common ground : Christmas Home Tour

Showing posts with label Christmas Home Tour. Show all posts

Monday, December 5, 2016

House Tour for Christmas 2016

Hi Everyone... and Welcome to my

2016 Christmas Home Tour

I know there will be many new visitors besides my own readers this Season

so I hope you'll feel welcome, as I show you around.

Today, I'll be sharing from several areas of our home on the main level. We have a newer walkout basement Open Concept home that we've lived in 2 years, but this is our 3rd Christmas here. The Entry, Dining Room and Living Room are basically in one large space. It's easy to decorate, but at the same time, it's important that I have a theme and a plan!

One of the ways that I keep a look going is to use wired ribbon to coordinate through all the rooms. This year I found a fun metallic gold polka-dot on a burlap/linen look background, that I paired with my favorite Christmas accent, Stewart Red Tartan Plaid. Here in the Entry, I kept things in neutrals with just the gold polka-dot. I used it to hang the Boxwood Wreath and to adorn the vintage look tree in an iron urn. I found the "Merry and Bright" wooden plaque at Hobby Lobby. It really stated the message I wanted to share this Christmas.

When you come through the Front Door, the Formal Dining Room is to your left. It's not a large space and all my big furniture really fills it up. I love antiques and vintage decor, (if you hadn't guessed) and I feel most at home with using old and new pieces alongside one another. Decorating with the seasons keeps things fresh and interesting for me, and part of that is changing out the

table runner and decor here in the Dining Room.

My first plan when thinking about Christmas Decorating, was to find a Red Tartan Plaid fabric piece to use as a base for my burlap printed Holly table runner. I found a large tablecloth instead, and just folded it in two lengthwise. This year I used a large white lantern from Pottery Barn and Holly Topiaries that I made many years ago, in Restoration Hardware pottery by Guy Wolff. I love the high ceilings in this house, but anything that's used as decor on this table has to be good sized, otherwise it's lost.

An antique market basket on wheels holds seasonal faux floral stems.

I use Hydrangeas for every season, and here they are paired with Red Winterberries.

I didn't use the large white tree this year, so this smaller Entry tree is standing in.

It's wrapped in a White Printed Burlap Ribbon sitting in my galvanized olive bucket.

This is a view looking back from the fireplace toward the Dining Room;

that's the staircase as the room divider.

I have a love/hate relationship with this fireplace. I love having a fireplace, but this is a little bigger than I would have designed. I'm a small person, so whatever I do up here has to be done on a step ladder. And like the Dining Room, it has to have some "heft", otherwise you can't see it. This year I wanted to use my Antique Rocking Horse as the focal point. He's adorned with the Tartan Plaid Ribbon, as are the smaller Pottery Barn Lanterns.

I really do LOVE Plaid, and what's better than just Plaid for Christmas?

A Gold Metallic Reindeer ON Plaid, of course!

The main Living Area moves into the Kitchen Sitting Area,

that has become my favorite spot in the house for decorating.

I have a Christmas Morning Tablescape set here on the old oak table,

that I'll be sharing right before Christmas.

A Baker's Rack that I've had for years,

holds my seasonal vintage decorating odds and ends.

Each Season and Holiday finds it's way to the Baker's Rack for display.

My Kitchen China Cupboard holds my Brown and Red Transferware dishware.

I don't have "sets", just orphaned bits and pieces of various patterns.

A few of my Vintage Shiny Brite ornaments are displayed alongside

some of my collection of old Putz Houses and Churches.

Our previous home had a small Sunporch that held my wicker settee, chair and Baker's Rack, but since I don't have one at this home, I'm enjoying them here in the Sitting Area. My love for Plaid is right at home here on the wicker, and I use this old cobbler's bench as a small coffee table/foot stool.

If you're new to my Blog, I hope you'll come back to visit.

There are several ways to stay up-to-date on my sidebar.

I'll be sharing much more of these areas in future posts.

Thank You so much for coming by!

Saturday, November 26, 2016

"Home For Christmas" Blogger's Link Party

Hi Everyone,

so, raise your hand if you've been snacking on leftovers

while simultaneously decorating for Christmas.

I just wanted to let you all know that Brenda and I will again be co-hosting

a Linky Get-Together to celebrate with all of you, our homes for the Christmas Season.

