Christmas is just a few weeks away and I am super busy decorating our historic home for the holidays! I am adding some extra special touches this year for our 1921 home’s 100th Christmas. There’s still so much to do (and so little time) but I do have our living room all cozied up and ready to share for today’s tour. I am honored to be joining my friend Marty of A Stroll Thru Life and 30+ super talented bloggers for this annual holiday extravaganza!

 

If you are coming over from Shannon’s swoonworthy home at Fox Hollow Cottage or if you are just dropping by for a visit, I am so happy to welcome you!

 

 

Today we are starting off right in our cozy Christmas living room where I enjoy spending all of my evenings during the holiday season.

 

 

Just before Thanksgiving my husband installed an electric logs fireplace insert that the whole family is just loving. It truly provides the ambience of a real fire and doubles as a heater too. Every morning I turn on the heater and enjoy the “fire” while sipping my coffee before getting ready for work. The found 1920’s cast iron surround makes it look more authentic and fits the style of our 1921 home perfectly.

 

Woodsy and rustic touches keep help to balance out some of the more ornate Victorian and French Christmas elements I incorporate during the holidays. On the vintage trunk-coffee table, a beloved concrete garden deer is bedding down for winter in a simple graywashed basket tray filled with winter greenery, dried orange slices and deer antlers which can be kept on display through winter.  The buck tapestry feather pillow on the wing recliner is super comfy and well used all around the living room throughout winter.  

 

The deer decor is fitting since there are deer constantly playing in the woods across the street. This was my view trough the living room window on Christmas morning last year. I am definitely dreaming of another white Christmas this year!

 

 

 

 

The comfy buck pillow is perfect for napping on the sofa with a cozy throw or the red plaid Ralph Lauren blanket draped over the vintage pressed back chair by the staircase.

 

 

Here is a view from last year from my recliner by the fireplace into the entry way by the staircase and on into the music room where we put our family tree each year. With this view I never want to leave my recliner during December, especially now that we have a cozy “fire” going!

 

 

Here is another shot of the staircase area from last year decorated in vintage-traditional Christmas style. I  have decorated similarly this year, but with a few new changes which you will see on my full 1921 historic Christmas home tour next Wednesday! Lots of plaid, greenery, and treasured vintage keepsakes evoke that old-fashioned and timeless holiday feel.

 

 

This year I have swapped the plaid blankets around. I am using this lighter plaid throw here on my recliner  in the living room, and our favorite traditional red plaid Ralph Lauren blanket on a corner wing chair in the music room next to the  main tree. Another bright colored plaid throw with a bit of gray is draped over the arm of our chesterfeld sofa. When it comes to mixing plaids at Christmas, I use no restraint!

 

 

Here is a shot of the music room last year, where I was using the off-white plaid throw on the wing chair. I am still finishing up the music room this year but the look is very similar, since our tree is always decorated the same way year after year with special ornaments collected over time.

 

 

One change is a wider plaid ribbon than the one I used last year shown here, and the addition of old fashioned candles (battery-operated.) I reused the smaller plaid ribbon on my flocked tree in the dining room this year and I am loving it! I will share this tree with the changes next week.

 

 

Here in the dining room, the plaid ribbon swiped from the main tree in the music room looks so pretty on the flocked tree too!

 

 

In addition to an abundance of plaid everywhere, I have also used dried orange slices on both of my trees, on the banister garland,  and in several other places around the house.

The freshly dried orange slices on the mantel have a wonderful, faint citrus smell that I can sometimes smell while sitting in my cozy recliner.

 

 

I also added dried apple and lime slices to the mantel garland which I am loving! The garland is faux cascading hemlock with pinecones purchased from a local florist and craft supply shop. Isn’t it so pretty and unique?

 

 

Each end of the garland has been adorned with traditional bows of dark red velvet ribbon. A dough bowl full of faux apples and greenery by the antique trunk ties in with the dried apple slices on the mantel garland and the overall vintage-traditional Christmas vibes. Smaller red velvet ribbon has dressed up my year-round DIY boxwood topiaries to which a few faux red berries have been added.  

 

I went a little Christmas crazy with dark red velvet ribbon this year! I used it on my DIY vintage frame door decor with fresh greenery (it looks so pretty and festive on our newly painted green door leading to the “new” mini-mudroom entry!)

 

We just completed reviving the old entry way in 1920’s cottage style just in time for Christmas! Here are a few sneak peeks I shared on my Vintage-Traditional Christmas Dining Room Tour last week. I will be sharing a complete reveal of the space next week on my big “100-year Old Kentucky home” Christmas tour!

 

This fabulous vintage sled with antique ice skates was scored at a local thrift shop just a little over a week ago. I love how it looks propped up next against the new  white bead board walls with beautiful board and batten trim. The scarf hanging on the salvaged 1920’s coat hook is an authentic made in Scotland Clan Ferguson tartan scarf.

 

 

Faux cedar greenery and the wider plaid ribbon I will be using on the main tree this year frames the new mirror on the entry way landing. 

