Five Styles of Christmas: Modern Eclectic Holiday Decor Tour

Happy Friday and 9 days til Christmas!  I am excited to share Part II of our Holiday Tour with you!  Last week, I shared the first part of our tour which focused on our main living spaces.  At this time, our holiday decor is limited to our a portion of our first floor.  As our family (hopefully) grows, I may extend this into bedrooms and also decorate spaces that have currently not been renovated.  If a room is not renovated yet....it doesn't get any love!

Today I am excited to share with you our entry, kitchen, and a touch of holiday in our powder room.  I have also taken some nighttime shots of the living/dining room which shows holiday decor at night with the the magic of Christmas lights!

I have not really shared many pictures of our kitchen yet.  There are still some finishing touches that need to be completed but I thought I would share the current situation.

The Christmas touches in our kitchen are simple.  A couple of wreaths have been added to bring in some beautiful greenery into a very white room.  

Our cactus (yes, it's real) has been wrapped in twinkle lights and topped up with some playful reindeer antlers.  

More fresh eucalyptus dresses our vent hood and a different variety serves as a simple centerpiece for our breakfast nook.  

The branches by our sink are foraged from the PNW.  This is a place close to my heart as we were married on Cannon Beach and I fell in love with the PNW during my honeymoon.  

Unfortunately, I do not have the proper camera equipment to photograph small spaces (Ohhhhh Rebecca!!! :) ).  I have a total of one powder room bath picture that I was able to photograph.  I kept it super simple in the bathroom and added fresh eucalyptus in lieu of the usual rose.

Our entryway is not yet complete, but I still wanted to add some Christmas cheer for our guests to see when they walk in.  I added lights and ornaments our current entryway decor.  I added some fresh garland and a quick DIY art (yeah yeah, I know it looks like a 5 year old made it).  

Now, I am really excited to share the night time tour of our living and dining room.  I am at a 1st grade level with use of my DSLR camera but overall, I am pretty pleased with how these pictures turned out.  I LOVE sitting in our living room with the Christmas lights on, a lit candle, hot tea, and some cheesy Netflix movie.  Have you seen A Christmas Prince? Christmas in the Smokies? A Christmas Kiss? I love me some Lifetime-esque themed holiday movies. 

Our dining area glows with the help of these little battery operated tea lights.  They are such a great deal at $10 for 24 lights!

The tea houses are a buy from an after Christmas sale.  However, similar ones can be found at Target here and here.  You can make them your own by painting them and adding details such as gold garland, painted roofs, etc.  The sky is the limit!

The mercury glass votive holders are from West Elm and World Market.  Both are very budget friendly options and really add a touch of subtle Christmas decor to a space.  

And here our tree glows in all her glory.  She is the heart of the decor and omits the most beautiful warm glow.  The light highlights the flocked goodness of the pine and reflects different colors of lights off the various glass ball ornaments.  

Well folks, that brings us to the end of my tour and the week of tours.  No matter what style you love, there are so many ways to bring in holiday decor into your home in a unique and special way.  Hopefully you found some inspiration during the week!  Thanks so much for following along! 

xo

Saher 

Eclectic Home Tour: Welcome to Our Wooded Winter Wonderland

Merry *early* Christmas!  I am so excited to have been invited by Jess from Domicile 37  to join her Christmas 2017 Eclectic Home Tour!  If you are visiting from her page or any of the other participating designers, welcome to House Haus Home!

When I was first invited to join the tour, I thought, "Am I eclectic?"  

Webster's Definition:

eclectic

adjective   eclec·tic   \  i-ˈklek-tik ,  e- \'

Definition of eclectic

1: composed of elements drawn from various sources;  

2: selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it appears that I am!

Now onto our tour!

Sticking to my neutral palette, I found myself drawn to bringing nature into our home this year.  Our tree is a 7 foot flocked tree decorated with a mixture of blush, gold, silver, white, and glittery champagne ornaments.  The lights throughout the tree are a warm white. 

In addition to the basic ball ornaments, I added faux birds, flowers, and feathers to give the tree a glamorous, but natured inspired look.  

Our tree skirt white faux fur and brings a lush look of a blanket of snow as the base of our tree and presents.  The large brass deer is vintage and is finding himself a home under the flocked goodness this holiday season.

Overall, our holiday decor is pretty simple this year.  Our mantle is dressed with fresh cedar garland, mercury candle holders from West Elm, and a couple more vintage brass deer (I own a family of 6) as the main focal point.  

