IHeart 2015 Christmas: Our Mantel & DIY Coffee Filter Tree Garland

Although Christmas has come and gone, we are still in celebration mode around here.  Last week we traveled for a few days, arrived home just in time for Santa's visit, and then had three more celebrations to attend over the weekend.  I have so much love for this time of the year, but I think we are all ready to kick up our feet for a day or two.  How have your holiday days been treating you?  Have you been able to find a good balance of on-the-go fun and relaxation?

I decided to keep our Christmas decor fairly low key this year.  There are years where I am so together and ahead of the game heading into the season, that I go crazy with my decorating.  And then there are other years when I struggle with the idea of adding an abundance of new decor to our existing home chaos (which was the case this year).  With the sickness that hit our household early in December and the amount of traveling we did toward the end of the month, I was content keeping things pretty simple.

We decided to mix things up and celebrate our annual tree hunt by cutting down our own this year.  Typically, we head to the same nursery and pick something out as a family, but this year we grabbed a saw and set out to find something extra special.

Our boys are all so different and rarely do all three of them agree on a single thing, so when they all selected the same tree, we knew we had ourselves a winner.  

Although I wouldn't trade the tree for anything, it was uneven and sparse in areas and a little out of the norm from our abundantly full trees of years past.  We all worked on the tree over the course of a week; adding lights, ornaments, garland and bows to continue to fill in the empty spaces.  The end result was the perfect colorful mix for our family.

Last year I added white poinsettias to our mantel and I really liked the effect.  Wanting to reuse them this year, I thought they would make great gap fillers around the tree.  I initially wanted to do an entire garland out of the poinsettias, but I didn't want to blow my budget on so many faux florals.  Instead, I opted to create a garland to compliment the flowers I already had.  I have always been a bit of a busy body and like to always be working on something, so over the course of a few days of recovering from my head-cold and catching up on Hulu shows, I crafted a coffee filter garland out of filters and ribbon.  This was my attempt to resurrect the coffee filter wreaths that swept blogland a few years back. 

I worked on this project in low light while sitting on the floor near an outlet for my hot glue gun and with a board on my lap as a solid work surface.  Needless to say, I didn't take many photos as I went due to my "work conditions", so I used some leftover ribbon to recreate a portion of the garland in a quick video tutorial below.

I will be the first to admit, this was not one of those quick Christmas crafts that you can tackle in fifteen minutes and celebrate for the rest of the season.  Because our tree was so large and I created almost two full ribbon spools worth of garland (almost 24 ft!), it took me quite a few combined hours to achieve the end result I was after.  Lucky for me, I find these types of activities as natural stress-reducers, which is perfect for this time of year.

However, now that the work is done and I want to reuse the new garland year after year, I also have to store the extremely bulky project.  I won't be offended if you opt not to re-create this one, but I still thought I would share it since I received some questions about it from our friends and family that visited over the past few weeks. 

The garland and the wood ladder were the only two Christmas projects that we took on this year, but I love both equally!

On the opposite side of the room, our mantel received some fresh green garland paired with a few more poinsettias and ornaments.

Mantels with televisions above can pose a bit of a styling problem, so I let the greenery steal the show.  The stockings were hung using clear Command hooks.

Extra ornaments piled inside of bowls and vases and that was the extent of this year's stress-free Christmas decor.

Although we weren't home on Christmas Eve this year, we still made sure to continue our annual tradition of hanging our special family ornaments one at a time, chatting through the meaning of each. ♥

We sincerely hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas this year.  We continue to be endlessly grateful to have you all as part of our virtual family, and consider you all to be special gifts, not just at Christmas, but every single day.

You can check out last year's Christmas decor here.

DIY Decorative Wood Ladder

We have been plowing through our holiday decorating the last few days, and it is finally looking and feeling a lot like Christmas around here!

I had a tall wall to fill next to the tree, so we built an adorable little ladder to help display decor and even add a little storage.  The best part?  Is it only cost around $10 to make.  The other best part?  It is so very versatile and it can be used all over the home!

To get started, we took a trip to Home Depot to pick up a few pieces of wood.  We had everything else on hand to do this project, here is the supply list:

We decided to go with a six foot ladder, but you could make it any size.  We placed the top dowel 3" down from the top, and then continued to space them about 12" apart, leaving 9" at the bottom.

The first step is to mark your measurements for the dowels on each board.  We had decided on a width that would allow us to cut three pieces from each of the 4' dowels, so we marked for a total of six dowel holes each.

Using a drill bit that is the size of your dowel, the next step is to drill through your markings on each side rail.  I didn't want to see the ends of the dowels on the outside of the ladder rails, so Bryan went to his dad's workshop to use his drill press.  The press has a stopper that allowed him to only drill halfway through the side rails.

