It’s the most wonderful time of the year and I am super excited to share our holiday home this year as we are celebrating it’s 100th birthday! I am still decorating so I  will be breaking the areas of our home in several posts over the next few weeks culminating in one special full Christmas tour of my 100 year-0ld Kentucky home! Today I am sharing my dining room tree, cozy corner and faux mantel decor, as well as a  sneak peek of our new side entry “mini-mudroom” makeover! 

I am honored to be joining my friend Kelley of The Tattered Pew and 28 other amazing bloggers in sharing holiday decor inspiration this week for the Blogger’s Best Holiday Home Tours. You can check out each tour via the links at the end of this post.  If you are coming over from talented Lora Bloomquist Create and Ponder or if you just happened to stop by, I am so happy to welcome you into our home this season. 

Notice the tartan scarf hanging from a salvaged 1920’s coat hook? That’s an offical Clan Ferguson (made in Scotland) tartan scarf!

It’s going to take some time to figure out how to photograph this space since it has three levels,  a set of stairs and weird angles. I had to step outside to get a good shot of the elegant full-length beveled glass frameless mirror that my husband installed on the original closet door at the top of the stairs.  Generally our house is very dark since the front faces a forest, but this side entrance and the kitchen get full sun. The mirror brightens up the entry making it feel larger, and actually helps bounce some light into the living room as well.  

 

 

Or I could just get really good at photoshopping myself out. I don’t think I would be noticed anyway with the reflection of the dreamy 1920’s style tear-drop chandy! I have been waiting for seven years to find the perfect chandelier for this space and I couldn’t be happier with the choice!  

 

I’ve never really had much of a reason to take photos in this space, so there’s going to be quite a bit of a learning curve to find out what will work. There’s a lot of beauty crammed into this small area now, definitely making it worth sharing. It had been neglected, but now it’s full of historic charm with a stylish, updated look.

Over the years I have refined my Christmas decorating to a simpler and more elegant traditional-vintage style which perfectly suits the age and character of our home. This little hall is decked with a realistic faux cedar garland draped around the mirror with a beautiful wide, green-dominant tartan plaid ribbon and DIY dried orange slices ornaments. These decorative elements are repeated all throughout our home for the holidays and winter.     

Here is a look back at last year’s living room entry and staircase where I used a similar smaller plaid ribbon on the banister garland. I love this vintage-traditional look, so I am using the same plaid ribbon this year, with the addition of orange slices on the garland.  Since the mini-mudroom side entry leads just into the living room, I like to keep the decor cohesive.  

I also used the same plaid ribbon on last year’s main Christmas tree in the music room (“The Christmas Room.”) Obviously, I am very mad for plaid! This year I swapped out this smaller ribbon with the wider plaid ribbon that is on the hallway mirror, so I had plenty of the smaller plaid ribbon to use on my dining room tree this year.         

Before heading to taking a look at some of this year’s dining room decor, let’s pass through the kitchen which is just to the left of the mini-mudroom entry. The spaces flow beautifully due to the kitchen’s bead board walls, vintage cabinetry, trim, and paint color.   

I loved last year’s festive kitchen Christmas decor so I am only going to make a few changes. My husband just built and installed my dream European style pastry table/island about a week before Thanksgiving, so that will be fun new area to style (and use!) for the Christmas season.  

I am sticking with the plaid and black ticking stripe pillows again because  they seem absolutely perfect for the window seat, so I definitely will be using them this year. I did swipe the Kentucky pillow to use in the dining room this year and I am loving it there too.     

I think the Kentucky pillow looks just as perfect in the dining room on the antique church pew next to the flocked tree in the corner. The tree has a new look that I am totally loving this year!  

As mentioned earlier, green is my favorite color, so I love having an excuse to go overboard with every shade of green during the holidays. I couldn’t choose which of the dark green velvet pillows I wanted to use on the church pew, so in the end I decided, “the more green, (and the more velvet)  the merrier!” 

      The more plaid and tartan, the merrier too!    

This is the first year I have used ribbon or any kind of  plaid on the flocked tree, but I think it might be my favorite tree ever. I got the idea to try the plaid ribbon since I I plenty left over after swapping it out for the same wider ribbon that I draped on the entry hall mirror.  

For my home tour next Friday I will share how this tree is looking this year. It nearly the same as last  year’s tree shown here, with our traditional and family ornaments but with the new, wider plaid ribbon. The wider ribbon a subtle change, but the width makes quite an impact and looks more proportionate.    

The colorful rug from Birch Lane was the basis for my Spring Dining room refresh, and it also ended up being part of the inspiration for using more of the deeper bluish greens in this year’s slightly different Dining room Christmas decor color scheme.    

  Even though the rug has quite a bit of red and a little bit of olive green I almost packed it up for the holidays thinking all the blue would clash with my overall traditional red and green Christmas decor, but I made it work. The Kentucky pillow, bluish green tartan throw and some dark teal-green battery-operated candles from Pottery Barn on top of the vintage chest pull everything together. Even the dried orange slice ornaments tie in with the rusty reds in the rug.  

