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Christmas Decorations (Part 2: Downstairs)

Yesterday, I showed you the upstairs, as it is decorated for Christmas. Today is all about the main floor.

PInk Christmas Tree

I did find a better place for my DIY Colorblock Christmas trees than the dining room hutch. I split them into two groups and put half on a side table, along with a snow globe, little brass tree, and tiny deer. I have a lot of deer in the house right now. I put the others on the coffee table. I added a poinsettia (poisonous! [oops, they're not]) and my Eames bird (sharp little spike feet!) for the photo shoot, but those are both now safely out of reach. The kids play on the coffee table everyday, so I usually keep it completely cleared.

Colorblock Christmas Trees

Fa la la la la, pink Christmas tree.

Pink Christmas Tree!

So, the pink bulbs. They’re not my favorite. I love (LOVE) my pink Christmas tree, but I’ve always wished the bulbs were clear. Well over a third of them were burnt out, and we’ve tried many times to find replacements. Last year, I called Treetopia (the company I bought the tree from) to ask about replacements, and they said that they couldn’t help. This year, I tried again because we had the magazine shoot scheduled, and I didn’t want a bunch of dark spots on the tree (since I’m sure the pink tree is what they were most interested in). Apparently you can now buy replacement bulbs, and the “lightbulb specialist” I talked to said that they were available in clear with a pink base. Huzzah! Two weeks went by, and I received my bulbs. I ordered 250 clear bulbs, I received 50 pink ones. Better than nothing, but not what I was hoping for. Thus, the onslaught of hot pink lighting. Supposedly replacements will be on their way, probably sometime in January. I like pink as much as the next person (OK, way more), but I want those clear bulbs.

That was a fun tree-light diatribe. Onward, to the dining room!

Christmas Living and Dining Rooms

I picked up all of the mercury glass on sale from west elm, and the banner across the window is from Minted and Alt Summit. The rest of the table setting was done with what we already had on hand.

Christmas in the Dining Room

There are a couple of kid-friendly flameless candles in the corner, and a few twee vignettes in the hutch. Our stockings are hanging by the built-in, and that area has also been de-coned, as noted. There was just too much going on over there. Related: Oh look, more deer!

Dining Room Christmas Details

Christmas Ornaments, Christmas Tree on a Toy Car

This is what the table will look like when we host a family brunch on Christmas Eve. Except, you know, with food. I’m angling for Chilaquiles. That’s sort of festive, with some red and green, right?

Dining Room, Set for Christmas

I’m looking forward to seeing all of our decorations as photographed by a pro. I’m not sure if I’ll get a sneak peek, or if I have to wait until next year when the magazine comes out. I’m eager to see it though! When I was contacted for a possible shoot, I responded “you know our tree is pink, right?”

Seriously, those clear bulbs need to get here.

Dining Room, Looking into the Living Room at Christmas

DIY Colorblock Christmas Trees

Christmas Decorations in the Dining Room

Here’s a cute DIY project to add a little sparkle and shine to your holiday! These colorblock Christmas trees took a few hours to create, but if you simplified the palette (and skipped the glitter paint), you could finish them in about an hour. Here’s what you’ll need.

Supplies

DIY Colorblock Christmas Trees (Supplies)

The smaller cones were to be glittered on one side, so I first painted the entire cone in a solid color. The larger cones were each going to be painted one one side with metallic paint (which I knew to have good coverage), so I started by taping them off and painting just half in a solid color. It’s easier to tape a cone vertically, though I’m sure these would look fantastic done horizontally if you’re up for the challenge.

DIY Colorblock Christmas Trees

Acrylic paint dries quickly. I found that by the time I was done painting the last of my six cones, the first would be ready for another coat (I did three on each). After the last coat had dried, I removed the old tape from the larger cones and retaped them to paint the other sides. The metallic paints I used looked good after just one coat, but I still did three — because I am weird and like to keep things even.