The bells are from Target from last season and the letter ornaments are from West Elm, but from a couple of seasons ago.  Our stockings are faux fur and are a mix of black, gray, and snow white.  I purchased mine from Home Goods years back but I have seen them every year since.  

The garland has small battery operated LED lights throughout and the glow that the various light sources bring to the room in the evening is magica

Moving into the dining room, the theme continues.  A beautiful eucalyptus garland with a mixture of candles, acorns, birds, and another member of the vintage deer family find themselves at home.  

The garland was made by Allyson, the owner of Willow and Star Flowers, here in Indianapolis.  I purchased the garland for Thanksgiving and at that time it had the most beautiful scent.  As the garland has dried, it still provides the green from nature and has lasted throughout the holidays.

Behind the dining table, I have put together our little tea house village.  These light up and are a mixture of matte white, bronze, and touches of gold.  This color extends into the bottlebrush trees which are finds from Home Goods and Target.

The preserved boxwood wreath has a touch of buffalo plaid and is hung on my favorite Anthropologie mirror  (FYI-wait for a sale, the coupon code will apply!)

Our coffee table had a quick switch-a-roo of two items.  The mini Norfolk pine is from IKEA and has been decorated with mini ornaments and the same LED lights as previously mentioned.  

I DIY'd several items this year as I did not want to spend too much on holiday decor (Actually, most of the stuff was already owned)!  The brass bowl in the centerpiece is filled with two sizes of frosted glass balls from Hobby Lobby.  I strung the LED lights throughout several of them and the bowl gives off a beautiful glow at night. 

The pillows in the background are a mix  black leather, velvet chartreuse, and this cute Reindeer in smoking jacket.  He has a girlfriend on the other side of the couch. 

Similar to the coffee table, I only switched out a few items on our bar cart.  I brought in this gold glass Christmas tree, added some garland and lights, and Mr. Monkey is showing he can be a good boy with his angel headband.  I love adding a bit of whimsy to all of my designs.  

 A few touches of Christmas were added to the shelves.  This DiY was super simple and I made it while making an Instastory! The branch on the inside comes from our own yard, the brass dome is from IKEA, the clear 4" ornament is from Hobby Lobby and my ole faithful lights are strung inside.  

There are few other touches of Christmas sprinkled throughout the living room.  The opposite brass shelf has a little gold tree and the side table has some more fresh eucalyptus.  

Well, that is it for now!  Stay tuned for Part II of my Holiday Tour next week when I will be hosting #5stylesofchristmas.

Monday

Domicile 37 // Desert Domicile //Kobel & Co. // Whimsical Blue Living

Tuesday

The Gathered Home // Casa Watkins Living // Up To Date Interiors

Wednesday

Monica Wants It // Designing Vibes // Maker of Home // Michelle Matangi

Thursday

A Designer at Home // Style Mutt Home // Jessica Brigham // The Rath Project

Friday

House Homemade // House Haus Home // Jeweled Interiors // Domicile 37

One Room Challenge-Office Reveal

What day is today? Today is One Room Challenge Reveal Day! 

It's here! It's here!  My office is DONE!  After 18 months of living in this house and using the office as storage, I finally have place of my own to do all my "arts and crafts" (my husband's words).  

If you are new to visiting House Haus Home, welcome and thanks for visiting!  I suggest taking a quick peek at week one for before pictures of the space.  It was filled with wall to wall orange bookcases, windows were blocked by them, and it lacked character.  

So without further adieu, I am so excited to show you our home office!

The office is located right off of our living room so I wanted the room design to easily flow from one room to the next.  A set of double doors (which were previous louvre doors and DIY'd to a solid panel) separate the two spaces.  

Both sides of the doors have lucite and brass DIY door pulls (DIY coming next week) to maintain a cohesive look whether the doors are open or closed.  Usually when I am working in the office, I have the doors to the living room open (where Chris is normally watching something that annoys me ;) )

Below is the view from the living room and looking into the office.  

If you follow me on Instagram, there is no secret that I have a love for neutrals.  I prefer designing my own home with a neutral base palette and adding in texture, prints, interesting art and objects, and organic elements such as plants, faux furs, geodes, metals, etc.  

The office continues my home's design formula and is filled with a patterned rug, DIY faux fur throw, organic elements such as crystals and geodes, (faux) plants, and for this shoot we have LIVE flowers (that's a big deal since we have a wooded lot and north facing windows for our living, dining, and office).  

