Tara Lenney
Dec 2, 20215 min
Hey hey! It's our first Christmas in our new home and I was SO PUMPED to decorate for Christmas!
Then I hosted 17 people for Thanksgiving and got super tired. Hence the photo from my porch where you can still visibly see the Thanksgiving pumpkins. But aren't my Christmas PJs delightful?! HA!
Each year I oscillate between going all out, and going more minimal to save my sanity. You never know what you're going to get with me!
This year is somewhere in-between. I decked out or main living spaces, but didn't do much in the bedrooms or kid spaces. Maximum impact, minimal effort.
Come take a look at my modern vintage Christmas mix!
First off, color palette. Because y'all know I don't do ANYTHING without a color palette. Just like at Thanksgiving, I'm leaning into the colors we already have around our house - blush and gold/mustard - and feathering in Christmas greenery and bright poppy red.
Secondly, the vibe. As much as I would love to be a person who has sophisticated layered neutrals and greenery, the truth of the matter is I am obsessed with colorful vintage Christmas things like ornaments and bottle brush trees and gaudy Santa Clauses. I'm layering in all of that vintage goodness with modern, clean lines to keep it calming and not chaotic. As much as I love all the gaudy, I can't quite relax with all of that visual stimulation in my own house. To each their own on that one!
Be sure to scroll to the end where I'm sharing some of my favorite pieces so you can get the look.
Let's back up to that wreath. I had a vision for this for YEARS based on inspo from Sugar and Cloth. I remixed it and made it my own using a modern hoop wreath and flocked faux greenery. I'll add in the full front porch photos in another post; still waiting on a few pieces to arrive to finish the look!
You can see how I made the wreath on Instagram.
To the entryway! Keeping it super simple here with an Advent calendar and miniature nativity scene. Blink and you'll miss it.
Opposite the entry table is the delight of the season, the ROYGBIV bottle brush tree + Putz house extravaganza.
It makes my heart so happy I cannot stand it.
After the visual explosion of the bottle brush trees, a palate cleanser. This is faux garland that I wove dried eucalyptus into to give it a fuller look. It also smells amazing when the fairy lights come on and warm up the eucalyptus. I added pink velvet ribbon for a little something extra.
Around the corner, a few tiny touches in the powder bath. More bottle brush trees (oh we aren't even close to being done with those yet) and a vintage blow mold style Santa bring in a little holiday cheer.
To the living room! This is where the magic happens (and by that I mean where I put in effort).
Yet another display of bottle brush trees on the console, with cozy blankets and digital tree art on our Frame TV.
Looking back towards the kitchen it gets really jolly. My advent candle holder is a favorite (old from Target, sadly they don't make it anymore). Rather than the traditional 3 purple + 1 pink candles, I swapped the purple out for white to make it fit our color palette a bit better. The church also has white candles so I figure it's okay.
Many of my houseplants had to be relocated to the guest room to make way for Christmas decorations, but a few got to stay.
I love a flocked tree. They are my absolute favorite because the white really lets the colorful ornaments stand out without competing with them. And since it almost never snows in Texas, especially at Christmas, it's about as close to the real thing as we're going to get.
My tree is jam packed with ornaments (get all my tree decorating tips here). It's a mix of shatterproof ones from big box stores, novelty ornaments, and my treasured vintage ornaments. At least the ones that survived the Great Tree Fall of 2014 #neverforget. Those go up high and I am grateful every year for the ones that didn't shatter.
Sometimes I have to wrestle between being a designer and my love of nostalgia. When it comes to our stockings, nostalgia has been winning out. These are the handmade kit stockings, each made by a family member out of love. My heart leaps when I see all matching stockings in a row, but these are just too special not to put up.
To modernize them a bit, I went for an asymmetrical arrangement on the mantle. The holders are Target from a year ago (sadly no longer available) and the garland was made just the same way as the one at the stairs. The pink velvet ribbon carries from the front door and stairway to here to connect all of those spaces.
Let's spin around to the kitchen. I did something I almost never do and bought TWO new pillows this year. I know, I'm off the rails. The plaid one is so soft you guys, I cannot even describe it.
Also, this sheepskin-on-the-coffee-table-trick is one of my favorites for when you want to put your feet up but also need an actual table.
I kept it super simple in the kitchen. A felt wreath with a red velvet ribbon hung over the stove via a Command Hook, and a few tiny touches in the cabinets and on the counter. I need my workspace clear for cookie making!
Our 10' dining table was begging for some decor. I kept the candleholders out after Thanksgiving and layered in a few more Christmas things.
This tinsel tree holds a few tiny favorite ornaments, but is see-through enough to not drive us insane while we eat. I clipped some holly sprigs from our front pushes and added them to bud vases for a festive touch.
Y'all knew Pyrex was going to come into play here. HA! By letting my Christmas color palette match my everyday one, I didn't have to make too many changes to my dining cabinets. I did swap a few things out for my vintage Santa mugs. The large ones were gifted by my Grandma and are vintage; the smaller ones were a gift from a neighbor. And, surprise surprise, more bottle brush trees.
This last bit is much less "Interior Designer-y" and much more sentimental. Every year we have photos taken with Santa. The first 2 years, though, were the very best. They deserve to be next to the whiskey.
We are about to fill our 11th frame this year!
There you have it! Our retro-meets-modern Christmas tour is complete.
Thanks for coming along!
2. Putz houses
3. Bottle brush trees
4. Flocked Christmas Tree (similar)
5. Santa mugs
6. O Christmas Trees digital art
7. Vintage Shiny Brite ornaments
8. Mother Mary framed art
9. Tinsel tree (similar)
10. Sheepskin
11. Garland (similar)
12. Plaid pillow
13. White and black stripe pillow
14. Red and white pom pom pillow
15. Throw (similar)
16. Blush Ribbon
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