ole Instagram.

Thank you again to our Host, Jessica Rey, for hosting this fun blog hop. Be sure to swing by the other tours for some lovely home decor eye candy!

Monday

Domicile 37 | Bright Green Door | Jeweled Interiors

Tuesday

House Homemade | Made by Carli | At Home with Ashley | Casa Watkins Living

Wednesday

Designing Vibes | The Boho Abode | Monica Wants It | Banyan Bridges

Thursday

Brit & Barclay | Blake Hill House | Au Petit Salon | Up To Date Interiors

Friday

The Rath Project | French & French Interiors | Domicile 37

Five Styles of Christmas: Modern Eclectic Holiday Decor Tour

Happy Friday and 9 days til Christmas!  I am excited to share Part II of our Holiday Tour with you!  Last week, I shared the first part of our tour which focused on our main living spaces.  At this time, our holiday decor is limited to our a portion of our first floor.  As our family (hopefully) grows, I may extend this into bedrooms and also decorate spaces that have currently not been renovated.  If a room is not renovated yet....it doesn't get any love!

Today I am excited to share with you our entry, kitchen, and a touch of holiday in our powder room.  I have also taken some nighttime shots of the living/dining room which shows holiday decor at night with the the magic of Christmas lights!

I have not really shared many pictures of our kitchen yet.  There are still some finishing touches that need to be completed but I thought I would share the current situation.

The Christmas touches in our kitchen are simple.  A couple of wreaths have been added to bring in some beautiful greenery into a very white room.  

Our cactus (yes, it's real) has been wrapped in twinkle lights and topped up with some playful reindeer antlers.  

More fresh eucalyptus dresses our vent hood and a different variety serves as a simple centerpiece for our breakfast nook.  

The branches by our sink are foraged from the PNW.  This is a place close to my heart as we were married on Cannon Beach and I fell in love with the PNW during my honeymoon.  

Unfortunately, I do not have the proper camera equipment to photograph small spaces (Ohhhhh Rebecca!!! :) ).  I have a total of one powder room bath picture that I was able to photograph.  I kept it super simple in the bathroom and added fresh eucalyptus in lieu of the usual rose.

Our entryway is not yet complete, but I still wanted to add some Christmas cheer for our guests to see when they walk in.  I added lights and ornaments our current entryway decor.  I added some fresh garland and a quick DIY art (yeah yeah, I know it looks like a 5 year old made it).  

Now, I am really excited to share the night time tour of our living and dining room.  I am at a 1st grade level with use of my DSLR camera but overall, I am pretty pleased with how these pictures turned out.  I LOVE sitting in our living room with the Christmas lights on, a lit candle, hot tea, and some cheesy Netflix movie.  Have you seen A Christmas Prince? Christmas in the Smokies? A Christmas Kiss? I love me some Lifetime-esque themed holiday movies. 

Our dining area glows with the help of these little battery operated tea lights.  They are such a great deal at $10 for 24 lights!

The tea houses are a buy from an after Christmas sale.  However, similar ones can be found at Target here and here.  You can make them your own by painting them and adding details such as gold garland, painted roofs, etc.  The sky is the limit!

The mercury glass votive holders are from West Elm and World Market.  Both are very budget friendly options and really add a touch of subtle Christmas decor to a space.  

And here our tree glows in all her glory.  She is the heart of the decor and omits the most beautiful warm glow.  The light highlights the flocked goodness of the pine and reflects different colors of lights off the various glass ball ornaments.  

Well folks, that brings us to the end of my tour and the week of tours.  No matter what style you love, there are so many ways to bring in holiday decor into your home in a unique and special way.  Hopefully you found some inspiration during the week!  Thanks so much for following along! 

xo

Saher 

Eclectic Home Tour: Welcome to Our Wooded Winter Wonderland

Merry *early* Christmas!  I am so excited to have been invited by Jess from Domicile 37  to join her Christmas 2017 Eclectic Home Tour!  If you are visiting from her page or any of the other participating designers, welcome to House Haus Home!