I wanted the room to be designed beautifully but most importantly, I needed it to be functional.  Our office is a decent size for an office space but it is still small.  I originally purchased the Lack Desk in black from IKEA but it felt cluttered and the line of sight was blocked by this big black rectangle.  Thanks to the suggestion of a friend (Thanks, Christi!), I purchased a glass desk.  I am usually very anti glass tables and desks because they show every fingerprint, but in this case, having the desk made of glass kept the space open instead of heavy and cluttered.  Also, having a glass desk also offers a space to work on my "arts and crafts" without causing damage to the furniture. 

Instead of bookcases (I mean, HELLO, we just removed like 7 sets), I am using this vintage brass etagere' for storage.  I purchased some stylish storage accessories from Home Goods, IKEA, and The Container Store to keep our paperwork, DIY supplies such as glues and fabrics, memories, and so on.  

Within the shelves of this Milo Baughman vintage brass etagere, we have owners manuals, tax documents, health records, documents from the veterinarian, mortgage papers, magazines, design books (covered in linen), plus much more.  Office storage has the ability to be functional and stylish!  

I mixed in affordable art and objects to minimize the look of "storage".  While you can still see the storage items and even some papers, the eye (hopefully) goes to the art or sculptures and is not focused on the functional aspect but instead the design elements.  

I will do a full shopping post soon but just as a heads up, all the small prints on the etagere' were purchased via Etsy and downloadable/print yourself.  This is currently one of my favorite ways to add art to our home.  It is budget friendly, helps small artists, and you are finding unique items that you are drawn too.  In this case, all 5 of those small 8 x 10 prints are from the same Etsy shop (which I just discovered and LOVE). 

I am a firm believer in incorporating things that you love and have meaning to you.  There are ways to "edit" them to make them fit seamlessly into your space.

For example, I am a DIE HARD, Harry Potter fan.  Actually, I should take a quick second to thank Harry, Hermoine, and Ron for keeping me company during the many late nights I had while working on the office.  

I recovered all of my beloved HP books and a black linen since the original binding varied so much in color.  Ohhh, you didn't know I was the owner of the most powerful wand known to man? Yes folks, that is the Elder Wand on my shelf.  

As we rotate counter-clockwise around the room, you will find the original oak door painted in Benjamin Moore Onyx.  I love how the grain of the wood still shows through the paint.  The bells are from a temple in Thailand.  This was the one item I requested when my sister visited Thailand over the summer.  I used some jute twine to hang them on the doorknob.  I am a big fan of hanging things on doorknobs.  

To the left of the door, we have this beautiful Mid Century Modern curved sideboard with brass legs.  It serves as additional storage and as a piece of art.  I found this piece on eBay and coincidentally the seller was here in Indianapolis so that saved shipping costs.  If you are in the Indy area, you MUST check out Flux Antiques.  The owner, Chris, sells via eBay, has a store, and a booth at Midland Antiques.  Follow him in Instagram to see new finds!

The art is a mixture of photographs, drawings and DIY abstract piece.  

Of everything in this room, I am the most proud of the DIY lamp below.  I came across this lamp by Arteriors but unfortunately it was not in the budget for us.  We made our own version using a scrap piece of wood, a lamp kit, and some creativity.   

The art on the top left is a last minute DIY that I made since one of my prints did not arrive.  This piece was inspired by a Kelly Wearstler piece called Midnight Tide. 

I basically took a piece of wood, added layers of joint compound to make it look like moving water, painted it black once it was dried, and then made a frame of some pieces of wood which were painted gold with Liquid Gold Leaf (which is the best product ever).

If you recall from week three, I took a major detour from my original design.  The original design was centered all the set of blush chairs from West Elm.  It just was not feeling right.....so I changed it.  It was a lot more work but I am so happy I trusted my gut and changed directions.

I can handle some basic sewing but when piping is involved, I have to bow out.  I found a wonderful lady that has a sewing business in a nearby town.  She was just wonderful to work with.  She came to my house to pick up the cushions, her pricing was beyond reasonable and she had cushion covers done in a WEEK!  The fabric was purchased via fabric.com and is a black velvet and only cost $9 a yard!  I still have the original blush cushion covers and upholstery on the chair in the event I want the blush chairs back again!