Testing 1, 2, 3....

Back home, we set up a staining station in the garage on some cardboard.

After trying out a few shades on scrap wood, I landed on Varathane's Provincial.  I love the warmth it offers and that it is a nice medium shade (not too light, not too dark).

I used a foam brush to stain each piece of wood and let it sit overnight to dry.

The following evening, we used wood glue and pieced the ladder together.  We recommend staining everything first, as any glue that gets on the wood will not take the stain after.

After waiting a bit longer for the glue to cure, I played the styling game!

I am gaga over this sweet little project, it was just what the blank wall needed.

We are hanging the boy's stockings on the fireplace, so Bryan and I decided to hang ours near the tree (you know, so Santa doesn't get confused).  I also added a small over-the-door cabinet basket to hold Christmas cards.

The final basket holds a special gift I need to give, our Christmas books and a soft throw blanket.

 

Once Christmas is over and we take down our decor, I haven't exactly decided where this little gem will land.  I have a feeling we will try it in a few different spots before we settle on somewhere permanent.  The options for where and how we can use it are pretty endless.  Most likely it will be used to hold a few throw blankets near one of the seating areas.

I also tried it out in our master bathroom to show another option.

I actually quite liked the ladder in here, and it is a great way to add a bit of storage in a really compact way.  I also really loved the wood tone and how it paired with the mirror across the way.

However, I am a hook girl when it comes to towels.  I just know that folding and nicely draping towels each day will not last long here.  But I still wanted to show that by using a few 'S' hooks, you can pair a variety of items with the dowels (the GRUNDTAL hooks from IKEA were a perfect fit).

Magazines not only provide reading material, but also add a some color as well (quite literally)!

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Ten dollars for fab, flexible and functional storage?  Heck yes!  When you have the magical combination of dowels, hooks and baskets, the storage possibilities are endless. I am thinking utensils, herb planters, aprons and hand towels in the kitchen.  Linens, books and even a way to display decorative art in the living room.  A basket of file folders and buckets of writing utensils and crafts in the office.  Towels, robes and toiletries in the bathroom.  And a place to toss extra quilts and throw blankets in the bedroom or to hang outfit ideas in the closet.  My wheels are definitely spinning, we may end up needing to make a few more!

Oh!  And to prevent the ladder from sliding, we cut the legs at a slight angle and I added a few rubber cabinet door stoppers to the bottoms.

Have you done any Christmas projects that you plan to keep out and use year round?

Happenings Around the Abode - December 2015

Long time no chat friends!  I apologize for my sudden disappearance... As much as I wish I had been away doing something amazing like skydiving with a celebrity or Christmas Party hopping or even hiding at a relaxing spa retreat, we were hit with a trifecta of illnesses and spending time curled up in blankets, taking hot baths, eating soup, visiting the Dr. office and combating chills and coughs.  Three kids in three different schools managed to bring home strep throat, the stomach flu and a sinus infection paired with bronchitis, and it just kept coming in waves.  And when one goes down, we all start tumbling after.  So as much as I was excited to create a stress free holiday, now that we are all finally on the mend, I just realized there are only about 10 days left before Christmas arrives.  #justbreath #tistheseason

I mentioned here that I have a few new series ideas for next year.  One of the things I would like to do is a monthly check-in to share those in-between moments.  The small switcharoos that don't necessarily warrant an entire post, but are still changing how we live in and enjoy our home.  I also think it will be a good place to share something new that we have tried; whether it be a new recipe we love or an organizing product or adding a new plant.  Finally, I would like to use it as a way to set a few home goals for the following month and do a check-in on those as well.  A little mix of everything to recap happenings around our home.

This first post may get a little lengthy as I have a lot of filling in to do, but hopefully these types of posts will find their rhythm and evolve as I go.  And this series needs a catchy title.  I have been pondering on this for about a month now and I still have nothing.... Bueller?


Because many of the rooms around our home stay the same from month-to-month, the purpose of this post is to tell the story of the rooms we have made small changes to and show how we reuse items from space to space.  Let's dive in with the most requested room update first.


KITCHEN/LIVING ROOM

What's new?  Very little since my last kitchen update.  The kitchen/living room renovation is a touchy one for me.  We put so much heart and energy and excitement into the update, and we have SO much to love.  In fact, we couldn't be more smitten with how the changes have impacted our day-to-day routine and lives for the better.  And don't even get me started on the joys of entertaining now!  We have hosted a few gatherings and they have gone off without a hitch and have really allowed us to share our home with many of our favorite people. But there are a few lingering things that we are working out and the longer things take the more frustrated I get.  That said, I never want that to come across as us not loving what we have done and sounding negative about the entire update.  I think we all know that renovations come with added expenses, things that go wrong, headaches, lack of sleep, set backs, and even a little heartache.  I went into the process thinking I could minimize most of those things from happening and I now wave my white flag.