When I was first invited to join the tour, I thought, "Am I eclectic?"  

Webster's Definition:

eclectic

adjective   eclec·tic   \  i-ˈklek-tik ,  e- \'

Definition of eclectic

1: composed of elements drawn from various sources;  

2: selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it appears that I am!

Now onto our tour!

Sticking to my neutral palette, I found myself drawn to bringing nature into our home this year.  Our tree is a 7 foot flocked tree decorated with a mixture of blush, gold, silver, white, and glittery champagne ornaments.  The lights throughout the tree are a warm white. 

In addition to the basic ball ornaments, I added faux birds, flowers, and feathers to give the tree a glamorous, but natured inspired look.  

Our tree skirt white faux fur and brings a lush look of a blanket of snow as the base of our tree and presents.  The large brass deer is vintage and is finding himself a home under the flocked goodness this holiday season.

Overall, our holiday decor is pretty simple this year.  Our mantle is dressed with fresh cedar garland, mercury candle holders from West Elm, and a couple more vintage brass deer (I own a family of 6) as the main focal point.  

The bells are from Target from last season and the letter ornaments are from West Elm, but from a couple of seasons ago.  Our stockings are faux fur and are a mix of black, gray, and snow white.  I purchased mine from Home Goods years back but I have seen them every year since.  

The garland has small battery operated LED lights throughout and the glow that the various light sources bring to the room in the evening is magica

Moving into the dining room, the theme continues.  A beautiful eucalyptus garland with a mixture of candles, acorns, birds, and another member of the vintage deer family find themselves at home.  

The garland was made by Allyson, the owner of Willow and Star Flowers, here in Indianapolis.  I purchased the garland for Thanksgiving and at that time it had the most beautiful scent.  As the garland has dried, it still provides the green from nature and has lasted throughout the holidays.

Behind the dining table, I have put together our little tea house village.  These light up and are a mixture of matte white, bronze, and touches of gold.  This color extends into the bottlebrush trees which are finds from Home Goods and Target.

The preserved boxwood wreath has a touch of buffalo plaid and is hung on my favorite Anthropologie mirror  (FYI-wait for a sale, the coupon code will apply!)

Our coffee table had a quick switch-a-roo of two items.  The mini Norfolk pine is from IKEA and has been decorated with mini ornaments and the same LED lights as previously mentioned.  

I DIY'd several items this year as I did not want to spend too much on holiday decor (Actually, most of the stuff was already owned)!  The brass bowl in the centerpiece is filled with two sizes of frosted glass balls from Hobby Lobby.  I strung the LED lights throughout several of them and the bowl gives off a beautiful glow at night. 

The pillows in the background are a mix  black leather, velvet chartreuse, and this cute Reindeer in smoking jacket.  He has a girlfriend on the other side of the couch. 

Similar to the coffee table, I only switched out a few items on our bar cart.  I brought in this gold glass Christmas tree, added some garland and lights, and Mr. Monkey is showing he can be a good boy with his angel headband.  I love adding a bit of whimsy to all of my designs.  

 A few touches of Christmas were added to the shelves.  This DiY was super simple and I made it while making an Instastory! The branch on the inside comes from our own yard, the brass dome is from IKEA, the clear 4" ornament is from Hobby Lobby and my ole faithful lights are strung inside.  

There are few other touches of Christmas sprinkled throughout the living room.  The opposite brass shelf has a little gold tree and the side table has some more fresh eucalyptus.  

Well, that is it for now!  Stay tuned for Part II of my Holiday Tour next week when I will be hosting #5stylesofchristmas.

Monday

Domicile 37 // Desert Domicile //Kobel & Co. // Whimsical Blue Living

Tuesday

The Gathered Home // Casa Watkins Living // Up To Date Interiors

Wednesday

Monica Wants It // Designing Vibes // Maker of Home // Michelle Matangi

Thursday

A Designer at Home // Style Mutt Home // Jessica Brigham // The Rath Project

Friday

House Homemade // House Haus Home // Jeweled Interiors // Domicile 37