Create a welcoming, classic Christmas cottage kitchen and dining room with old world, European vibes using traditional colors, festive fruits, and vintage Christmas treasures. 

 

Merry Christmas everyone! We are celebrating our second Christmas here in on our 1926 red brick home, but it is still feeling very new to us as we continue to renovate and finish up details in every room. Today I am sharing a preview of how I am creating my signature vintage-traditional  and classic, cozy cottage Chrismtas style in our dining room and kitchen. For extra fun, I am adding some before and after pictures so you can see how far things have come in the two years since we began renovations and the year we have lived here.

 

 

European Inspired, Classic Cottage Christmas Decor in the Kitchen and Dining Room

Over Thanksgiving break we traveled to NY to see our son at Culinary school and have dinner with him there. As a result, I am very behind on my decorating! The tree is up at least, but still undecorated (it’s missing the top third…more about that later!) Hopefully it will be finished by next week when I will be sharing a more detailed Christmas home tour with larger room shots. For now, here’s a preview of the dining room and kitchen. Since I don’t have a glorious Christmas foyer photo reader to include as an “attention getter,” here’s a hideous “before” for shock value!

 

Before: The kitchen as it was when we bought it, probably last updated in the late 60’s. Compare the white curtain and corner to the green velvet curtain and corner in the photo below.

 

And after!

 

 

 

 Same view! Everything is so light and bright! I adore the way my husband designed the header with the beautiful woodwork. I love how the Christmas reds and greens just pop with our creamy white walls too. 

 

 

The only thing we kept from the original kitchen was the faux beams.

 

Here you can see how we planked over the popcorn ceiling and faux finished the planks and beams for a French farmhouse look.

 

 

Opening up the wall and switching the spaces was the best decision!

 

 

Classic Cottage Christmas Dining Room and Kitchen Tour Preview

 

Last year the dining room wasn’t completely finsihed for Christmas, so I only played around with setting the table a few days before Christmas to experiement for this year. I knew I wanted to set an elegant European inspired Christmas tablescape with festive fruits and dark reds and greens that flows seamlessly with the Christmas kitchen decor, since it is semi-open concept.

 

 

 

 I filled my dough bowl centerpiece with wealistic faux greenery, whole dried oranges, dried orange slices, faux clementines, clove studded oranges. I carried the oranges theme over into the kitchen for the garland above the kitchen range hood.

 

 

Classic Cottage Christmas Kitchen Preview

 

 

 

A smaller dough bowl on the kitchen island is styled similarly to the larger one in the dining room. It can be easily moved when it’s time to bake.  Compare the photo below for the same view before…

 

The view with the space between the windows before my husband built the amazing faux copper range hood with corbels. I knew it would be so pretty at Christmas!

 

…and after!

For Christmas through early spring I removed a large painting behind the stove and replaced it with my farmhouse paperwhites sign. I have had the sign for a few years but I never get tired of it for Christmas and spring. I love the simplicity and how it references my love of flowers and gardening year round. 

 

 

 

Near the window to the right I am forcing paperwhite bulbs in pretty, thrifted vintage transferware pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

I will share more details around the kitchen with details on the side cabinets and opposite views looking into the living room on next week’s Christmas Home tour.

 

 

In the left corner, faux paperwhites are nestled in my European Christmas inspired French Farmhouse basket. If you have been a follower of mine then you will certainly recognize it as it is one of my favorite and most versatile decorative accents.

 

 

Since moving to this lighter and brighter home, I have incorporated a lot more blue and white pieces that are now staples in my decorating, but I think Christmas is blue and white’s time to shine, especially when mixed in with traditional red, green and plaid.

 

 

 

Another look today at the corner basket as we head back into the dining room.

 

 

On Friday I will share a new post with all the details of this fun and festive display, and a few other vignettes around the kitchen.

 

 

As you look into the dining room, focus on the vintage china cabinet, windows, and the little bit of patio door that you can see in this shot…

 

 

 

 

Goodbye mustard yellow appliances, dark paneled walls, cabinets linoleum floor and ceiling fan!