I have shared a little here and there about the range/cooktop/downdraft dilemma and I really want to do an entire post on the problem and our ultimate solution to document the entire story and hopefully prevent others from making some of the same mistakes we made.  The range/downdraft is really the only item we have left to finish to have a 100% complete and working kitchen.   Although I wish I could say that by now it is all solved, which I believed it would be in our last post, it turns out there was some incorrect information provided to us by the new downdraft company (twice), so our second attempt at ventilation still didn't work.  The good thing is that we were able to install the new gas range and we are also not required by code to have any ventilation at all, so we have been able to cook meals with the luxury of a stove again (we are just careful about what we cook for now).  We would never call this a long term solution, we always knew we wanted some sort of proper cooking ventilation for all of the obvious reasons, but the actual system we have ultimately determined to be the best for our island setup is a product that won't be released until spring.  Instead of rushing things and spending any more money on the wrong items, we have been working directly with a company to help us rectify this once and for all (crossing all fingers and toes at this point).

Also, after some pondering and looking at our kitchen photos, we decided to remove the chunkier crown moulding on the pantry and fridge sections and update it with the IKEA stock moulding (seen above) for a more finished look.

Otherwise, as I mentioned, we have done absolutely nothing else with the space.  I really wanted to just live with it for awhile before I dove into selecting dining chairs, window coverings and backsplash tile.  I also think I was just ready to be done with all of the technical and install items, that my brain needed a break. 

While traveling in September to a Better Homes & Garden's event that I attend each year with my friend, Grace, we got to chatting about how we could partner up again.  You may remember that I flew down to Texas to work on her beautiful guest room with her, and it was truly one of my favorite projects to date.  Not only do I consider Grace to be a very dear friend, we also spent time doing what we both love; organizing and designing.  Truth be told, Grace's home is nothing short of extraordinary.  She has put so much thought and soul into her spaces, while also taking risks and playing with fresh ideas.  She isn't afraid of color (I bow to her for that) and dares to be bold with her design.  If you haven't seen her most recent bathroom reveal, drop everything you are doing and go fall in love here.  I will wait.

Grace agreed to help me put the finishing touches on our space.  She has been helping me look at tile options, problem solve a few of my dilemmas and come up with a design to create cohesion within the newly open area.  I can't wait to share more of our plans after the holidays.  I mentioned to Bryan the other day that now that the renovation is winding down, it feels like we just moved in and things just don't quite feel like home yet.  It has been a little unsettling, so Grace's help is just what I need.


BOY'S SHARED ROOM

The boy's shared room is probably one of my favorite rooms in our home.  It has slowly been layered with pattern and color, and always feels so fun and relaxed.  It is also where many brotherly stories have been whispered and late night mom snuggles have been cherished.... Our youngest two have always been extremely close, so sharing a room has worked out really well.  They recently heard me mention the idea of moving one of them into our guest room within the next year or two, and now they both have bedroom visions swirling.  Parker wants to keep the shared room just as it is so it is always sleepover ready, and Peyton is excited about the idea of creating a space to call his own. 

I really wanted to find a new home for our navy blue curtain panels, and on a whim one day decided to clip them up in the boys room.  Instant love.  And they really liked them also (as much as kids who really don't care that much about curtains will like curtains).

We also added plaid quilts to their beds about a year ago now, and the navy in the curtains ties nicely with the updated bedding.

PRESTON'S BEDROOM

Preston's room is the perfect example as to why I like to take things slow and let a space evolve.  As much as we continued to make small changes (painted armoire, diy headboard, diy study station), something still wasn't feeling right.  Then, after we hung the navy curtains in our boy's shared bedroom, I knew the second set was the missing link in Preston's room as well.  I gave him the option between the orange and the blue and he selected the blue (YAY!).  The panels inspired me to re-paint the lower portion of his walls Ralph Lauren's Adelaide Blue and his moulding Ralph Lauren's Iron Blue.

Iron Blue is now my favorite navy and I also used it to update his nightstand.  It is stunning.  I also installed some new hardware on the front of the nightstand (YHL shoutout!) and it looks like a whole new piece!

We still have a sconce to install and some art to hang and then his room will be ready to share and one we will declare finished (for now).


