I have been slowly decking my halls over the last 2 weeks, and I am nowhere near done, but wanted to share some updates with you. I have been focusing my energy on my formal living room, and in particular my mantle and built-ins. I am so happy with the way they look, but to be honest, it's been a process! Lots of tweaks, some extra trips to the stores, and LOTS of rearranging ...but here is how my Living Room is looking so far...
I had a vision for my mantle pretty early on, and the cute stuff I scored on my recent trip to Target was definitely my jumping off point. The mirror is from our previous home and the garland is from a few years ago, but everything else on the mantle is new. As soon as I saw the warm burnished gold trees at Target, I knew I had to have them.
Same story goes for the stockings, they are from the Studio McGee for Target holiday collection and it was love at first sight for them too. I bought 2 of each and I hung two on the mantle and two on the bookshelves.
On that same trip, I came across a set of three gold taper candles, and I used them to balance out the metal trees.
My most favorite new addition to my decor are the vintage looking brass bells. I knew they had to take center stage, so I strung them on some twine and positioned them to pop against the white backdrop of the fireplace.
While the mantle came really easily to me, the built-ins took a lot of time and lots of rearranging. They are so big and there are so many "squares" to fill that I had to be really thoughtful about the whole thing. I splurged on a set of vintage brass bells at a favourite local decor shop. I think these will probably stay on the shelves year round, they don't necessarily read as just a Christmas item.
While the bells were a splurge, the items in this grouping were very budget friendly. The little house actually came from the dollar section of Target a few years ago and the books were from a thrift store.
True confession - since we moved in to our new house back in August, my beautiful built-ins have been sitting mostly empty and un-styled. We just got a sofa and rug for this space 2 weeks ago, so I was lacking in motivation to do anything with the room. But now it's my favorite place in our home and I just want to sit and stare at these shelves all.day.long!
The rest of our Christmas decor is slowly coming together and we put up our family tree last night! Hopefully I will be able to share our Family Room and Kitchen styled for the holidays with you next week.
In the meantime, if you are looking for more holiday decorating inspiration, check out this post that I wrote over at the Urban Mom - How to Style your Mantle for Christmas.
Thanks so much for reading!
xo, Kerri