It’s about that time where I would usually share my Christmas home tour with you guys (catch up on last year’s right here).
But I have to confess to something heartbreaking right now: I’m not decorating for Christmas this year.
I know, I know! It pains my Christmas-loving soul!
But I’ve been doing so much around here to get our house ready for sale (we’re talking major de-cluttering, cleaning, simplifying, rearranging) that the thought of dragging out Christmas decorations and the ensuing mess and chaos (which I usually love) has me opting to be “the house without a Christmas tree” this year.
But I’m no Scrooge.
I couldn’t dwell entirely on the laurels of Christmases past. I had to entertain the spirit of Christmas present just a little…
(You might recognize the room above as our dining room. Only it’s not set up as our dining room currently. Since the room is actually supposed to be our home’s second living area, I took out the table and chairs and am staging it as a seating area when we list the house…)
For the month of December, my friends at Ace asked the Ace Bloggers to do a Christmas decorating project with some of the Christmas supplies from our local Ace Hardware stores.
Oh, twist my arm why don’t you?!
Alright fine. You’ve convinced me.
I guess we need a little Christmas… right this very minute.
I stopped by my local Ace and wouldn’t you know, they were having a sale on Christmas decor (yay!), so here’s what I snapped up:
- 2x 6′ Cordless LED garland
- 2x LED Pinecone String Lights
- Gold mercury glass ornaments (carried at my local Ace)
I also needed 6 D batteries for the two garlands which I didn’t realize because I didn’t read the package until I got home (typical!) so I’m sharing this with you so can you be efficient and grab the batteries on the same shopping trip. You know, if you’re into efficiency and all.
This was such an easy but perfect way to decorate the mantel – it will take me all of ten minutes to take it down and pack it back up!
I started by draping the garland with the two battery boxes in the middle of the mantel, so I can just reach over and press the buttons to turn them both on.
Then I ran a slim black extension cord up the middle of the mantel so I could plug both pinecone light strings into it (note: they do not connect with each other, which caused me a little bit of head scratching as I figured out the best way to finagle this), and then wove each strand of pinecone lights into the garland from the middle out.
Finally, I tucked the gold mercury glass ornaments throughout the garland and added a few mantel decorations – some candlesticks, a brass reindeer candle holder, my little Dutch delft houses, and my DIY Merry Christmas banner.
It’s no Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, but let’s enjoy a little lighting ceremony anyway, shall we?
It’s just the coziest place to sit and sip Christmas cocoa now, right?!
I know this next shot is a little crazy-town, but thanks to my wide-angle camera lens, I wanted to share how fun the gold sunburst ceiling medallion is with the Christmas decor… It’s one of my favorite DIY projects in this house!
And now, I warn you, an excess of beauty-shots:
I shared this next shot as a sneakpeek on Instagram along with a little backstory. I was thrilled to find these delft Dutch houses at a thrift store because my family had a very similar set growing up. They are actually liquor bottle souvenirs traditionally given out from certain Dutch airlines. Some research revealed that they depict actual houses from different parts of The Netherlands – mine are marked “Amsterdam Keizersgracht” on the back and a Google image search actually lets you see the very houses these represent!
This painting stays up on the mantel year-round, but I love how the colors work with the new Christmas touches. And those tactile brushstrokes… delicious. ($3 at a thrift store, in case you were wondering!)
I have to tell you guys – as soon as I turned on those Christmas lights and took a step back, it’s like I was taken over by the Christmas spirit. I wanted to deck all the halls, put up all the lights… Logic and reason be damned!
I talked myself down, however, and I’m contenting myself with my little Christmas corner over here while I do un-fun things elsewhere like scrubbing grout and touching up paint.
But dangit, I’ll be wearing my Santa hat!
Speaking of…
My friends at Ace are playing Santa as well and want to hook one of you up with a $100 Ace Hardware gift card!
Enter to win through the Rafflecopter widget below:
Open to U.S. residents, age 18+. Runs 12/14-12/20. One winner will be selected at random and notified by email and in this post. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.