DIY Colorblock Christmas Trees

Adding the glitter… there went the whole ‘keeping things even’ idea. I lost count of how many coats of glitter paint I used! I knew they would take a while to build coverage, and I think I may have put 10-12 coats of paint on each cone. Early on in the process, I considered ditching the paint and just using glitter, but it was my hope that by using the glitter paint, each Christmas tree would be less likely to flake and leave a sparkly trail wherever she may go.

DIY Colorblock Christmas Trees - Adding Glitter

So far, so good. The glitter is staying put, and I love the two-tone effect.

DIY Colorblock Trees

I’m not sure if I’ve found the perfect place for these yet though. I like the effect of the mirror, doubling them and showing off both sides, but there’s already a lot going on in the hutch above, and with the stockings below. What do you think?

Christmas Decorations in the Dining Room

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scotchblue, scotchblue painter's tape, painter's tape, tape

This post is a collaboration with ScotchBlue™ Painter’s Tape. To join the creative community, visit www.facebook.com/ScotchBlue.

Monogram Place Cards (Free Printable)

 
These holiday printables are brought to you by HP. Make other easy printable projects at HP’s Holiday HQ.

Last week, I shared my printable monogram Christmas gift tags with you. This week, I thought it would be fun to design and share matching place cards.

Christmas Table Setting

My sister-in-law always has a beautifully set table for special occasions and holidays. She includes place cards, even when it’s just close family coming over, so I’m taking a cue from her entertaining style here.

Dining Room with the Table Set for Christmas

You might notice that I’ve swapped out the foxes in the dining room hutch for ornaments. I haven’t completely finished decorating for Christmas yet, but I’ll be sure to share more photos of the house when I’m done. The pink Christmas tree is up but not completely trimmed, as I was focusing on the dining room first.

(I do miss my little foxes though! I’ll be putting them back up after the holidays.)

Free Printable Place Cards from Making it Lovely

If you’d like to, you can download the place cards and print them out for yourself too. Just cut them down to size (a paper cutter or a ruler and a razor will give you the cleanest lines), then fold each card in half. A bone folder will give you the cleanest result, but it’s not necessary.

(p.s. These will work as gift tags too — just cut them in half. They won’t have the “Merry and Bright” message, but that means you could use them year-round!)

Free Printable Monogram Place Cards

New Marais Chairs in the Dining Room

Making it Lovely's Dining Room

I recently wrote elsewhere about the evolution of my dining room. Everything is always changing a little around here, and the latest big difference is that the dining room has new chairs. Woot! I switched out some of the pieces in my built-in hutch too. So long, all white; hello, pink and coral.

Coral, Pink, and White Ceramics

I still have the other chairs down in the basement because it feels wrong to break up the set. I love my vintage dining table, with its beautiful wood grain and modern trestle base, but the chairs weren’t working well for us. The kids were getting food all over the upholstery, and the wood was getting dinged up from too many run-ins with a toy stroller, a toy shopping cart, and too many toy cars. The cats were equally to blame for the chairs’ downfall too. The seats were constantly furry because they slept on them, and breaking out the vacuum every time you’d like to sit isn’t terribly practical.

Dining Room

I’d been considering new chairs for a long time, but hesitated because I wasn’t sure what I wanted. I like Eames chairs in a dining room, but I think my house has reached its Eames quota. I figured it was time for either plastic, bare wood (like these spindle/stick-back chairs), or metal.

Making it Lovely's Office, Dining Room, and Living Room

I had contacted Industry West ages ago, with a proposal to work together on my basement studio. They provided four of their Marais A Side Chairs, which I’d intended to use as seating around my faux-Saarinen tulip table. I brought them up to the dining room on a whim one day though, and I really liked them around the wood dining table.

The chairs are narrower than the wooden ones we had, so I was able to add some additional seating around the dining table. I bought two more side chairs for the sides, and two arm chairs for the ends.

Brandon and Eleanor in the Dining Room

Yep, we like ‘em. The chairs are good for crawling around between too, and for putting on puppet shows. You know, the important stuff.

Puppet Show

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