        This flocked tree from Big Lots is four years old and still looking so lovely. It’s is factory glued into a large contemporary square bronze pot that doesn’t work with my overall vintage style, so I have always just covered it with a tree skirt because I could never find a container or basket large enough for the odd shaped pot. This year it is sitting beautifully in a large woven basket I bought to contain shoes in the mudroom entry. The basket was too large for the entry but I knew it would come in handy so I kept it! The extra shoes are dumped out in the family room floor, but hey, the tree looks good! Also, I just noticed the stray greenery on the floor. That particular piece “disappeared” when I was styling the top of the dresser and I frantically looked everywhere for it! It was right under my feet and I didn’t realize it until working on this post. Keepin’ it real over here!

    In the past I have decorated the flocked tree with vintage s]Shiny Brites or an icy winter theme, but I went even more simple this year, continuing the vintage-traditional Christmas theme with the plaid ribbon, dried orange slices, thrifted holly berry picks, gorgeous dark emerald green ornaments and a few rustic oversized pinecones.     

Late last Christmas season I decorated the faux fireplace and mantel in the dining room in much the same way, with a just a bit more vintage and shabby-French farmhouse vibes.   

    I just can’t get enough of dried orange slices and cloved orange pomanders! They look and smell so good!    

This year my 16-year old son (a talented chef) sliced up the oranges for me with his fancy professional knives so they look much better than the ones I have made in the past.  (Thanks Liam!) We dehydrated them in the oven on a cookie sheet for 6 hours on 200 degrees. The next day my chamber choir students helped me put wire through each dried orange slices to make the ornaments as we practiced the songs for their upcoming holiday concerts.( Thanks Eli, Hannah, and Victoria!) Another student tried to take a bite out of one and found out that they don’t taste nearly as yummy as they smell!

I haven’t had a chance to style a festive tablescape yet, but I will certainly be using lots more cloved oranges, greenery and lots of plaid and other traditional elements on the antique farm table.

The tablescape from my 2019 Christmas tour would be beautiful this year too, perfectly coordinating with the tree.

In addition to dried oranges and orange pomanders, battery operated candles really can really add that old world vibe to any tree. After Christmas last year I purchased a set of gorgeous tree candles from Amazon and I loved them so much that I decided order another set this year so I can use them here on the flocked tree and also on our main tree in the music room.    

The candles make the tree and dining room seem especially cozy in the evening. I love the lighting just before the sun goes down.  

The candle holders have a crystal sphere at the bottom which ties in with our original 1921 crystal glass door knobs throughout our home. Simple green velvet ribbon tied to the base of each candle adds even more vintage elegance to the tree.    

      Mixing rustic, vintage, traditional with a touches of  English cottage, French Farmhouse or Victorian Christmas is my tried and true way to achieve old world holiday elegance that gives my family and friends all the old-fashioned Christmas feels in our 100-year old home.  

    The dining room corner is the only “snowy” area of our Christmas home with the flocked tree and some other snowy elements, so I thought these little snowmen would be perfect here to welcome December.        

The snowmen are cutesy on their own,  but the vignette still seems elegant the roses,  all the velvet ribbon, pine cone wreath on the vintage mirror, and the gorgeous antique embossed red, green and gold thrifted books under the footed raised tray. 

      I hope you have enjoyed seeing how the dining room is looking so far as well as a sneak peak of the new side mini-mudroom entryway. I certainly hope you will stop back by several times this holiday season and especially for my big Christmas home tour celebrating our home decked for the holidays and it’s 100th birthday! I will also be sharing a full mini-mudroom reveal with before and after photos soon. 

Now it’s time to continue on with all the beautiful tours. Next up is Dabbling and Decorating. I adore Ann’s style! You can visit all the tours via the links below. They are all amazing!

Merry Christmas!

Amber  

Bloggers’ Best Holiday Home Tours

This week my friends and I are sharing our homes all dressed up for the holidays. We hope you will have fun visiting each of the tours below!

Monday’s Tours

The Tattered Pew

My Thrift Store Addiction

Bricks n’ Blooms

Midwest Life and Style

A Life Unfolding

Tuesday’s Tours

Simply2Moms

She Gave It A Go

Willow Bloom Home Blog

Shiplap and Shells

Sand Dollar Lane

Fiddle Leaf Blog

Wednesday’s Tours

Cottage On Bunker Hill

Open Doors Open Hearts

Thistle Key Lane

Cloches and Lavender

Pasha Is Home

A Blue Nest

Thursday’s Tours

Noting Grace

County Road 407

Sweet Pea

StoneGable

Robyn’s French Nest

The Ponds Farmhouse

Friday’s Tours

Lora Bloomquist Create and Ponder

Follow The Yellow Brick Home

Dabbling and Decorating

My Family Thyme

Cottage In The Mitten

The Aspiring Home