 

The mirror is handy for it’s intended purpose just before heading out the door, but my main reason for adding it was to bounce extra light around in the sunny entry and to reflect the gorgeous new 1920’s style tear trop chandy! I want to see that beauty from every angle!

 

 

 

I dressed up the antique crystal door knob on the closet door by tying up an antique skeleton key with red velvet ribbon. And there’s even more red velvet ribbon where that came from!

 

 

I used the wider red velvet ribbon to hang my DIY gold and green mini-pine cone wreath on a vintage mirror, and the thinner ribbon to dress up dark green Pottery Barn flicker candles on the vintage dresser top vignette in the dining room.

 

 

Green is my favorite color so I am also using dark green velvet ribbon here and there. All the tree candles on both trees are dressed up with loosely tied dark green velvet.

 

 

 

 

Last year I used the dark red velvet ribbon to hang mini-cedar wreaths on the 1920’s salvaged wavy glass cabinet door on the kitchen built-in cabinets.

 

 

 

 

I am still working on this year’s Christmas kitchen decor, but I enjoyed last year’s so much I will be probably decorate it in much the same way. I had planned on changing out the red velvet ribbon for something else, but I am obviously still crushing on the red velvet since I have used it everywhere else! I hope you will stop back by next week to see what I come up with in the kitchen on my full historic home Christmas tour!

 

 

One major change this year is a beautiful new quartz topped European style pastry table/island  in the center of the kitchen that my husband custom made for me just before Thanksgiving. It was specifically designed to be narrow enough not to eat of space or impede the view of the full brick floor I enjoyed last Christmas.

 

 

I think the plaid and ticking stripe pillows are perfect for the corner bench in the window nook so I will definitely be using those same pillows this year. 

 

 

I really loved the Kentucky pillow in the nook, but to change things up this year, I moved it to the antique church pew in the dining room.

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Back in the living room we will finish up today’s tour of our cozy Christmas living room with a closer look at the mantel where I have added some special touches to celebrate our home’s 100th Christmas!

 

 

Of course there is more red velvet ribbon to tie up a gorgeous green and gold set of late 1800’s James Whitcomb Riley “The Children’s Poet” books that I scored at an estate sale in the fall.

 

 

Stacks up vintage books tied up with velvet ribbon with a vintage postcard or greenery tucked in is an easy and elegant way to add vintage style to holiday vignettes.

 

 

I collect vintage Christmas postcards and enjoy displaying them everywhere. The colors or graphics on the cards often inspire whole vignettes. This rare silver century-old Christmas postcard was chosen to match my special commemorative 1921 Father Christmas ornament.

 

 

 

It’s a  fitting ornament for our original 1921 fireplace mantel decked out in vintage-traditional style for the holiday season!

 

 

The beautiful little gold filigree and green jeweled shot glasses along the mantel were thrift store finds from fall. I have repurposed them as candle holders using tiny battery operated tea lights.

 

 

On the opposite side of the mantel is a framed copy of the December 1921 cover of The People’s Home Journal. I think it is darling! Perhaps the lady of the house decked these very halls with holly wreaths 100 years ago! I also added two authentic antique grain sack stockings to each side of the fireplace. They are trimmed with 1920’s lead tinsel.

 

 I actually just put up the stockings to dress up the fireplace a bit more for the tour (I usually use them in the dining room.) I prefer to keep the living room fireplace less cluttered and stocking-free until Christmas eve when we traditionally hang our actual family stockings.

 

 

I also framed a copy of the cover of the Christmas 1921 issue of Good House Keeping Magazine. I am using it in another area of our home which you will see on the full home tour next Wednesday. It is fun to celebrate our home’s 100th Christmas, but the focus should be on the birth of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ— the true reason for the season!

 

I hope you have enjoyed our  cozy Christmas living room and fireplace as well as a few looks at other areas around our home decorated for the most wonderful time of the year!

 

 

Now it’s time to continue on with the beautiful Christmas home tours by heading over to Casa Watkins Living. I know you will enjoy Stephanie’s beautiful globally-inspired holiday home! You can also visit all of the other beautiful tours featured this week via the links below. 

 

Thanks so much for visiting today, and please do come back again soon! Merry Christmas!

Amber

 

Update! Here’s Part 2!

My 100 Year-Old Kentucky Christmas Home Tour

 

Monday Dec 6th

A Stroll Thru Life – Up To Date Interiors – Our Southern Home – Southern Hospitality

This Is Our Bliss – Southern State of Mind – Inspiration For Moms

Tuesday December 7th

Making it in the Mountains – Decor to Adore – Pink Peppermint Design – Thrifty and Chic

Cuckoo4Design – White Arrows Home – Hymns and Verses

Wednesday December 8th

StoneGable – Whispering Pines Homestead – Worthing Court – Grace In My Space

DIY Beautify – Remodelando la Casa – LeCultivateur

Thursday December 9th

Designing Vibes – The Stonybrook House – A Pretty Life – Calypso in the Country

Clean and Scentsible – 11 Magnolia Lane – Chalking Up Success

Friday December 10th

Fox Hollow Cottage – Follow The Yellow Brick Home – Casa Watkins Living – Quarters One

Noting Grace – CitrineLiving – County Road 407