Christmas 365

“Oh I wish we could keep the Christmas lights up all year long,” My niece said with excitement as we turned on the strands of lights running across the ceiling of my living room. “Can we do this in my room at home?” she asked. “Well maybe but this really only works here because I have high ceilings in my living room. We will see…” is where I left it. Later that night I thought about the idea of Christmas 365 days a year and how that relates to the world of decorating. The majority of my work is helping people create a new home here in Florida after a lifetime spent elsewhere. It is a gift when I can create a space that makes them feel like home all year long. Let’s take a peek into a new home and see how we created a space that looks great throughout the year and for Christmas it looks extra special with added Holiday Cheer; somewhere just beyond the heart of The Villages.

• Farmhouse style
The homeowners love the casual farmhouse style and the husband is a wood worker so we gave him lots of opportunities to create!

• Paint
The wall color is a very soft grey but it does not feel cold. It has a subtle undertone of brown that keeps the warmth in the color.

• Living room
The living room was a bit challenging because it was so long. We decided to set the furniture up completely floating in the middle of the room. We tried many configurations but the length of the room made all the furniture feel disjointed.
We decided to have four chairs opposing one another because a big couch closed off the area. We filled the area between the chairs with an upholstered bench that is easy to move. Since we did not have an outlet for lamps between the chairs we placed a sofa table on the wall and placed two lamps on the table to provide light. We also love the old rustic clock above the Nativity to reinforce the farmhouse feeling. The Nativity can be replaced with some other accessories during the year or other seasonal décor.

• Rug
We used a large 9’x12’ area rug to delineate the space and make it feel cozy. The rug has a grey and brown pattern and does not overwhelm the space but blends with everything in the room.

• Wall shelves display
The man of the house created six floating shelves for display and pictures and we were able to utilize all of them for Christmas décor. Normally, family photos would fill the shelves but this time of year it’s all Christmas all the way. I like the cut out letters in the center that spell “Merry” and the reclaimed barn wood with the letters that spell “Joy”. If you look closely you will see a countdown to Christmas snowman!

• Living Room Chandelier
The homeowners opted for a chandelier in the living room rather than the ceiling fan. This light is a mixture of reclaimed bent barn wood and oil rubbed bronze metal. I love it!

• Drapery
We decided to cover the large slider with white draperies. These are pushed back in the daytime to get the light and they provide so much softness in the space that I could not imagine the room without them. The rod was oil rubbed bronze to coordinate with the chandelier.

• Reclaimed barn wood art
The homeowners like teal, yellow and a pop of red as accents. Lots of red shows up for Christmas but in the rest of the year teal and yellow make more of an appearance. The two items that will always stay in the room are the two panels of old barn wood and chicken wire. These panels were made from a barn in the area and the homeowners stained them with the two colors that they liked. They added some white around the edges and to the middle to soften the look and these two pieces not only look amazing but they have a real history….including bullet holes. We hung, “Merry Christmas” across the two panels and the words fit perfectly. Any seasonal saying can go in its place.

• Pottery Vignette
Below the two barn wood panels we placed old crocks that belonged to the parents of the homeowner. We filled them with large pinecones and placed snowmen all around them for the season. I love the look of the crocks in a group….year round. The snowmen could become other seasonal décor or a small tree.

P.S. –Attention, club presidents! I give free decorating programs! It is lots of fun and very informative. Call and schedule your club today or call Ruth your full service decorator at 352-804-2056.

Before and After Pics Below