HOME OFFICE

We have officially started the process of swapping the playroom and my home office.  I just couldn't take working without a window any longer, so I started moving things out of impulse one evening.  The goal is to utilize as much as we can from both spaces for now, just moving around the furniture and storage.  I haven't done any painting or designing and I am now working with a lovely stenciled birch tree wall behind me each day.  However, aside from the window, the biggest bonus was bringing back my aqua hutch.  I am pretty sure it is the happiest piece of furniture in our home.  I love that I now get to look at it while I work, and the kids are excited to start creating a "boy cave" that they can use for playing and entertaining their pals. I promised them a beverage fridge and popcorn maker in exchange for a window seat.  It should be a fun change for us all!

The biggest change will be moving the location of the closet door so I can continue to access my under-the-stairs storage.  The switch is a little bittersweet; the playroom has been one of the most popular projects we have ever completed, but having the boys excited helps make the transition easier.  More photos and space plans coming your way soon as I unpack and get settled in. 


FAMILY ROOM

Last year we sold our leather sectional and moved down our softer sofa when the renovation began.  We also brought down our Moroccan shag rug and I have been playing with other furniture combos using what we already have.  Because we all agreed that the green patterned chair is the coziest in the house, it was moved to this lounge area to be used for movie nights, reading and video game playing.  We recently pulled the rug because it needs a good cleaning (still trying to figure out how to do that), so the boys have been using the space to build large train tracks.

Once I unpack the rest of the playroom, the kids will move their play things back there and we will work on finishing up this space with a few minor updates.  I would like to add board and batten from floor to ceiling to make the room feel taller (it is only a 7' ceiling), and also source a soft, round ottoman for propping up our feet.


MASTER BEDROOM

The last stop on today's updated tour, is our master bedroom.  During the time of the year when people are putting out plaid prints and warming things up with cable knit throws, I go the opposite route and bring in a little color and feeling of spring to battle the short and gloomy days.

I mentioned that we moved mirrors around a few months ago, so here is the updated shot of our wood tray mirror over our white dresser.

Our ring pulls couldn't hold up to the weight of the heavy, old wood drawers, so we upgraded to some beautiful brass cup pulls.

I finally settled on an updated light fixture to replace the out-of-place chandelier.  I played it safe and went with a sweet little drum shade fixture I found on Joss & Main.

The new art was created by using a photo I took at the Bloom Bash Workshop, which I uploaded to the Waterlogue phone app.  The app turns any photo into a lovely watercolor image, which you can then save and print.

I also uploaded the prints so that I could share them with you!

Download HERE

Download HERE

Download HERE

We would still like to add some more moulding detail on the walls and crown around the room, and source two bedside sconces as well, but other than a few decor swaps here and there, the room is feeling pretty finished and is a nice place to relax at the end of the day.


A few others random things to share...

We recently tried simmering some apples, oranges, cinnamon sticks, rosemary and cloves and our home smelled absolutely amazing for a few days!  I highly recommend buying into this fun home fad and playing around with different spices and oils.  I am planning to add some peppermint oil next time to jazz things up for Christmas.

I get excited about small organizing products just as much as the bigger ones, and these darling boot clips are my favorite new find.  They come in a plethora of fun colors and I can't wait to hand them out as gifts for the holidays.

I don't know about you, but I find music to be my number one stress reliever.  I recently downloaded this album and find myself putting it on repeat daily.

I have purchased a few of Parima Studio's prints for our home, and now she offers free monthly desktop wallpapers when you subscribe to her email.  I look forward to updating my desktop to something beautiful and fresh each month!  Thanks Patricia!

And last but not least, I found this pillow a few months ago and shared it on Instagram.  Then I realized not everyone follows me there so I thought I would share it here as well.  I am not sure where the pillow will land as it currently makes its way from room to room, but the message is near and dear to me and how I feel about our home.

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JANUARY HOME GOALS:

Although we plan to hang up our project hats for the rest of December, we are excited to get back to work in January.  Currently on our January "Home To-Do" List:

1. Finally finish our stairs with an installed railing, touch up paint and maybe a few fun decorative additions
2. Install sconce and art in Preston's bedroom (and call it complete)
3. Install french door from master closet to master bathroom

__________

Well, I called it!  This post got quite lengthy, so thank you for hanging in there with me!  You can find past room photos in my home tour here.

Feel free to let me know if you have any fun titles for this new series.  Also, I am trying to do some planning for 2016 posts, and I would love for you to take a quick and painless survey to help me better understand what brings you here and what you hope to find while you visit.  And thank you so much in advance for taking a minute or two to do that. 

Now, I am off to decorate the tree with the kids!  (Told you we were behind, yikes!)