Hello dear friends! It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week and the official holiday season begins in just 3 days! Luckily my friend Cindy of County Road 407 has put together a fun Pinterest Challenge this month with an easy decor theme that anyone can whip up in no time. Cindy always inspires us all to get our holiday decorating and crafting off to a speedy start! *This post contains affiliate links. 

I am excited to be joining a wonderful group of blogging friends for this challenge!  If you are coming over from  The House on Silverado or if you are just stopping by for a visit, I am so happy to have you here! Each month Cindy chooses a photo from Pinterest for inspiration, then each of the hop participants comes up with her own interpretation using similar elements, but with a bit of personal flair too.

November Pinterest Challenge Inspiration Photo

This beautiful photo by Jennifer at The Grace House Interiors is the inspiration for this month’s challenge. Let’s take a look at the elements she used in her design:

• A farmhouse style wooden crate/box (you could also use a basket or tray)
• 2 wooden Christmas/winter trees in slightly different sizes
• Christmas greenery and snowy berry picks ( a bit of red, white, and green)

Refreshing a Thrifted Wooden Crate

The first thing I do for any of our Pinterest challenges is to shop my home for items that I already have on hand.  A couple of summer ago I picked up this wooden crate at a yard sale, but I had forgotten about it until the other day when I was looking for some other junk in my craft and decor stash. Since I am trying to avoid buying new decor or craft supplies for the holidays, I was happy to rediscover this crate just in time for this month’s challenge.

The crate was fine as it was with the dark stain, but I wanted it to have more of a farmhouse look. I gave the crate a quick refresh using some Folk Art White Wax  from my stash, and in no time I had the exact look I was going for.

I sponged on the wax all over the crate with a sponge brush, working on small sections at a time. I immediately wiped off the excess paint with a damp paper towel.

Wiping off the excess with the paper towel left only a bit of white wax settling down in the wood grain, resulting in the desired rustic farmhouse weathered finish. 

Creating a Merry Farmhouse Christmas Wooden Crate Vignette

As I thought about what other supplies to use for this challenge, I remembered that I had I bought two cute farmhousey snowy pine trees on clearance right before Christmas last year at Target. I never got around to packing them in a tote after taking down my winter decor, so lucky for me, they were just sitting over in the corner of the basement within easy reach.

A Wintergreen Home Tour

I used the trees in my Christmas Dining Room Decor, but I also left them out for most of winter.

Just one tree was the right size to fit perfectly down inside crate. I think the crate and tree look so cute together, so I may end up using this simple combo after Christmas as part of my winter decor. Of course as I always say, “I am no minimalist!” so I headed back to my stash to see what I could come up with to give my crate more of a “merry farmhouse Christmas” look for the challenge.

This adorable red and burlap striped ribbon was only $1.00 at Family Dollar. I did pick up a few really cute farmhouse style Christmas decorations at Dollar General just after Halloween when I was stocking up on toilet paper (haha). If you have a local Family Dollar you might want to check out their Christmas section to see if there are any trendy farmhouse Christmas decorations or craft supplies left in stock. *I just noticed that the ribbon is not American made, so I will be more careful about my purchases in the future.

I simply wound the ribbon around the tree as a garland. Love it! 

Jennifer used a tall tree and a medium tree in her crate. Instead of a second smaller tree, I squeezed in a skinny thrifted Santa. 

Shortly after finding this Santa at a yard sale a few years ago, I dropped it and broke off one foot. This didn’t deter me from finding ways to use him in my Christmas decorating, but I had to get a bit more creative.

Beautiful Christmas Wreaths and Door Decor

Last year I used the Santa in my unique Christmas door “basket in a basket.”

I think I could have stopped here, since I had most of the elements for the challenge: a wooden crate, a snowy tree (representing the wooden trees and the snowy greenery picks,) a Santa in place of the second tree, and red striped ribbon adding a bit of red (Jennifer’s crate had faux greenery with red berries.)  Nevertheless, I had a few more ideas for the crate and the vignette.

Jennifer used a Magnolia crate with a graphic brand label on the front. I used a chalkboard tag from my stash with a free hand “25” to create a little graphic interest on my wooden crate.

I left all of my twine outside on the potting bench, so I grabbed this price tag I had in my paper stash and used the twine to tie on my chalkboard tag.

I also used some battery operated string lights  on my little tree for extra Christmas sparkle.

I haven’t really started decorating for Christmas yet, but I temporarily moved some Thanksgiving decor out of the way and put together this “Merry Farmhouse Christmas” wooden crate vignette in the center of my new vintage style china cabinets in the kitchen. I could only take pictures from certain angles because the inside of the cabinets and other areas of the countertops are still decorated for Thanksgiving.

Here is how the cabinets currently look and will remain through Thanksgiving. The day after Thanksgiving, this area will be transformed with holiday cheer! I have a new kitchen for Christmas, so I have no idea exactly what I am doing to do with the cabinets, but once I start digging in my Christmas totes I will figure something out. Maybe the farmhouse Christmas wooden crate will end up here after all!

I gathered up just a few items from around the kitchen to complete the vignette and two of my new DIY Christmas garden pots that I will be sharing in an upcoming post.

Of course I couldn’t resist using one of my shabby picture frames to add interest in the background! I recently shared a post full of ideas for decorating with vintage frames and mirrors if you would like to check it out.

After taking a few pictures I still felt like the vignette needed some extra vintage-farmhouse goodness, so I added some DIY chippy painted chair spindles (a.k.a. “snowy logs”) to the back of the crate. 

These challenges are all about using a photo for inspiration, then adding our own personal touches. The spindles are the extra addition that I think really gave the crate the perfect amount of shabby-vintage farmhouse flair in “Amber style.” 

I love these challenges because they give me ideas that I wouldn’t have had otherwise, like this whole farmhouse Christmas wooden crate vignette. 

December 25th is only a little over a month away, so I am glad to have gotten a head start on my Christmas crafting, thanks to Cindy organizing this fun Christmas  crate challenge and a Snow Jar challenge last month.

Easy Christmas Jar Cloche

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