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I couldn’t be more excited to be a member of the Ace Bloggers panel this year and to partner with Ace on this post! Ace Hardware provided me with the materials for this project and I was also compensated for my time and this post. All opinions and positions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Ace Hardware. |
i love your mantle- it’s beautiful! and i love your santa hat. and at first when i was reading about the house with no tree i could hear stevie wonder singing someday at christmas… and then you said we need a little christmas and of course then i could only hear that song… so your post was lit up with blinking lights and very musical. 😉 the mantle looks so fab- i love the art, houses, and little brynne touches!
Aw, thank you so much Cassie! I was feeling pretty musical myself when I was pulling it together! 😀
Your dining room was what caught my eye and I had to follow your blog. I must say I fell hard for your DIY ceiling medallion – and the gorgeous copper candle holder you made for your table. After seeing all the white spaces that are every where in blog land, your blog was a welcome respite. Your mantel is just lovely.
Thank you, Jeannie! That’s so neat to hear! I do love white spaces in other people’s homes, but just can’t resist layering on the colors in my own! 🙂
The card will be given to my husband to buy tools and such for work.
That’s so sweet, Lisa! Good luck to you!
I love your deer candle holder and always look forward to your posts! Thanks for the chance to win 🙂
Thank you so much, Nina! Hope you’re having a lovely holiday season!
I would buy supplies to finally tackle my home office! Or maybe buy the exact same Christmas decorations you did because they’re beautiful! :o)
Thanks Kristin! Good luck to you on the giveaway!
love love the house xx
Thank you so much Chris! 🙂
Love your mantel, Brynne, and I so have the jealous. Having a fireplace was my one and only must have for our house and it’s the one thing we did not get. Seeing your mantel, I think we may have to go on a hunt at the “Restores” or a salvage yard to find one to refurbish and set up in our home just so I can have a mantel to decorate. Love the cordless LED garland and will be heading out this weekend to our local ACE to try and find some. Wish me luck on that!
Oh yes, what a great idea, Peg! I’ll be honest – our fireplace is actually in non-working order at the moment! So yes, while sitting by a nice fire would be lovely, all I really care about is decorating the mantel, haha. Here’s hoping you can find the garland at your local Ace! 🙂
Thanks for offer to win!
Love your cozy Christmas mantel! And next year you’ll be able to go big with Christmas!
🙂 Linda
Thank you Linda! Yes, so excited to go so BIG with Christmas next year! Just one more thing to look forward to!
I would give it to my daughter who just bought her first house!!
That’s so sweet, Susan! Good luck to you!
Very festive!
Thank you Vicki! 🙂
I absolutely love those pine cone string lights. So so pretty!
I’m so happy I found them, Julia! They’re so fun! Thank you! 😀
It looks great! One of these years I’m actually going to get some garland up around here! And I TRIED to get a similar shot of our chess set with lights all artfully blurry in the background, and I failed miserably. So nice job! 🙂
Thank you Gretchen! I’m so excited to finally have some garland myself! My new 35mm f/1.8 lens is my favorite ever – I’m definitely in danger of OVERdoing the bokeh shots this Christmas 😉
Love the pinecone string lights! Love your mantel 🙂
I love your mantle. Some seasons, I think that less is more… then it makes me appreciate all of my decorations that much more the next year.
I’d love to make some picture for our living room, so we’d probably get stuff for that.
I feel a little bit better about confessing that we’re also not decorating for Christmas this year. It feels so wrong but we are 1 touch up coat of paint away from finishing up a house renovation and it has zapped my creative side completely. Our house is a little dim on the outside but I’m thinking I may just be able to tackle a small deco project like your mantle. Thanks for the inspiration!
Ohmygoodness I would buy all the stock of those cute pinecone lights – love those!
Better late than never comment, but such a lovely setup you have there! That pine cone garland strand is such a perfect touch on the pine garland. And those darling houses are so dang cute!!
Thanks Trisha! I’m definitely excited for next Christmas where I can [hopefully] go all out house-wide again! 🙂