Welcome to our Christmas house tour…
Friends, here’s the honest truth. I’m a HORRIBLE host. Really, the worst.
So many of my amazing blogging friends make this whole Christmas house tour scene look straight up easy. Like they went to bed one night and then just rolled out of bed the next morning straight into a glorious winter wonderland.
Not this blogger, baby. These house tours give me some serious grays. But regardless…
Come on in out of the cold. And THANKS for coming by. Really, I am thrilled to have been again asked to be a part of this wonderful holiday homes tour sponsored by Lynch Creek Farms, and hosted by Jenny of Evolution of Style, and Christy and Amy of 11 Magnolia Lane. They are all extremely talented, and beautiful people, inside and out.
There are 12 whole days of home tours, and the full schedule is at the bottom of this post. Today the tours are coming to you from myself, Amy of 11 Magnolia Lane, and Sheila of Maison de Cinq.
See, I told you I was a bad host. I invite you into our home, and don’t even offer you a drink. Let’s fix that RIGHT NOW. Don’t be shy. I’m tipping something strong up for a heavy pour to accompany this little house tour.
Maybe if you drink enough, you’ll start seeing DOUBLE the holiday decorations. Which is good, because the truth is,
I haven’t done too much. I showed a bit of our home in the first Christmas house tour we did a couple days back, including our dining room, seen above
and our family room. You can see that our real tree in the family room is naked save some lights.
We had a naked tree last year in here, and I’d love to tell you it was because I’m all artsy, and was having a creative moment.
That would be a lie, though. Honestly, hauling out all those boxes of ornaments just seemed a bit daunting. So we didn’t.
And I’m thinking that this year, we’ll do the same and call it a tradition ?. But don’t worry. We have a couple other trees here that get the full Christmas tree treatment.
Like the one you saw at the beginning of the tour in the foyer. And we have another in the kids playroom around the train, as well. I just didn’t have my act together enough to decorate it in time for this tour.
Did you happen to see what we used for “garland” on our foyer tree this year? NECKTIES. And I’m loving it!! Last year, it was winter scarves. And that looked amazing, I thought.
Above and below you’ll see our guest bedroom, so if you’d like to stick around for a while (or if I was a wee bit too heavy on your pour at the bar), you can bunk here tonight with Bessie. She’s our cow portrait.
In keeping with our theme of “understated” holiday decor, I did a couple super simple, inexpensive things in here. Grabbed some clippings from one of our holly trees, and threw them in an old galvanized pail atop my $5 red thrift store chair.
Then put some more pine clippings into some vintage tin cans that I’ve managed to acquire over the years. I have a bit of a love affair with vintage tins now. It started with some old coffee cans I snagged from my grandpa’s garage that we turned into a pretty hillbilly-chic outdoor chandelier…or “can”-delier as we now affectionately call it.
Below is our daughter’s room. It’s a really happy space all year, but I love it even more at Christmas.
Each of my kids has a little 2′ Christmas tree for their room. In this room, it’s a flocked/all-white tree. This year, we made a couple of Christmas trees to pair with it, including one adorned with crepe paper, another with ribbon, and a third with pom poms!
None of them were hard to do, and my daughter and I had a lot of fun doing these Christmas crafts together. There are tutorials for each of them, just follow those links above.
Here’s my youngest’s room. We added some Christmas lights to his “fire” pit…
Makes his little camping area look especially sweet at night.
Those gifts above are wrapped with winter scarves in lieu of wrapping paper. I am totally in love with them. There’s a tutorial HERE. It is unbelievably easy to do, and it’s a super-green way to do some of your Christmas wrapping this year if you’re game to try something new!
And our oldest son’s room below. Our resident train aficionado. I had to clean up enough train track from his floor so that we could get into his door. Usually, you’re playing hopscotch around his room trying to avoid stepping on one of the many train layouts he insists upon having in here.
But you’re only young once, right? I try to let him have his fun…
Unless Mommy is in full-on psycho mode trying to prep for a Christmas house tour. THEN, those trains better be off the floor. I get a little crazed for these things, which is sad, but true.
I mean, who cares, right? Christmas isn’t about perfection. It’s supposed to be about the opposite of that. A baby born into an entirely imperfect situation, and the perfection that he was despite it. In my head, I know that I need to just RELAX. But it just feels so normal to get all amped up about nothing, you know?
And when I feel that “amped” OMG get-out-of-mommy’s-way-people feeling, this space is where I retreat to. To calm myself. To try and bring the real important things back into focus. Like family, and fun, and the reason for the season.
And cookies. Cookies always help.
So here ends the tour, because as you can see…I have some cookies to eat. My apologies again for not being the best hostess. I am trying though. And the good news is, even if you didn’t get the best hostessing here, there are SO MANY MORE AMAZING home tours to see!!
But before you go, just so you get a glimpse of the MANIA that it prepping for one of these home tours here….this is a shot of what’s BEHIND the camera while I’m shooting…
That’s #reallife #nomakeup #unscripted pure house tour mess, folks. This is what my husband gets to come home to after I’ve been taking photographs. And just in case you need more proof, here’s a VIDEO TOUR I did of our home for Facebook Live on a typical day here around the holidays. If you need to feel better about the mess you’re living in, just watch this. It’s my Christmas present to you ❤️ –>>
See…not all bloggers have their acts together. It may look like that on Pinterest. But Pinterest lies. Pinky swear. And happy, happy holidays!
