2016 Christmas Home Tour: Holiday Home Showcase

I’m so excited to be welcoming you into my home today to take you on a tour of our house all decorated up for Christmas! You guys, I’ve had so much going on lately that I’m not gonna lie – I wasn’t just decorating here and there over the past few weeks with lovely Christmas carols playing in the background. I was big-time scrambling to get my house decorated and photographed in time for this post! The good news is that all of my decorations are ones that are quick and easy and can be done if you’re scrambling for time too (because seriously, who wants to spend weeks decorating for the holidays anyway??). I’m excited that everything came together in the end because today’s blog hop is an awesome one – I’m joining eight other bloggers whose style I adore for a Holiday Home Showcase:

If you’re coming over from Haneen’s Haven and are visiting Driven by Decor for the first time, welcome (and to all of my regulars, I always love having you back!). Haneen loves bold color in the same way that I love warm neutrals and while that makes our decorating styles very different, I LOVE following Haneen and seeing all of the bold choices she makes for her home! If you’re just starting out the tour here at Driven by Decor and haven’t visited Haneen yet, no worries – you can catch up on Haneen’s tour along with everyone else’s through the links at the bottom of my post. There’s also a full source list at the end of the post if you have questions about paint colors or where I found something and I’ll also link up some sources for my holiday decorations (includes some affiliate links – see my full disclosure statement {here}) as I tour you around.

Ready for my tour? It actually starts before you’ve even pulled into the driveway! While I always decorate the outside of our house for Christmas, this year I dressed up our mailbox too with a simple DIY greenery swag and classic plaid bow that fits with the quaint New England setting of our home – I love that it’s something a little different from just wrapping a garland around the mailbox post:

Now that you’re here, let’s hurry up and get inside because winters in Connecticut are cold! We’ll go under the arbor and down the walkway to the front door:

This is the fourth Christmas we’ve spent in our house and I’ve decorated our front door in a similar way each year. We have TONS of evergreen trees and bushes in our yard and I take advantage of it by clipping them to use on our door (and inside our house too!). You can find the details of how I make my front door swag {here} (it’s super quick and easy!) and you can find the bells that I use {here}.

If you look closely, you’ll see that the bells have the most beautiful detailing: 

I also took advantage of what’s in our yard to fill our planters – I simply packed them with dirt, and stuck in branches of a few different types of evergreens. I finished them off with a few magnolia leaves (unfortunately I had to buy those – I wish I had them in our yard but no such luck!) and a couple of pine cones attached to wood dowels that I found at HomeGoods. I like a natural, semi-untamed look to my planters so adding branches quickly without overthinking it is the way to go:

If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ve probably seen my trio of lanterns a time or two before since I use them every fall and winter, making a few changes throughout the seasons. For Christmas, I added some plaid ribbon to them and filled them with a mix of inexpensive silver and gold ornaments from HomeGoods: 

Did you notice how boringly plain my doormat is? I actually have a super cute one on order but it didn’t make it here in time for my pics – I’ve linked it up below along with my lanterns and planters:

Oh, and one more thing before we step inside! Did you notice the window that we passed as we walked up to the front door?

My youngest daughter loves to get crafty so I let her loose with chalk ink markers (one of {these}) to decorate our bay window – they’re great because the drawings come right off with water or a wet wipe when you’re ready to remove them (test your own windows first before using!). Definitely a fun way to get your kids in on the holiday decorating! And of course, our little buddy always has to be in on the action too:

OK, I’ve kept you guys out in the cold way too long jabbering about holiday decorations – in we go!

Before we head into the dining room, we’ll take a quick peek around the entry way – for the chest of drawers in our foyer, I simply filled two of {these vases} with boxwood clippings from our yard and some red berry branches (round mirror can be found {here} and {here}).

In between them, I filled {my favorite wood bowl} that I use time and time again with some HomeGoods ornaments and jingle bells (from Restoration Hardware years ago) strung on plaid ribbon:

Now let’s hop on over to the dining room:

I went for a soft, light and bright look this year using pink poinsettias, white plates with gold and silver accents, and oversized ornaments adorning each plate:

I tied a gift tag around each silverware set and added a little sprig of greenery:

I kept things simple with the centerpiece and added five different silver and gold trees that I scored at HomeGoods. Actually, most of this table was created with HomeGoods finds including the plates, gift tags, ornaments, and ribbon.

On the chandelier above the table, I layered evergreen branches so that they encircle the base to make the space even more festive:

The other detail that I added is the wreaths on the back of the chairs:

I made these wreaths years ago (you can find the tutorial {here}) and have used them every year since, simply changing up the ribbon each time:

And as a final touch, I added a small stack of presents to the chair in front of our plate wall (it’s seemed so empty ever since our Halloween skeleton friend left it!):

Ready to tour through one more room?

We’re heading to my home office – you might remember this little sneak peek that I shared a few weeks back: 

I took down the large piece of art on the lower right of our gallery wall to leave room for our annual advent tree with mini galvanized buckets that we fill with daily treats for our girls

While my daughters have outgrown some of our holiday traditions, I don’t see this one going anywhere anytime soon – they love it and check the daily bucket as soon as they get up each morning!

That wraps up my tour for today – thank you all so much for stopping by! I know there are a ton of Christmas home tours this time of year and I’m so appreciative and honored that you came by for a visit! I’d love if you stopped over for the second part of my house tour {here} where I’m touring you through our kitchen, master bedroom, and family room:

And I have lots of talented friends whose holiday homes I think you’d enjoy – I’d love to send you on to see my friend Tamara’s beautiful home at Citrine Living! The glimpses I’ve gotten of her holiday home are stunning – I mean is this tree one of the most amazing ones you’ve ever seen or what?!

Tamara will direct you on to the next person to visit but here’s the whole line up so you can be sure that you don’t miss anyone!!

Citrine Living

Sunny Side Up

Kelley Nan

Z Design at Home

The House of Silver Lining

Decor Gold Designs

Randi Garrett Design

Haneen’s Haven

Front porch: lanterns | stone planters | bells on door dec | cute doormat that’s on the way | ribbon on lanterns and planters

Foyer: Paint color is Benjamin Moore White Dove | Round layered wood mirror (also available {here} | Vases | Wood bowl | Chest of drawers – no known current source