Sharing my modern but cozy holiday home tour! We’ve decked out our family home for Christmas with fresh cut greenery, DIY holiday decorations and cozy lights and candles!
Today I’m excited to be sharing my cozy modern holiday home tour with you! It’s 2020 and as much as this year looks totally different in terms of our celebrating… my decorations don’t look all that different. But you know, I’ve figured out what we like and I don’t feel the need to change it up all too much. It does look totally different though thanks to a few makeovers we did this year (hello new mantel + dining room!).
I’m sharing my home tour as part of the Seasonal Simplicity Holiday Home Tour series, I’ll link all of the tours down at the bottom, but if you’re here from Cuckoo for Design, welcome!
Alright, let’s start in the entryway, as if you’re coming over for coffee.
As always, you can watch the video here or scroll down to see it all in photos and text! Home tours are one of the few times I think the photos and text really outshine the video :)
So somehow I missed taking any real photos of my entryway! I had taken some for this post and I think I just got confused. But here she is! Garland and all. I put this garland on the railing for this post about a month ago and had planned to move it back to over my sink like last year, but after living with it there… I fell in love with it! It keeps my kids from throwing their snowpants over the railing and that in itself is a win.
From the other angle, you can see the paper bag snowflakes we made. The tiny ones I made in this blog post I LOVED on my Christmas tree but I wanted to add more. I couldn’t find any more of those tiny bags and was so bummed. My friend suggested I add some bigger ones as an installation and I’m so glad I did. It made me a little less sad my tree couldn’t be covered in the itty bitty ones.
When we head into the dining room, I kept it pretty simple. This room saw a refresh this year which added some coziness and texture so I didn’t feel like it needed much. These candle holders I found at a thrift store years ago. Adding black taper candles modernizes them a bit and I love the contrast.
I bought these black tapers from Michaels in the wedding section last Christmas with a coupon- they’re super affordable that way. I loved the candle holders I used last year but have had these brass tapers on my table for the last month or so and have grown accustomed to them. I added some cedar branches I cut off of my dad’s tree to finish it off.
Other than that, I added some faux flocked greenery on top of the DIY canvas and the flocked tree in the corner with our activity advent calendar. I do an activity advent calendar every year, this year we just wrote them inside tiny envelopes, but you could do any kind of display with this idea. You can read more about it here.
Since I took these photos, we’ve covered the dining room windows in paper snowflakes- one of my favourite things we do each winter.
In the kitchen I kept it really simple. I prefer clear counters and minimal clutter in the kitchen. We fill these counters with kids doing crafts at the bar stools, dishes, art drying and me cooking… adding more just feels stressful so we avoid it. That said, I definitely spotted some beautifully decorated kitchens on the ‘gram and had that feeling of not doing enough. If you’re looking at someone else’s home, just remind yourself what works for your family isn’t what works for everyone. And that’s OK :)
I swapped out any grasses in vases from the fall for greenery in vases and swapped my pumpkin smelling candles for Frasier Fir. My favourite simple decor for each season. I also popped some flocked trees on the counter, but honestly…they might go back in a bin, because this counter is where my kids pile their dirty dishes and I keep picturing them getting covered with spilled milk.
Into the living room, the Christmas tree is obviously the star! We have a fake tree thanks to allergies (me!). I love the look of this one, but it’s getting a big ‘holey’ where branches have been broken. It was a hand me down to our family 7 or so years ago. We fill the holes with flocked picks from Michaels (I wish I’d bought more before they discontinued them!) and those giant sparkly pinecones.
The past 5… or so years, I’ve used the same birch ribbon for our tree and we just didn’t have enough of it to wrap around the tree now that it’s not shoved in a corner. I took the black velvet ribbon off my office tree just to see what it looked like and I really do love it. I’ll probably change it up again next year- but for this year it’s perfect. Our ornaments are a mix of handlettered ones I’ve created over the years (that Bah Humbug One is my favourite!), gifted ornaments (like those marquee letters!) and other ornaments my kids picked out of the bin.