The vintage campaign secretary to the left of the door provides additional storage and also houses my wireless printer.  Through the years I have met so many interesting and wonderful people that work in the industry.  One of my furniture sources buys estates and then resells the items.  I gave him a list of items that I was looking for and ended up with this piece for $50!

The art is via Etsy and is a nod to the Pacific Northwest (where my heart is!) and the shadow box ontop of the secretary is my dried wedding bouquet with rocks I picked up at various sites during our honeymoon in Oregon and Washington.  

I wanted to add a touch of color to the room and chose these plush velvet chartreuse lumbar pillows.  I love how this shade of green works so well with the black, wood, and brass in the room.  

Like Carrie Bradshaw (who I also should thank for giving me company during the ORC), I love carnations.  These vibrant magenta carnations add some more color to the room and add that pop of femininity to an otherwise masculine space.  

So that is it, folks!  If you are still hanging out-THANK YOU SO MUCH!  I know it was a long post but I am just so happy with the space and wanted to share as much as I could with you.  Hopefully you enjoyed following allowing these past six weeks as my vision came to life.  

This was my first time participating in the One Room Challenge and I am so happy I did.  Along the way, I met some new friends, challenged myself, improved my photography skills, and completed a room that had been on the back-burner for the longest time.

Without our lovely host Linda at Calling It Home and media partner House Beautiful, we would not have this wonderful opportunity to come together as a design community and motivate and create with fellow creatives.  

Be sure to check out the other guest participants and featured participants at Calling It Home.

Now, onto scheming up the next ORC space (well, in my head) and getting ready for Thanksgiving and the Holidays.  Stay tuned!

xo

Saher 

DIY-Upolstered Box

I know what you are thinking.  Yes, I am blogging about a box.  This is the easiest, but most useful, DIY I have ever done.  

About 5 years ago, I was viewing a room tour on a blog.  The coffee table had this beautiful snakeskin box which housed all of their ugly remote controls.  I do not recall where the box was from, but I do remember it had a lot of zeros in the price tag.  Paying that much for a box was not in my budget.  (Similar dreamy box below)

                          via One Kings Lane

I spent countless hours searching online for a look-a-like but was unsuccessful in my hunt. 

I decided I would make my own.  I went to my local fabric store and found a remnant of a faux snakeskin for a few dollars.  I picked up a few other items and in a short period of time, I had a budget friendly solution for our coffee table and many years later, it's still in use, holding and hiding all of our remotes, matches, and other knick knacks!

Just think about it, you could make ANY style box you wanted. Malachite? Done. Floral? No problem! Leopard print? You got it!  With just a few item and less than an hour, you can make a box of your own.

THINGS YOU WILL NEED:

• Box.  Pick your size.  I used this one from Amazon.  This was the perfect size to hold remotes and other items. It also has hinges which I like.
• Hot glue gun/glue or glue of you choice
• Scissors
• Fabric of your choice.  Size dependent of the size of box.  I am using a remnant of Designer's Guild-Orangerie. 
• Felt (optional)

STEP ONE:

• Pick your fabric and cut to size ensuring you have enough fabric to fold over the sides (if your fabric has creases or wrinkles, I would recommend ironing these out before gluing for a cleaner finish.)
• Glue fabric to base and top and then the sides.

STEP TWO:

• Fold corners as pictured and cut off excess.  I find this gives the corners a cleaner look with less fabric bulking.  

STEP THREE

• Glue edges, sides,and clean up all the details with glue.  This will vary for each person and his/her technique for gluing.  

Complete all gluing to both the top and bottom of your box.

STEP FOUR:

Optional: Line the inside of the box with felt  

As before, glue sections at a time and line the raw sides with felt.  

Let's quickly add up the total cost:

• Fabric-remnant I had on hand
• Felt $0.50 (On sale at Joann's 4/$1.00)
• Glue-already owned it
• Scissors-already had these!
• Box-$14.54

TOTAL: $15.04

That's it guys!  The box is super versatile and can be used to hide your remotes, as a jewelry box, or purely decoratively.  It does take some time for the box to close properly (all that fabric makes it have a itsy bitsy gap).  I would put a book or two on top for a day or so to help it close better.

Since this is my first DIY, I wanted to celebrate by hosting a **GIVEAWAY** of the Orangerie Box pictured above.  Double click the picture on IG + Tag a friend who loves DIY and design and the winner will be chosen at random (shipping included!) 

Happy DIYing! 

xoxo

Saher