 

Voila! Christmas magic! 

 

I think this corner is much merrier now, don’t you?

 

 For this year’s Christmas tablescape, the only new purchases are the sweet little thrifted gold rimmed champagne/dessert cups filled with faux sugar pomegranates and dark red transferware saucers.

 

 

I mixed the new plates in with my vintage blue and white transfeware, the small vintage red transferware plates I already had, plaid plates, and gold chargers.  The pomegranates look beautiful and elegant at each seat can serve as a tasty snack before Christmas Eve dinner, if any of them last that long! 

 

In anticipation of Christmas I had been looking all summer for three red transferware plates to hang on my plate rack during the holidays, but I couldn’t find any at a thrifting price. Just this past week I found some beautiful, vintage-looking dark red transferware plates at Home Goods in NY. They weren’t very expensive, so I bought six of the plates and saucers that we will actually use for Christmas and New Year’s dinner. The darker wine red inspired me to choose a pink poinsettia this year. So fun!

 

 

The oranges in the embroidered old world Santa stocking are an ode to my grandmother who always talked about how special and rare it was when Santa left her oranges in her stocking during the great depression.

 

 

 

Christmas is all about being “extra” so stick those wreaths, ribbons and bows everywhere!  I only had one of these little wreaths, but this is the only chair that is really seen head on, so it works. Use what you have!

 

 

China Cabinet Built-Ins finally “finished” for Christmas!

 

Last year the cabinets were installed and painted but we hadn’t added the trim or hardware, so I didn’t include the dining room in my Christmas home tour post. In late summer we finished all the details and I was so excited to decorate this space for the holidays!

 

 

 

It was starting to get dark (3:50, really?) so I ran out of time before really getting any great shots of the dining room built ins, but I wanted to include at least a couple of photos. Next week I will show you more of my Putz houses and tiny treasures on each of the shelves.

Now, check out the “before” of this same space!

 

It’s still hard for me to believe that huge built in fit in this spot and we can move around the table comfortably, but I had a vision and my husband had the talent! 

 

 

 

Christmas magic! Nothing a large, gorgeous, vintage mirror can’t fix! Okay well, and weeks and weeks of intensive labor by my husband and days of days of me painting… but it was worth it!

 

 

 

 

My tiny little tree is perfect for the center opening, and just last week I finally found the perfect antique mirror to fit the space.

 

It wouldn’t be a very vintage Christmas without vintage Christmas postcards tucked here and there!

 

While antiquing in NY last week with my son, I reached into a shelf to check out a shiny brite and knocked off this little angel and broke her wing. Luckily she was only three dollars ( the shop owner wouldn’t let me pay though.) It turned out to be a happy accident!

 

 

 

Lastly, Use What You Have Until You Can Find Something Else

Now, about that adorable table top tree! Guess what? It’s the top third portion of our main Christmas tree that is currently undecorated in the living room! I really wanted a little European inspired table top tree in time for today’s tour, but I didn’t have to shop for one. Since I hadn’t decorated our main tree yet, I just swiped the top and stuck in down in an olive bucket. How cute!

Now, what’s not cute is a mutant looking, undecorated tree in the living room. After this post the top goes back on, and I will be on the hunt this week to find a little tree for the corner. Hopefully I will find one soon and both trees will be finished in time for my Christmas home tour next Tuesday. I hope you will stop back by. Several blogging friends will be joining me for the tour!

*NOTE: I am in the process of switching my email and newsletter hosting services. If you would like to subscribe by email, please email me directly and I will add you to the list once I get it sorted out. 

 

I really hope you enjoyed a preview of this year’s European inspired, classic cottage Christmas in our “new” home! Now the beautiful cottage Christmas inpsiration continues over at French Ethereal. Don’t forget to check out all the tours via the links below.

Thanks for visiting and have a very merry Christmas season!

Amber