Merry and Bright Holiday Home Tour Part 1

Hi friends! I’m so excited to be a part of the Merry and Bright Holiday Home Tour. I participated last year with my blogger friends and it was so fun sharing our homes with you. The blog hop runs for the next 3 weeks and each Wednesday, we will share our decorating, entertaining and gift wrapping ideas with you all. A big thanks goes to Paper Mart for sponsoring the Merry and Bright Holiday Tour. 

I was provided free products by PaperMart but all thoughts, opinions and scratches from wrangling garlands are my own. 🙂 I’ve also added some affiliate links for your convenience.

Every year, it seems I come up with a new color scheme for Christmas and this year was no exception. I don’t normally decorate with red but this year, I was really drawn to the the traditional colors of Christmas. I fell in love with this plaid ribbon and it became the starting point to all of my decorating. 

I recently created this DIY chalkboard from an old mirror and I love keeping it at the front door and changing out the message. 

My SIL who lives across from me has a bunch of what I think are cypress trees in her backyard. I cut a bunch of branches and used them to decorate my front stoop and the inside of our home. Thanks, sis!!

One tip of advice is to buy an inexpensive faux garland like I did here and cut real branches and attach them to the faux garland using floral wire. It makes for a more thick, fluffy and beautiful garland. I saw my Instagram friend, Leah do it last year in her home and it inspired me to do the same. You can make it as big as you want and the best part is it’s so cheap! I advise wearing gloves when dealing with garlands because #scratches. 

A vintage coke crate full of ornaments provides just the right amount of holiday cheer. 

I’m loving all the red this year and the poinsettias are a perfect complement to the rest of the decor. 

I did the same thing here with the banister where I took a faux garland and tied in fresh branches from the yard. I added some simple gray and navy velvet ribbon from Papermart. 

Last Christmas, while I was shopping at one of my favorite stores, Altar’d State, I noticed a bunch of Christmas decor in their store. I’m the oddball that looks more at the design and decor in the store than the actual clothes. I asked the employees if they were for sale and they actually were! They were kinda pricey at the time so I waited a couple of weeks until they were super cheap in January and I naturally scooped them up. I figured they would still be around since normal people would be too busy shopping for actual clothes than looking at Christmas decor in the store. #luckyme I bought a bunch of these small flocked trees for a few dollars each and I was so happy to pull them out this year. Aren’t they adorable?

I also took out our sweet little nativity set and placed them on our foyer table next to the flocked trees. My little Emmy loves going over there and playing with them. That’s the reason Mary is broken and glued back together! 

Remember when I showed you those thrifted shutters for my Fall tour? Well, I decided to paint them white for Christmas. I love the simple flocked wreath against it. I added more cut branches and laid them on the mantle and added some wooden beads on top. I sewed these plaid stockings years ago when I couldn’t find a ones that I loved but I’ve sourced some plaid ones online for you.  I love the little photos of our kids to personalize each one of them.

There’s a pillow I recently sewed sitting in the crate. 

I sewed a few pillow covers recently with some leftover fabric I had and added them to the couch for some Christmas cheer. I bought a set of these neutral Christmas tree pillows from my friend, Jill when she hosted her annual sale. 

I may have stolen Emmy’s new pom pom blanket from her recent room makeover. It’s just so soft ya’ll! 

I wrapped gifts using the white croc paper and blue velvet ribbon from PaperMart. It’s hard to tell in the photos but they have a light crocodile pattern on the white paper. I also embellished the gifts with some pretty feathers from PaperMart. I haven’t added name tags on the gifts yet but I did write names on the bottom of the boxes so I know who the recipient is. I really love the velvet ribbon against the simple white paper. 

This year since I went with a more traditional red theme, I decided to go with a white, silver and red look on our pencil tree. This tree fits perfectly in our little corner in the living room. I also cut fresh eucalyptus and added little pieces of it throughout the tree giving it a more full and natural look. The added bonus is that it smells wonderful. 

Instead of a normal tree skirt, I wrapped our sheepskin rug around the bottom. For the tree topper, I added white snowy branches on the top for an eclectic touch. I really love how it turned out and am amazed at how many ornaments this little tree can hold! My in-laws used to own an importing business that sold seasonal decor so a bunch of our ornaments are from there like all of the jeweled red berries you see on the tree and around our home. We really lucked out in the home decor department because they gave us a ton of stuff. 

The “LOVE” marquee sign adds a nice rustic touch to the tree. 

In a couple of weeks, I’ll share our other large tree in our playroom. In our breakfast area, I placed a simple white vase with my dried limelight hydrangeas and placed them on top of an old wooden board. Simple is often the most beautiful. 

Our console table received a few festive touches like the basket of red and green berries and fruits. 

For our master bedroom, I hung a simple wreath above our bed. 

I decided the newly sewed pillows fit pretty well in our bedroom too! If you’re looking for some holiday pillows, I found some inexpensive ones on Amazon. 

These colors just make me so happy!

We still love our moody and sultry bedroom walls that we painted a few years ago. 

I hope you enjoyed the tour! Next Wednesday, I’ll be back to share my Christmas tablescape! 

Next on the blog hop is Debbie from Refresh Restyle. I’ve had the opportunity to meet her a couple of times and she is just the funniest and sweetest lady. Her home is so beautiful so you don’t want to miss her tour. 

Here’s the complete list of the tour!

• Design Asylum
• Love Your Abode
• Refresh Restyle
• Life and Style at 60
• Positively Southern
• M. Jones Style
• Chic on a Shoestring
• My Life Well Loved
• Green with Decor
• Confetti Style
• The Home I Create
• Wife in Progress

Have a wonderful day, friends! Come follow me on Instagram to see a lot of behind the scenes action.

Yuni