I think we have less ornaments on our tree this year than we ever have. But our basement tree is HEAPED in ornaments… like sometimes 4 per branch. It’s all about balance, right ;)
Other than the tree, I spoiled myself with some flowers. I like to treat myself to fresh flowers for cleaning my house for home tours. It’s a top to bottom purge and scrub and that kind of work deserves flowers. I save money by buying just a few stems from the local florist and foraging branches from our yard (and the forest). This way, I’m able to fill my whole house with arrangements for the cost of one grocery store bouquet.
Both the vases in the living room (and both the vase and nativity on the mantel!) were spray paint projects the day before photos. I loved the shape of them but the texture and/or the colour were just not great. I sprayed them with a stone effect spray paint then a white spray paint (or black for the mantel ones) and love the way they turned out. I’m wanting to give this treatment to so many plain white vases I have tucked away!
The only other things we have in the living room are some festive pillow covers (of course, they’re hand lettered too… can’t wait to get these back in my store!) and some cute reindeer on my console table. Which is basically a plant table at this point. And I’ll tell you a secret… I removed a few plants from the table so it didn’t look like too much of a jungle just for this tour. They’re chilling in my bedroom. I’ll take any and all plant display suggestions because 2020 has my plant lady tendencies leveling up.
Over to the mantel, I stuck to my usual setup with a tall vase on one side (to balance out the wall beside the fireplace on the other side) and a lower arrangement on the opposite side. I used the same stockings as last year, we had these really cute ones made with our names on them so we’ll probably keep them forever! The new wood mantel that we put up this year really called for fresh greenery, so I used cedar boughs from my dad’s tree over here as well. I wound some fairy lights in because we can use as much holiday magic as we can get.
The other space I wanted to share is our bathroom! We renovated this space this year as well and it’s totally a dream to have, so I had to add some Christmas touches to share with you. Again, I used some cedar in a vase but then I spotted these bottlebrush trees from the dollar store… YES THE DOLLAR STORE when I was in there getting paper bags. They shed everywhere but they’re so darn pretty, you guys. The colour is perfect with those amber glass details I have in the bathroom!
I styled the bathtub with the setup I wish I was enjoying right now. A holiday scented candle and magazine full of Christmas decor. If you love the look of this bath caddy, lemme just tell you that it cost me like $12 to make years ago and you should probably make one for everyone on your Christmas list.
Alright, I will leave it at that… now that I’ve shared the day vs night photos because those make my heart so happy! Thank you so much for joining me on my cozy modern holiday home tour! I hope that you found some inspiration or at very least, some permission to do… less ;) If you’re here on the Seasonal Simplicity home tour, your next stop on the tour is my friend Lindi from Love Create Celebrate, or check all the homes in the tour out below!
Sharing with me today…
Tuesday
Cassie Bustamante / Cuckoo4Design / Lemon Thistle / Love Create Celebrate
tatertots & jello / Jennifer Maune / She Gave it a Go / Clean & Scentsible
And sharing the rest of the week…
Monday
The Happy Housie / Inspiration for Moms / Maison de Cinq / This is Simplicite
Chrissy Marie Blog / Modern Glam / Nick & Alicia
Wednesday
The Handmade Home / Finding Silver Pennies / Joanna Anastasia / Amber Tysl
The DIY Mommy / My Sweet Savannah / Dans le Lakehouse / Fynes Designs
Thursday
Two Twenty One / Cherished Bliss / Life is Better at Home / All Things With Purpose
This is Our Bliss / Home Made Lovely / Place of My Taste
Friday
The Tattered Pew / Life is a Party / Rambling Renovators / House by Hoff
Deeply Southern Home / Grace in My Space / Taryn Whiteaker Designs / Just a Girl and Her Blog
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So pretty! I love everything you have done and those shots at night are extra special.
Everything looks so cozy + inviting Colleen, especially all lit up at night! SO beautiful! Happy holidays my friend!
I’ve already watched your whole video, but I had to stop by here too! Love your home Colleen! Beautifully decorated :)
It looks beautiful Colleen! Love all of your hand lettering projects especially! Such a warm and cozy space to enjoy Christmas. Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday season. xo
So lovely and cozy. I also love your black candles ;)
Your house is always a favourite of mine and it looks so pretty all dressed up for Christmas. I especially love all your hand lettering touches and fresh greens!
Looks beautiful, Colleen! I love your sign on the mantel and your sweet stockings. So much pretty greenery! Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to you and your sweet family, friend:)