The 12 Days of Holiday Homes Tour:
Pssst…before you go, I sure would love to hang out with you again really soon! Sign up now and get a FREE copy of “Builder-Grade To Beautiful: 10 Totally Transformative Home Decorating Solutions, All Under $100!” Click here to enter your email or on the image below. Your copy will be sent right away!
Bets says
Found you today through Pinterest and as soon as I saw your lovely rooms I signed up to get your blog emailed to me. THEN I saw that last photo and I thought, YES! I like her even more. But then…. then the video… and Eddie Van Halen! OMG, I laughed so hard and then had to call my 16-yr old daughter into the room to meet my “new favorite blogger!” His appearance (with full Santa uniform) was so unexpected and fun!
I think we all understand that Pinterest isn’t real life, but then you see a photo of a child’s room and you think “Jeesh, it would take me a WEEK to clear my kid’s room out enough to take a picture like this.” My kid’s rooms often look like your playroom, where you can’t even walk without creating a path first. It can be so overwhelming, so it’s nice to know we’re all in the same boat.
Heather says
Your message made my DAY!!! So glad you found us and all our craziness, messiness and the like 😉 Life with kids is definitely a fun disaster. Well, usually fun, always a disaster. Glad to meet another mom who can relate, and thanks for being here 🙂 Heather
Gaylene says
Yayyyyy!!!!Thank you for posting
YOUR REAL LIFE TOUR!!!
Keep it real!!
Becky says
Your home is beautiful! And I agree it is a ton of work to set up and style just right and then all the photographing. But I’m always so happy when I look back at it’s all done. Hopefully, now we can all relax and enjoy it all 🙂
jen meadows says
Love you holiday decorations and your style. What I most loved, though, was your honesty about getting a little to “amped” sometimes, needing to take a time-out to get back to what’s important (family, kids, peace) and showing us the “behind-camera peek”. Thank you for being so real.
Heather says
Oh, you’re so welcome. The holidays are a struggle…for ALL of us!! The Pinterest facade isn’t the real story, right?! Happy holidays, Jen. Hope you can find some time to “breathe” and enjoy this season 🙂 Heather
Vel says
LOL! your brave! Love that you showed some reality there! Anyway, to begin with, your beautiful home does not need much, even if your hosting skills are ‘rusty’, I still think you pulled off a very welcoming and enjoyable tour! As always, honored to share this home tour with you! Cheers!
Julie says
Merry Christmas, Heather! I love those green stools! See…I didn’t see the crap, I just saw the stools! About to go move crap around myself. Oh, & your foyer is stunning!!
Jen says
I loved your tour Heather! I have to say, I’ve been fighting the urge to undecorate one of my trees. I love the simplicity of a tree with just Christmas lights, I am over all of the foo foo ornaments in my room. Oh and I kid you not I was thinking about doing a post on whats on the other side of my room in each post. I always shove everything on one side of the room and my house has been a complete disaster since November 1st! Which is how long it’s taken me to decorate, and I still have another tour to finish up for next week! Check my IG stories tomorrow because I’m planning on doing a quick walkthrough of what I’ve already posted, and then showing my disaster kitchen/dining area that are yet to be finished ?. If I drank, I would definitely be kicking back some strong drinks with you, I think my family would like me better ?. Cheers – Jen
Christy @ 11 Magnolia Lane says
Thanks for the drink, sweet friend! I definitely needed one since my house looks like your last picture. Yours is all stunning at the other end of the camera lens! 🙂 Thanks for joining us again this year–I always look forward to your tour.
XO,
Christy
Jenny says
I’m so glad I’m not the only one with a hot mess behind the camera! I think your home looks fab Heather, and thanks for jumping in to the tour again this year. I know it’s a lot of stress, and I laugh when people say that my house is “all decorated”. Online it is – in real life – notsomuch. 😉
Sheila says
Heather, I’m LOVING this post! Not only is your house perfectly decorated, but the behind the scenes is something I can totally relate to! We ALL have that! Every blogger – the house is a disaster behind the camera! And for me, all the junk then gets relegated to my scary and messy garage! Truly, it’s sometimes overwhelming right? Thanks for that moment of light heartedness – love knowing I’m in good company:)
So nice to be touring with you!
Sheila
xo
Denise says
Love your home and more importantly LOVE you honesty! Think I might just become a regular visitor.
cyndy says
I’m right there with you! Decorating and photographing for the tour gives me grays too! Although, it’s the best feeling when it’s all done. You’re home is amazing and you are just so creative and inspiring! That necktie tree is the cutest and your daughter’s room is adorable and beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing with us! Merry Christmas!
Amy says
I was just thinking my house actually looks like a bomb went off! Post holiday decorating, right? Your home looks gorgeous and your candor made me laugh this morning. A pleasure to have you on the tour as always and to be sharing today with you, now let’s go enjoy a drink 🙂 Cheers and happy holidays friend!
XO,
Amy
Amanda says
Maybe the grays were worth it because your home is stunning! From the foyer to the bedroom, crazy beautiful! Your shot of the kitchen cracks me up, same here, every tour! I’ll get one room ready and the others look like a bomb went off. Thanks for sharing your lovely home!
Heather says
It’s insanity, isn’t it? The amount of crap I pull out to take one flipping picture is completely ludicrous. I don’t understand people like us 😉 Happy holidays Amanda!
Lisa says
Heather your house is amazing…….so many great projects in every room! I love how you do Christmas…..totally happy and fun (the ties on the tree, such a clever idea!!) But my favorite picture is the last one because that such a familiar site! I love how my family just steps over and around all the stuff and the madness because they are so used to it! 🙂