We'd love to have you join in by coming by our blogs December 13, early morning,

and link up your Christmas and Holiday decor, recipes, crafts, traditions...

anything that "says" Christmas!

Welcome to My Christmas Home Tour 2015

Hi Everyone, and Welcome to my Christmas Home Tour for 2015.

I've added a few more pics, so you could call this the extended version.

For those of you who are new here, or in case you haven't visited for a while,

this is our 2nd year in our new home and we're a bit more settled than last year.

We downsized by almost half in the Fall of 2014, but it's good to be here.

You can click on the photo and click again for a larger version

in more detail.

Hope you enjoy your visit!

"Reflections" on the Old Door

One of my favorite places to change things up, is on the old door in my Kitchen Sitting Area. The old door had been on the Sun porch at the old house, and moving it into the Kitchen Dining spot when we moved here, gave me the sense and feel of the old space that I loved so much.

Christmas Mini Home Tour and "Come As You Are" Linky Party

Hi Everyone and Welcome to the

"Come As You Are"

Christmas Open House

and Link Party!

Transitional Autumn Tree and a Christmas Home Tour Link Party

Last weekend I was left to my own devices, like I am every start of deer season. I took advantage of the open garage space and decided I'd try to look through my Christmas tubs and boxes. Over the course of the Fall I've managed to combine a lot of smaller tubs into bigger more heavy duty bins, that stack easier and ultimately take up less space. But the Christmas decor situation is another story...

Christmas Open House Blog Hop

Hi Everyone, and Welcome to Day 2 of the Christmas Open House Blog Hop hosted by Sherry of No Minimalist Here. I'm so glad you're here, and I'm so happy to be celebrating Christmas in our new home. We just moved at the end of October, and this will be my first Home Tour to share with all of you. If you're new visiting here at Common Ground, I'm thrilled to have you!

I found myself using many of my things in the same way that I had used them at our last house and then the house we leased for the last 10 months... it just felt right and comfortable. This is an open concept home, and it's proven to be a little more difficult for me to place furniture since there's much less wall space. I couldn't get near as much in here as in our previous home, but I love having the high ceilings, and everything we need on the main level.

From the Entry to the main living area and dining room;

the stairway is in the middle of the space and it separates the rooms.

With so much going on in these spaces, I wanted to keep the Christmas decor theme in mostly neutrals. I knew the Burberry look-alike ribbon was going to bring in the tans, taupes, and black that I wanted. My Wolff Pottery vases will probably be a staple here on the mantel throughout the seasons. I made these Holly topiaries years and years ago. They've held up pretty well and last year was the first time I used them with my Wolff Pottery bases. It took me several days to get the mantel right. I ended up adding a little faux greenery and the metallic reindeer to finally get just the right amount of "Christmas".

The large armoire is part of our master bedroom set, but we decided to use it here for our television and sound systems. I'm glad to have a place to shut the doors and hide it all away.

I didn't want to overwhelm things with too many decorations, since this year was my first to see how everything would work together.

Since you all haven't seen all the decor yet, I decided to just share the larger views of the rooms and vignettes. That way I can have fun sharing the details with you here on the blog until Christmas.

Here's another shot of the Entry with my new bronze lantern from Lamps.com. That black coatrack is an antique, that I don't think I've shown before. I'm thinking of giving it the ASCP treatment after the Holidays. Being black, it really sticks out, but helps with having a place to hang visitors coats.

Here's the Dining Room that I shared earlier in the week. I'm using my white Pottery Barn lanterns that I bought last year. A little Christmas tree decorated with birdies and woodland critters just barely squeezes in.

The Kitchen is open to the Living Area, and I'm loving my newly painted cabinets.

My collection of black tole trays is helping to hide the backsplash. A subway tile backsplash is on my wishlist, but for now, I'm just trying to disguise this one! A few Christmas touches are here on the black granite countertops. Red plaid monogramed towels that my mom made for me last year add a little "Christmas" red and green.

I put several of my ironstone and ceramic figural animal tureens on the cabinet tops but they need a little boost, so they can be seen better. It looks a little cluttered up here, but I love all the black and white.

The chandy looked a little bare, so I added in some twigs and greenery. If you look closely there's even a little birdie nest hiding in there. I find my kitty gazing up there several times a day. She seems to think that it's perfectly fine to hang out there on the table. I'm trying to break the fur girls of some of their bad habits... not very successfully, though.